JAPANESE RAIL SERVED INDUSTRIES

May 9, 2015

Hi:

I've been a little too hasty in buying some Japanese rolling before researching, now I'm in trouble.

I intend to build a micro-layout, shelf style. Thought to use a common theme, the shunting at a cluster of industries. I chose food processing to use boxcars. But cannot find anything Japanese to support the concept.

I attach a photo of a British layout entitled Little End that triggered my inspiration.

Could you fellow modellers help me in this situation?

Thank you for your time in advance.

May 9, 2015

You have to move the era of your layout back to the good old JNR times, around the 60-ies, because that was the time many plants still used boxcars. The conept of intermodal container transport was developed after that and slowly replaced direct rail links.

For a non JNR reference, i would suggest the Choshi Electric Railway, which had a nice soy sauce operation mixed with passenger transport and still has mixed scrapheap of equipment of all eras and sources. Tomytec released most of their rolling stock and even their small freight loco was made by a company, so many small layouts depict this line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chōshi_Electric_Railway_Line

May 10, 2015

Yes that is my idea, to depict early 60s

A DD13, 2 ED50something

1 caboose

some box cars: Re12000, resa5000, Wamu21000 and others.

Now I'm in deep trouble as I cannot find any photo reference to support the idea. It is odd as if there are refrigerated boxcars there must have been use for them.

When I mention Showa period railways it is even more scarce.

I feel so silly as I only had 2 boxcars and without any research I just spent money on a locomotive and most of this stuff....

Edited May 10, 2015 by Carlos Filipe

May 10, 2015

_{Carlos - a few thoughts.}

_{It is your project, but I think British layouts like Little End are silly and would become boring to operate in a very short time. I like micro layouts, but being ultra small is not always a benefit.}

_{Just because you cannot find any images of Japanese industrial operations in the 1960's, do not give up hope.}

_{Are you using kanji text? I find that makes a big difference. Actually, any search will work better using the language of the country you wish to search for / in.}

_{Also, the images you want will often not come up in the Google results, and you might need to drill down in Japanese language pages. One frustration I have is that these will often have long lists of the linked pages, but there is no obvious way to know which will be fruitful. Something I will sometimes do is use the site URL for another Google search - especially if I got there indirectly, and then use that result to ask it to translate.}

_{Here are some search terms that Nariichi (Model Train Plus) gave me:}

_{For searching those JNR era freight thing, try below phrases. It should give you something you might like.}

_{国鉄時代の貨物列車}

_国鉄貨車

_{国鉄貨物列車編成}

_{ローカル貨物列車}

_{Please try below for shunting or something}

_{入換専用線}

_専用側線

_{国鉄貨物操車場}

_{Possibly - someone on the forum can give you links / search terms for layouts of the era you wish to model, which is also of interest to me.}

_{Part of the problem is that is seems a far greater proportion of rail enthusiasts (not to mention modelers ;-) in Japan (vs. other countries) are only interested in contemporary operations, and there are relatively few older photos on the web, and they are usually B&W - not a problem. However, someone must be buying all the steam engines that are produced, so there should be some Showa-era layouts hiding somewhere, and perhaps even industrial - shunting oriented.}

_{However, in any event, as is often repeated, model railroading is a hobby, and you are free to do whatever you want with it, so you can create your own scene - just as you did with the mountain loop micro.}

_{Since you are in an apartment, space is obviously a concern, but based on what you have purchased, I would suggest something like this.}

_{A small diesel served freight yard, but with a connection from a main electric line, that disappears in the sky-board. You can just place the poles on the tracks that are used by the electric engines. A run-around track would be handy for shunting, but you may not have space for it. In that case, the electric engine pushes in the cars to be transferred, then uncouples, picks up any to be taken away (from a different track), and departs. Perhaps the diesel engine goes to the industries and picks up the outbound cars, setting them on a yard siding before the electric engine arrives.}

_{There are also a few small industries around the yard, that the inbound cars are transferred to, and later picked up from. If no run-around track, you will need to design this carefully. Since you have little space, you can make the industries shallow, but my own opinion is that you can much better suggest an industry with say 1-3" of depth, which gives room for a loading dock, some relief to the building, external stairs (ubiquitous in Japan), venting or other pipes sticking out, etc.}

_{I don't see how the zero depth of photo/drawing structures in minimal layouts like Little End provide any sort of believable satisfaction to the person operating the layout, or a viewer if you wish to bring it to a show. I think this could minimally be done in something like 300 mm X 1200 mm, but would be much better at perhaps 400 mm X 1800 mm - which might allow a run-around track, making operations more complex and fun. You might need to make a compromise and use Tomix R140 or Kato R150 (trimmed) turnouts, which could restrict the equipment you operate. Or, perhaps Peco SetTrack short.}

_{I don't know your coupler preferences for shunting, but most Tomix engines are equipped for electronic uncoupling, but require a device in the track, just as Kadee requires the magnet. However, you would need to manually uncouple cars not connected to an engine.}

_{Don't think this: "I've been a little too hasty in buying some Japanese rolling before researching, now I'm in trouble."}

_{Instead - you've created an opportunity for yourself to do the research now, and come up with an imaginative design solution.}

May 10, 2015