What did you do on your layout today? (N scale)

[Martijn Meerts]

Spent some time in the weekend on the layout my father and I bought a while ago. Mostly cleaning the thing, because it was really dirty. In fact, it was so dirty that trains would just run at a snails pace even at max speed. After cleaning everything ran fine again.

 

Also started figuring out the blocks for the layout. Right now it doesn't have any blocks at all, so it's quite a lot of work. I'm probably not going to use the somewhat standard way of setting up the blocks, but will be using iTrain's ability to determine where a train should stop inside a block. In theory that means just 1 occupancy detector would be enough, but I'm likely going to split each block into 2 occupancy sections of equal length. This way there's some more safety with regards to where trains stop, since even just a locomotive or single-car train that stops in the middle of the block would always need to activate both occupancy detectors.

 

Anyway, still need to experiment with that a bit, but time is very limited, especially during weekdays, so it might take a while.

[Pauljag900]

Hi martijn,

Sounds like you ve been busy,any pics of the layout? Be nice to see it,

Paul

[Martijn Meerts]

I'll see if I can take some pictures of it one of these days. Don't expect too much though, it's not a great layout, but it was fully build and my father likes it (and helped building it). So when the previous owner decided he wanted to get rid of it, we decided to buy it. I bought it mostly because it came with quite a bit of Dutch rolling stock.

 

It's also located in the garage, so my father can get to it easily. All the other stuff is up on the attic, but my father can't really get up there anymore.

[Kiha66]

Hi kiha

Thanks for the comments.I was unsure at first as to how it would look connecting the train track to the tram track but accepted that was the only way to do it.When I first laid it I was nt totally happy with the way it looked but now it's all done I m not sure if I just do nt notice it anymore or just got used to the way it looks now.The area where the trams park will eventually have a glass roof over,assuming I can find one the right size,the one I originally found from kibri is a bit too big so I ll keep looking.

Paul

 

Hey Paul, Just came across a picture that seems to be pretty similar to your plaza, although perhaps what it looked like mid Showa.  Just ignore the strange bird in the background.   :D

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/monster-takes-city-in-a-scene-from-the-film-rodan-1956-picture-id156471002

[nah00]

Added another set of feeders to the two main loops on my layout. The two switches at the station were causing a bit of a voltage drop on the far end. Happy with the result, everything runs much smoother and at a constant speed. Also finally did the decals on my 201 Series Shikisai with no major uh-ohs, getting better at that. 

[cteno4]

Hey Paul, Just came across a picture that seems to be pretty similar to your plaza, although perhaps what it looked like mid Showa.  Just ignore the strange bird in the background.   :D

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/monster-takes-city-in-a-scene-from-the-film-rodan-1956-picture-id156471002

Noooo Paul you need the strange bird on the layout! Drama!

 

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Couple of pictures.. again, it's nothing special really, but it allows my father to run trains at least.

[Kiha66]

Couple of pictures.. again, it's nothing special really, but it allows my father to run trains at least.

 

Looks great Martijn, I feel that if you're not having fun and running trains, you're missing half the point of the hobby.  Thanks for sharing the pictures! 

[Martijn Meerts]

I tend to have more fun building layouts, but every now and they (especially when building a large layout) you really want to just watch some trains run :)

 

My father on the other hand just wants to watch trains run, but he can't keep track of more than 2 trains at a time, so for him computer control is pretty much essential so that he can see more trains running at a time.

[Pauljag900]

Hey Paul, Just came across a picture that seems to be pretty similar to your plaza, although perhaps what it looked like mid Showa.  Just ignore the strange bird in the background.   :D

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/monster-takes-city-in-a-scene-from-the-film-rodan-1956-picture-id156471002

Looks good mate,bird included so it was nt such an imaginary idea after allI want a glass roof if possible,problem is that all the kits seem to come with platforms attached which obviously I ll be leaving off,but it makes it dificult to calculate the width of the kit between the posts as I m assuming the dimensions are including the platform.I ve tried looking at the platform dimensions and assume the post are in the center of the platform then deducting that from the overall width but they re all either too big or too small but I ll keep looking..Auhagen do a ho kit of a beer garden with a glass roof but I would need two side by side but the roof goes the wrong way but if all else fails I may try and scratch build one.

Thanks for the pic buddy,

Paul

[railsquid]

Hey Paul, Just came across a picture that seems to be pretty similar to your plaza, although perhaps what it looked like mid Showa.  Just ignore the strange bird in the background.   :D

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/monster-takes-city-in-a-scene-from-the-film-rodan-1956-picture-id156471002

 

Can anyone work out where this location is? The vertical sign on the building appears to indicate destinations reachable from the terminal station; it looks like the last characters are "... 行電車のりば"; the destinations look like they might contain "久...文...田...", but that doesn't ring any bells.

[Gryphr]

Can anyone work out where this location is? The vertical sign on the building appears to indicate destinations reachable from the terminal station; it looks like the last characters are "... 行電車のりば"; the destinations look like they might contain "久...文...田...", but that doesn't ring any bells.

 

It seems to be a scene from the movie "Rodan" ( 空の大怪獣 ラドン ). According to Wikipedia, part of the movie plays in Fukuoka, Kyushu with the bird destroying parts of the city. If they actually filmed there, this could help in finding the location (If it still looks the same as in thee photo)

[ToniBabelony]

Nishitetsu Fukuoka Tenjin Station apparently: http://www.ld-dvd.2-d.jp/gallery2/image/rodan_img/rodan_bl_04_l.jpg Real:  http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/isakigyou/imgs/9/e/9ee1cc4a.jpg

Edited August 15, 2017 by Kabutoni

[Kiha66]

Yep, it's a still from Rodan! I was looking though the film to get some pictures of old Sasebo station and surrounding area, and noticed the similarities of Fukuoka tram scene to Paul's new addition.

[railsquid]

Nishitetsu Fukuoka Tenjin Station apparently: http://www.ld-dvd.2-d.jp/gallery2/image/rodan_img/rodan_bl_04_l.jpg Real:  http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/isakigyou/imgs/9/e/9ee1cc4a.jpg

Aha, that makes the destinations on the sign 久留米・大牟田 then.

[Gryphr]

This Blog has a photo from the same location, looking in the opposite direction: http://blog.livedoor.jp/tk_okita/archives/51354515.html

 When looking at the nowadays version through Google Maps, there seems to be nothing left of the old buildings... Everything has been built up and the station moved to the second floor into a huge building. Kinda crazy how the whole area completely changed in just a few decades.

[ToniBabelony]

This Blog has a photo from the same location, looking in the opposite direction: http://blog.livedoor.jp/tk_okita/archives/51354515.html

 When looking at the nowadays version through Google Maps, there seems to be nothing left of the old buildings... Everything has been built up and the station moved to the second floor into a huge building. Kinda crazy how the whole area completely changed in just a few decades.

 

Well, you've seen what that monster did to those poor buildings... That's a good reason to renovate the whole area, don't you think? ;)

[railsquid]

Close-up photo of the koban to check for detail errors and omissions...

 

koban by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Pauljag900]

Switches arrived for the tram points so wired them in this morning

 

Also fixed a bit of timber around the front edges to tidy it up a bit,just need a lick of paint now to match the tram board.

Gave everything a good dust and clean over two days and did a bit of a running session.Here s the link if anyone is intrested,

 

Edited August 21, 2017 by cteno4
Fixed YouTube embed

[Martijn Meerts]

Didn't get nearly as much done as I hoped, the weather wasn't really good and it seems I'm missing a bunch of materials I need, such as wires and terminal blocks and the like. Will need to get those.

 

I did wire up the occupancy detectors for 1 of the blocks. It's the only block that will have 3 detectors because I'll be using that to do speed measurements of all the trains. I've also did speed measurements of 1 locomotive to give it a try. Other than that, did a little bit of running with some of the locomotives that have been in store for half a year and starting figuring out which loco should get which cars and how many and all that.

[cteno4]

Not enough trains running Paul! Wild!

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Ha ha,thanks for doing the link jeff

[cteno4]

Paul

 

You are on a vicious loop of more trains, more tracks, more controllers! Goin got have to run another 20A line out tomthenshed!

 

Your grandkids will be in awesome sauce land.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Pauljag900]

Hi Jeff,

Good job it's only 12v mate!

Grandkids love the trams and as they re geared really low then can wack the power up as high as they want but they do nt come off,which means I do nt have to worry

Edited August 21, 2017 by Pauljag900

[sid21177]

On 8/20/2017 at 9:04 AM, Pauljag900 said:

Switches arrived for the tram points so wired them in this morning

 

Wow - DC or DCC ??