Another new beginner

[Rod.H]

Hi all, I'm normally a HO scale/gauge modeler/plonker and never really touched on N gauge trains. That is before I put my name down on Hobby Search's preorder list for Kato's 10-1281 aka the Girls und Panzer wrapped cars #2 & 3. For some reason, I also pre-ordered a Tomix ground level station set. 

 

As I've no N gauge experience and I've items on preorder, I thought that perhaps that I should get some and returned home after visiting the only LHS that stocks Japanese trains with a few items, some Kato unitrack: a V5 set, a pack of the Tomix-Kato adaptor track, a #4 switch, and a pack of type c bumpers; and of cause a trainpack, that being Kato 10-1229. Though the 10-1228 set is a better match for those wrapped cars, that set was not available at the LHS and I've not seen very many available online.
Right, so I got them home, cleared a 1200mmx600mm (roughly 2 foot x 4 foot) space and rapidly had a train doing a race track and pulling in and out of a siding (I've a kato powerpack and associated electrical components from using HO unitrack) for the current local price of a HO gauge locomotive or rollingstock pack.

 

Now, I'm lost on what to do next (besides tracking down GuP car #1 (16001-3) at a reasonable price), I've looked at the Kashima Rinkai Railway on Google Maps and seen that it passes through urban, small villages and farmland at viaduct, embankments, ground level, cuttings & tunnels. I also think I spotted KRT 6006 (GuP #1) on streetview at Mito station. The space I've found to work in, is probably too small to do anything interesting with, but it's a common size for tables, plywood sheets and foamboard.

[VJM]

Welcome to N gauge Japanese, Rod.  I also started off in HO plonking, but in time, I have come to view N gauge as Normal and HO as Horribly Oversized. 

 

The great thing about N is that you can get so much more into a much smaller space and things don't look as silly.  There are lots of threads showing great layouts from the members here as well, so it should be easy to find some inspiration.  I find Japanese modelling transitions very easily from rural to urban, low density to high density in a very small amount of space and a realistic look isn't hard to achieve.  There are lots of examples all over Youtube as well.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[cteno4]

Welcome rod!

 

Ahh another convert to the small but big world of n scale! 2x the track and 4x the scene! Can make a difference. Plus the quality and affordability of Japanese n scale also makes it nice!

 

Keep us posted on your progress and start a thread in the personal projects forum on your budding layout!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[nah00]

Welcome to the forum!

 

You're probably better off just waiting for car 2 and 3 to come out than looking for car 1. It's kind of expensive now and the new release is just around the corner (January 2017). 2x4 does give you a decent amount of space to operate especially if you want to run mainly 2 to 3 unit DMUs. 

 

I've started HO as not Horribly Oversized but Horribly Overpriced. For one pair of HO double-stack container cars and containers I could buy an entire train of Kokis and containers. 

[Rod.H]

I missed out on getting car #1 from Model Train Plus's eBay store due to the mismatch between it and the actual store's inventory. Hopefully, my reservation of the other cars at Hobby search turns into a fulfilled order.  

 

So far, this all I've come up with so far using a ~2 foot by ~4 foot foamboard:

 
I very much doubt that the Tomix station I've reserved is going to fit in that space, but everything's all still up in the air due to being unsure of what I'd like to do. Though I think get a bigger board or space will be the first thing to do.

 

This what I've done previously on a similar bit of foamboard with HO gauge equipment:

 A yard that's on the backburner after getting stumped at the how to provide track power & motorise the switches stage.

[kvp]

 

 

 A yard that's on the backburner after getting stumped at the how to provide track power & motorise the switches stage.

This seems to be the classic problem of mixing electrofrog and insulated frog turnouts. It could be wired for DC easily (one feeder pair on the right entry and one on the bottom left track with a center fed dpdt switch selecting between the two), but DCC is not really possible with a seemingly uninsulated electrofrog. Also foamboard is not really great for under surface turnout motors, so i would use surface mounted slide switches embedded (glued) into the foam to move the turnouts through rods connected to drilled holes in the switch levers and they could also switch frog polarity if you did insulate the metal frogs with insulating joiners.

 

Luckily japanese N scale, especially Kato and Tomix track is really nice as the turnout motors are in the roadbed and everything is set up for straight DC, while DCC is retrofittable (with Kato even selling already DCC-ed turnouts). You did not tell us which station set did you use, but the Tomix country station with side platform that is ~3x140mm long would fit both to the front track or to the siding as both tracks are roughly 3 cars long. Kato's side platform country station could work too. If you ordered the station with the overhead building or any other island platform station, then those are imho a bit big for your space.

[Rod.H]

Sorry, it's the Tomix 91015 station & track set that I've reserved as it felt right.

I suspect choosing to fit cobalt motors to move those points didn't do much to lower my aggravation & puzzlement levels, also that was an early version of that yard, later revisions removed the 3-way switch.

[kvp]

That's the wide rail island platform station. You'll need around 1120 mm to fit it anywhere. It's a nice modern one, but more fit for 4-6 car modern sets. Your space allows about half of this station on the front and current siding. It might look funny, but you might be able to add one platform end and the middle section if you manage to directly connect the Tomix lefthand turnout. (this could be done, by removing the joiner, cutting the plastic part in half and inserting it back without the metal joiner, removing the plastic connector from the tomix turnout and using two tomix joiners between the two turnouts) You'll also loose one of the exit stairs from the station or has to extend it a bit to reach across the platformless storage track (or just drop that track).

ps: Imho the tomix wooden station building set with the one sided platform set would look better with your current trains or the kato suburban station with side platforms.

Edited October 15, 2016 by kvp

[Rod.H]

Kvp, I'm still pretty much at the 'what do I want to do' stage of things.  That 1.2m x .6m working space is what I typically use for my visualising space requirements. The fact that it's capable of supporting a working N gauge layout is icing on the cake.  I'd a feeling that to use that station to its full composition, that more space would be needed. I ran into that fact after acquiring Kato's one-sided platform set, where the one-sided flag stop set probably would've been the better choice, as seen:
 

 

I suspect that some things I'd like to do are potentially a better fit for a different format, like t-trak. 

 

If I move the yard access switch closer to the curve, wouldn't that make the derailing chances greater? As I've all ready had trouble with the 2nd #4, and yes the file and plyers being there, does mean that I've attempted to resolve the issue. Which I seem to have for done 1/3 to 1/4 throttle.   

[kvp]

I've been running trains on #4-s for some time, even with a curve on both sides of the station and never had any problems with them. No filing was required either, just don't throw them by hand. (if you do, use a quick but stong snap on the lever and check as it tends to miss going all the way even if the lever does)

[Rod.H]

Well, I've been adding to the scenery collection, I'm waiting on more to arrive and changed my mind on the siding arrangement: 

 

I've got some track tuning to do, as while the sidings lengths are fine for 2-3 of the KRT 6000 cars. Adding the engine shed to the mix created a complication of limiting train length and positioning for those two sidings that pass through it. If only Kato did a 3-way switch.

[cteno4]

Rod,

 

Great start! Keep at it. You can plop down some colored construction paper or fabric to get a quick base scenery going and then cut out construction paper roads to start playing with your scenery design. Also taped down wadded up newspaper to mock up 3D stuff.

 

Building little scenery islands on bits of cardboard or thin stryene is a great quick way to get more scenery fast into the layout at this point before diving into it big times. It lets you test visual ideas by moving things around as well as try out new scenery techniques quickly and have a nice sample to look at later. Let's you play a lot with ideas before nailing stuff down. Good article on the concept here:

 

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/tempoary.html

 

Also there are lots of free PDF papercraft buildings out on the net (contact me off forum as I've collected a lot of them) that you can print out and tape together quickly to try some space filling ideas as to the other buildings you may want.

 

It's great to fiddle like this and fast and easy to do with n scale. Also keeps the layout development rolling well.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff