Planning Aizu

[Pashina12]

51 minutes ago, Khaul said:

There are some crates in the platform in this Aizu line video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eN8wzIs00Y. They go into a passenger train. I wonder if persimmon crates could be loaded in a brake van or a small WAMU in the same way. 

 

That's a great video, thanks for sharing the link - that's on the Tadami Line, but I'm sure that in the days they had locomotive-hauled passenger (and mixed) trains on the Aizu (Takinohara) Line, they loaded smaller shipments of a crate or two like this, too. That persimmon shipment in the photo, though, would at a guess fill a quarter of a WaMu... a bit too much to put into the baggage compartment of a passenger car. And, once the DCs arrived on the scene, I don't think they'd be loading much freight onto those. The Tadami Line had SL-hauled passenger trains into the 1970s, on the Takinohara line they were replaced by DCs in 1967.

[velotrain]

FWIW - To the best of my knowledge, turnout is strictly a modeling term, used to describe what's known on the prototype as a switch.  The parallel terms came about because it was found that the word switch used in a modeling environment could either refer to a piece of track or a bit of electronics.

[Pashina12]

This amazing website lists the assignment histories of (I'm pretty sure) every JNR/JR DC ever... well, thanks to it, I've been able to put together a list of the DCs that were assigned to Koriyama between 1967 and 1969. For the sake of simplicity, I've only included those which were assigned to Koriyama for the entire period between 1967 and 1969, with the exception of those units which were delivered new to Koriyama within that timeframe. So, the list is as follows:

 

KiHa22 328 (1966-1978)

 

KiHa23 502-504 (1967/11-1979)
KiHa23 510 (1968/1-1979)
KiHa23 511 (1968/1-1980)
KiHa23 512 (1968/2-1979)
KiHa23 513-514 (1968/2-1986)
KiHa23 517 (1969/1-1986)

 

KiHa24 8 (1967-1969)

 

KiHa25 651 (1968-1973)

 

KiHa26 222-223 (1967-1971)
KiHa26 224 (1967-1972)
KiHa26 225 (1967-1976)
KiHa26 251-252 (1966-1971)

 

KiHa28 357 (1964-1986)
KiHa28 358 (1964-1989)
KiHa28 361 (1964-1982)
KiHa28 369 (1964-1991)
KiHa28 811-812 (1963-1986)
KiHa28 813 (1963-1985)

 

KiHa45 505-506 (1967-1980)

 

KiHa52 141, 143 (1966-1972)

 

KiHa55 18 (1967-1974)
KiHa55 103-104 (1967-1982)
KiHa55 110 (1967-1975)
KiHa55 133 (1967-1983)

 

KiHa58 552 (1964-1991)
KiHa58 561 (1964-1993)
KiHa58 580 (1965-1992)
KiHa58 581-582 (1965-1991)
KiHa58 583-584, 588 (1965-1993)
KiHa58 817-819 (1963-1985)

 

KiHaYuNi16 3 (1966-1972)

 

KiHaYuNi18 2 (1967-1971)
KiHaYuNi18 3 (1967-1979)
KiHaYuNi18 6-7 (1967-1972)

 

KiHaYuNi26 41 (1968-1984)

 

So, this gives us the following totals:

 

1x KiHa22 = 2.2%
9x KiHa23 = 20.0%
1x KiHa24 = 2.2%
1x KiHa25 = 2.2%
6x KiHa26 = 13.3%
7x KiHa28 = 15.6%
2x KiHa45 = 4.4%
2x KiHa52 = 4.4%
5x KiHa55 = 11.1%
11x KiHa58 = 24.4%
Total: 45

 

and

 

1x KiHaYuNi16 = 16.7%
4x KiHaYuNi18 = 66.7%
1x KiHaYuNi26 = 16.7%
Total: 6

 

Which is a grand total of 51 DCs.

 

To keep things in proportion, if I have one KiHaYuNi I need 7.5 KiHas - which isn't enough; with two KiHaYuNi I need 15 KiHas. That's perhaps a bigger number than the ten I'd originally envisioned, but that's not a bad thing, as it'll allow trains to be made up of different cars without being always the *same* cars perhaps in different arrangements. So I'll go with the 15:2 fleet.

 

With only two KiHaYuNi, strictly by the numbers they should both be 18s. Buuuut because the only model source I'm aware of for a KiHaYuNi18 is a body kit from Bona Fide, K-3040, which I imagine is not going to be the easiest thing to find, I'll fudge that to one 18, and one KiHaYuNi26 - Tomix 8433 in overall red, as I've got a photo of one such on the line (though from 1979 or so).

 

This brings us to the KiHas. To get 15 of these, it's straightforward enough to divide 45 by 3, so I'll divide the totals of KiHas by type, by three, which gives 3.67x KiHa58, 3x KiHa23, 2.33x KiHa28, 2x KiHa26, 1.67x KiHa55,  0.67 each of KiHa45 and KiHa52, and 0.33 each of KiHa22, KiHa24, KiHa25. Here I'll throw in the fact that I'm a bit disappointed at the lack of a KiHa17 variant - I like the look of those, and they *did* show up on the Aizu Line... after 1971/72, when the KiHa10/16/18s were assigned to Koriyama. But, there's a happy tidbit I can cheat with: KiHa16 38 was assigned to Koriyama from 1966 until 1967 when it was rebuilt into KiHaYuNi18 6... so I'll cheat and say that one of those 15 DCs is going to be KiHa16-38.

 

So with rounding, 4 KiHa58, 3 KiHa23, 2 each KiHa26, KiHa28 and KiHa55, and one each KiHa16, KiHa45 and KiHa52 adds up to 16, which is one extra. Since my ideal goal here is to give the visual impression of "any given day sometime between 1967 and 1969", and since the KiHa23s were mostly delivered in 1968 and 1969 (only one arrived in 1967), I'll reduce the total number of those to two to give me my 15.

 

Looking at model options that I'm aware of... KiHa58 - Tomix 8411 (cream/red, motorised); KiHa23 - Tomix 8447 (cream/red, trailer), I've already got an 8446; KiHa26 - Tomix 98026 two-car pack would be ideal, get two birds stoned at once, as Ricky said; KiHa28 - Tomix 8421 (cream/red, motorised), Tomix 8423 (cream/red, trailer); KiHa55 - Tomix 98013 two-car set of cream/red would be ideal; KiHa16 - Tomix 2444 (cream/red, trailer); KiHa45 - only thing I see are Tomix 2-car sets; KiHa52-100 - Tomix 8458 (motorised cream/red) or Tomix 8459 (trailer cream/red)... so that means Tomix has me covered for just about everything I'll need besides the KiHaYuNi18...

 

[kvp]

6 hours ago, velotrain said:

FWIW - To the best of my knowledge, turnout is strictly a modeling term, used to describe what's known on the prototype as a switch.  The parallel terms came about because it was found that the word switch used in a modeling environment could either refer to a piece of track or a bit of electronics.

Imho not really. In Hungarian, turnout is 'kitérő' (a literal translation of the english term), and switch is váltó (changer, shortened from the old term 'track changer'). There is a separate word for the electrical switch ('kapcsoló', literally switcher, shotened from the old term 'electrical switcher device'). The official term is turnout, so it won't get confused with the mechanical and electrical control switches used to move them. (not to mention the double pole double throw switch that is called 'váltó kapcsoló', literally switchover switch) The term 'váltó' is only used in professional context to refer to the moving blade assembly also called switch blades and throwbar. So imho using turnout for the whole track assembly and switch for the control device (be it a remote or a local one) is correct. Even with a mechanical ground throw system, you throw the switch to move the turnout.

[Pashina12]

After my post of last night about the DCs, I dug out my KiHa23 and finally attached the extra bits and added the lettering, so now KiHa23 504 is ready for service on my (not yet extant) Aizu Line! That realisation then made me think, that DC is like the Pannonian sailor Djordje Balašević sang about ("sometimes a sailor is left without a boat, but being left without a sea is remarkably bad luck")... I need to get some track happening soon!

 

I've got the girder parts to start on the Kuwabara bridge, so that module is one option. Takinohara is another option for starting with, which is also an attractive option because it'd give a nice place to display the rolling stock I have, too, and with it being a yard with several tracks and a turntable, it'd also let me do some random shunting if I want to just move stuff around. But then as far as a first bridge project would go, it'd make more sense to tackle the Sannougawa Bridge first. Conversely, Kamimiyori is  immediately adjacent to the Kuwabara bridge, and it would also give some shunting-puzzle possibilities - but only if there's nothing else at the station, so wouldn't be able to park a DC train there and shunt around it, as I could with Takinohara (or Tajima).

 

So what to tackle first... this strikes me as being actually a fairly big question, and it makes me realise that I need to start seriously thinking about what elements of the line are the most important to me to have represented. I suppose I've been losing myself in the research as an excuse for putting this part off...

[velotrain]

5 hours ago, kvp said:

Imho not really. In Hungarian, turnout is 'kitérő' (a literal translation of the english term), and switch is váltó (changer, shortened from the old term 'track changer'). There is a separate word for the electrical switch ('kapcsoló', literally switcher, shotened from the old term 'electrical switcher device'). The official term is turnout, so it won't get confused with the mechanical and electrical control switches used to move them. (not to mention the double pole double throw switch that is called 'váltó kapcsoló', literally switchover switch) The term 'váltó' is only used in professional context to refer to the moving blade assembly also called switch blades and throwbar. So imho using turnout for the whole track assembly and switch for the control device (be it a remote or a local one) is correct. Even with a mechanical ground throw system, you throw the switch to move the turnout.

 

I was referring to the English-speaking world, of which this forum is a member.

[kvp]

28 minutes ago, velotrain said:

I was referring to the English-speaking world, of which this forum is a member.

Actually afaik the term turnout is intentionally used in the english speaking 1:1 railway world, but it's used together with switch and points.

[Pashina12]

I think it's important to keep in mind that there are also significant differences in terminology between Commonwealth and American practice...

[kvp]

21 hours ago, Pashina12 said:

Re: Akali - interesting! I've never been on the north side of the Balaton, though my dad's family used to have a summer house at Sóstó. Is your model going to have the original station building, or the newer one?

Actually both are still there. The old station building became the stationmaster's house and the old stationmaster's house became the clubhouse of the railway's fishing club. The new station building was built in place of the old wooden overhead platform access bridge and two passenger level crossings were built instead as a more luggage friendly stairwayless platform access route. Even the old road crossing guardhouse is still there as a private residence. (the crossings are automatic since the 1964 resignalling)

[Kiha66]

From personal experience, I'd recommend starting with a more empty and simple module, so you can get one done relatively quickly and get some momentum going.  Having even a simple section complete will really help with your motivation to complete the rest of the work.

 

10 hours ago, Pashina12 said:

So what to tackle first... this strikes me as being actually a fairly big question, and it makes me realise that I need to start seriously thinking about what elements of the line are the most important to me to have represented. I suppose I've been losing myself in the research as an excuse for putting this part off...

[cteno4]

Wise the kiha is...

 

jeff

[Pashina12]

2 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

From personal experience, I'd recommend starting with a more empty and simple module, so you can get one done relatively quickly and get some momentum going.  Having even a simple section complete will really help with your motivation to complete the rest of the work.

 

 

Mm, yeah, that's probably good advice... not just because of the point you made, but also I think it'd be a good way to get my hands moving again, and learning various scenery techniques, etc... on something simple like that, if I mess something up, it'll be much less discouraging, than if I screw up on something more "serious". And getting my fingers moving with finework (even if relatively simple finework) is going to be important for me... it's been two years now since my hand-accident and the subsequent surgery, and I haven't yet attempted any "serious" modelling work since then... not counting attaching the detail parts to my KiHa23 and DE10 last night.

 

I'll be keeping that in mind as I study the line to sort out where to start, but in keeping with the previous two possibilities, I get a couple of sudden thoughts in mind. If I decide to focus on the Kamimiyori - Kuwabara - Yunokami section first, then there's the little halt at Funako (simple little building, single track with single platform, today called Okawa Dam Park Station) which is in between Kamimiyori and Kuwabara. If I decide to focus first on the Takinohara end, then there are a couple of similar spots at that end, too - Nakaarai (which I'm not sure I want to tackle yet because there's an odd curve in the track that's there now that really makes me think there was at least another track at the station in the past) and Itozawa which are between Takinohara and Tajima, or just up from Tajima, Tabehara (now called Tajima-Kōkō-Mae), which is also another single-track/single-platform station with a simple building, but with an atmosphere I think somewhat nicer than the others. This picture gives a great view of the station looking towards Tajima/Takinohara, and this one towards Aizu-Nagano/Nishi-Wakamatsu. Both of these are recent photos, but it's very much how it used to be in JNR days (main differences being that back then the station hut was light green - at least in the 1980s, and the gate's roof had wooden shingles). I imagine that the station hut didn't have that vinyl(?) siding in 1969... though the stuff *was* around then, so if I decide to go for this first, I'll do the station hut with very little weathering and say it was recently applied. I like this spot...

[Fenway Park]

Hi

 

Thanks for the link to the site with the information on the diesel railcars. Very interesting and most useful.

 

There is a similar site for steam locomotives on D51498.com with a locomotive database . I have tried to access it recently without success. That's the problem with these websites as a number have closed over the years including a wagon site as well as a Coach and EMU one.  

 

Malcolm

[Pashina12]

5 minutes ago, Fenway Park said:

Hi

 

Thanks for the link to the site with the information on the diesel railcars. Very interesting and most useful.

 

There is a similar site for steam locomotives on D51498.com with a locomotive database . I have tried to access it recently without success. That's the problem with these websites as a number have closed over the years including a wagon site as well as a Coach and EMU one.  

 

Malcolm

 

Thanks for reminding me - I wanted to post that link in a more general place to make sure more people see it who may not be following my thread.

 

That's a point about the websites, yeah... makes one want to consider saving a local copy of things that are of particular interest, just in case...

[Pashina12]

14 hours ago, Fenway Park said:

Hi

 

Thanks for the link to the site with the information on the diesel railcars. Very interesting and most useful.

 

There is a similar site for steam locomotives on D51498.com with a locomotive database . I have tried to access it recently without success. That's the problem with these websites as a number have closed over the years including a wagon site as well as a Coach and EMU one.  

 

Malcolm

 

Just checked D51498.com - it's working!

[Fenway Park]

Hi

Just checked as well. 

 

Away for the weekend, so fingers crossed it is still there when I return. 

 

Looking forward to checking out your site for Kiha 02, 04 and 07 amongst others. 

[marknewton]

On 09/11/2017 at 2:32 AM, velotrain said:

 

I was referring to the English-speaking world, of which this forum is a member.

 

Charles,

 

The railway I work for is part of the English-speaking world, and we call them turnouts. (I've just finished work for the night, having supervised the first use of our new US-style Racor switchstands that were installed in our stabling yard earlier today.)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[velotrain]

Mark - as Pashina pointed out, I didn't realize "there are also significant differences in terminology between Commonwealth and American practice..."

 

This was something I've heard from a relatively early age, and had taken it to be more universal - my bad.

[Pashina12]

I think if anyone ever forgets, or assumes that American and Commonwealth English are the same, just think of the word "table" in the political sense... in the Commonwealth (well, Canada and UK at least, dunno about Australia or NZ) it means to put something forward for discussion; in the US it means the opposite - to put it aside until later.

 

In terms of railway terminology, there's a fair bit of overlap between Canadian and US terminology - but more that's different. Good rule of thumb is unless you know for sure that it's the same word as in the US, assume it's the British word... we'll definitely understand it, even if we don't regularly use it.

[Pashina12]

Thanks to the kindness of a certain Japanese blogger, I now have the October 1968 skeds for Aizu Line freight trains:

10/1968 Aizu Line freight sked - Down
Station                    Dist    361     Time    363    Time
Aizu-Wakamatsu    0.0     5:50    --          9:03    --
Nishi-Wakamatsu   3.1     5:58    8m       9:10    7m
Monden                  4.8     6:20    22m     9:43    33m
Kamimiyori            5.7     レ                    レ    
Kuwabara              7.7     レ                    レ    
Yunokami               4.5     7:46   1h26m  10:58  1h15m
Yagoshima              5.3     レ                    レ    
Narahara               3.0      8:31   45m     11:25   27m
Aizu-Ochiai             4.1     レ                     レ    
Aizu-Nagano          2.1     8:53    12m     11:47   22m
Aizu-Tajima            4.8    9:08     15m     12:29  43m    ** - the printed timetable says 363 arrives at Tajima at 10:29, obvs typo
Arakai                     7.1    10:09  1h1m    --
Aizu-Takinohara    8.3    10:33    24m     --

 

10/1968 Aizu Line freight sked - Up
Station                    Dist    362      Time    364      Time
Aizu-Takinohara    0.0     13:03    --           --          --
Arakai                     8.3     13:19   16m       --         --
Aizu-Tajima            7.1     13:37    18m    17:31    --
Aizu-Nagano          4.8     13:57    20m    レ    
Aizu-Ochiai             2.1     レ                    レ    
Narahara               4.1     14:09    12m    17:53    22m
Yagoshima              3.0     レ                    レ    
Yunokami               5.3     14:34    25m    18:17    24m
Kuwabara              4.5     レ                    レ    
Kamimiyori            7.7     レ                    レ    
Monden                  5.7    15:28    54m    19:04    47m
Nishi-Wakamatsu   4.8    15:45    17m    19:20    16m
Aizu-Wakamatsu    3.1    16:20    35m    19:43    23m

 

 

One detail that immediately jumped out at me is that there are scheduled stops at Aizu-Nagano - which station is omitted entirely from the 1971 and 1973 timetables I have; this leads me to deduce that my earlier hypothesis that there was a second track at Nagano may be correct.

 

Another surprise was that Aizu-Ochiai (today called Yōson Kōen) and Yagoshima are on the sked, even if only as a レ - they're just single track halts with one platform now, but I suppose there could have been a second track at Aizu-Ochiai between the platform and the station itself. But there's much less at Yagoshima to suggest that there was more than a single track there... though I suppose there's room there for a second track. I'm not sure I know what to do with this information, but then neither of these stations has really been on my radar as ones that I really need to include.

 

Now to get to the meatier stuff... times. I noticed at once that the downwards freight train (361) takes 24 minutes over the 8.3 km from Arakai to Takinohara, whereas the upwards train (362) takes only 16 minutes. Why this discrepancy? Well, I don't have a 1968 passenger TT for this line, but in 1965 the downwards train 331 was scheduled to be at Arakai at 10:03 (six minutes before 361) and at Takinohara at 10:21 (12 minutes before 361); 333 is at Tajima at 9:48 - 40 minutes after 361 is there (361's Tajima time on the TT is 9:08; at 9:08, 331 is still back at Yagoshima). On the TT, 361 has 9:08 at Tajima and 10:09 at Arakai - 1h 1m for a 7.2 km distance. What this suggests to me is that the 9:08 on the freight TT is the scheduled *arrival* time. If we assume the train averages 40 km/h, it needs just over 10.5 minutes to cover the 7.1 km from Tajima to Arakai, leaving it 50 minutes to do any necessary work at Tajima. Arakai today has two tracks with two platforms; I don't have any period photos, but the curve in the adjacent road suggests that there may have been more tracks there once upon a time. Given it takes 12.5 minutes to go 8.3 km at 40 km/h, it seems reasonable to assume that there was something there, if the train is given 24 minutes to get to the next station.

 

It's interesting to compare that in 1968, train 363 had a scheduled travel time of 3h 26m from Aizu-Wakamatsu to Tajima, whereas 363 in 1973 had a scheduled travel time of 2h 46m (1391 in 1973 had 3h 31m skedded over the same stretch, 8393 had 2h 26m). It seems that even as Takinohara was closed to freight traffic, freight on the line to and from Tajima actually *increased* enough to necessitate adding a third downwards train...

 

361 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Takinohara) had a skedded travel time of 4h 43m; the return trip, 362, had a time of 3h 17m. 363 as mentioned had 3h 26m, whilst the return trip, 364, had 2h 12m. Assuming an average speed of 40 km/h, a train would cover the 60.5 km between Wakamatsu and Takinohara in 1h 31m without stopping, the 45.1 km between Wakamatsu and Tajima in 1h 8m.

 

So drawing various thoughts together, it would seem that the downwards trains did most of the shunting work at the intermediate stations, whilst the upwards trains did not - but the scheduled travel times do seem to allow for enough time to pick up any upwards-bound cars, as well as allow for pauses to let passenger trains pass. I'll need to put further thought into this, but at least I've now got some general sort of idea of freight ops in the 1967-1969 period.

In a previous post I already looked at the 3/1965 passenger TT, as well as the 1967 one, for which I only have the upwards schedule. I'm not going to invest more time into hunting for the downwards TT for 1967 or for the 1968 skeds; instead, I'm going to just extrapolate the upwards trips for 1967 based on the 3/1965 TT.

 

But first, a few recently gleaned relevant tidbits.

 

* On 29 April 1960, Tō-no-hetsuri was opened as a seasonal halt on the Takinohara Line (used only during the holiday period);
* DC operation on the Takinohara Line began on 1 May 1964 - meaning that there was a period of roughly three years from then to July 1967 during which passenger trains were either C11-hauled or DCs;
* On 1 October 1965, the "Aizu" local express entered service on Sendai ~ Fukushima ~ Aizu-Wakamatsu ~ Aizu-Tajima;
* On 1 October 1968, the "Aizu" local express was renamed "Inawashiro" (this train was deleted in 1982);
* On 17 October 1968, Funako station (halt) was opened;
* On 17 November 1969, Tō-no-hetsuri halt abolished. (It was later reopened by the Aizu Railway after the privatisation).

 

By the 1967 Tadami Line TT I have, the "Aizu" express had become a two-part train; downbound, splitting into two parts at Nishi-Wakamatsu, with one section continuing to Aizu-Tajima on the Takinohara Line, and the other section going to Tadami; the upwards trips were 2412D from Tadami and 2312D from Tajima, which met at Nishi-Wakamatsu at 07:28 and continued on together to Sendai. Unfortunately I only have the downwards timings for the Aizu-Wakamatsu > Tadami train - however, this does give me the time it was at Nishi-Wakamatsu, so I can extrapolate the timings of the Wakamatsu > Tajima train, too.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the extrapolated timings are eventually proven to be a bit inaccurate, but I think they should be close enough to accurate to use for operations on the layout.

 

So then I extrapolated TT a for the downwards trains. To do this, I compared the departure times of the upwards trains in the 1965 and 1967 TTs, and used the difference appropriately for the downwards trains. Since the downwards "Aizu" is the last train of the day, if the time interval between two stations is greater on the upwards "Aizu" than the fastest such interval time of a downwards local train, I used the shorter time.

 

A complication occurred with the morning (upwards) "Aizu" - since the 1965 TT didn't account for this train, it, the 321D and the 322D would all meet at Yunokami at the same time; to compensate for this, I made the "Aizu" depart Tajima earlier than in reality, so that it meets 客321D at Kuwabara; this means it'll have to wait a while to hook up with 2412D (the section of the "Aizu" from Tadami) at Nishi-Wakamatsu. The new sked for the upwards Aizu is: lv Tajima 5:38 > arr Nagano 5:45 > Narahara 5:56 > Yunokami 6:09 > (Kuwabara 6:15 pass through) > Kamimiyori 6:32 > Nishi-Wakamatsu arr 6:48 (2412D arr Nishi-Wakamatsu 7:28) > Aizu-Wakamatsu arr 7:35.

 

This also resulted in a few other complications with other trains, but through some effort I was able to sort out a working timetable - I'm not going to post it now, though. Eventually I might do one up in period style to look like it comes out of the real TT book.

 

But, here's a glance at all the meetups:

客321D awaits 2312D at Kuwabara (6:13/6:15 - 2312D does not stop at Kuwabara)
客321D meets 客322D at Yunokami (6:24/6:25)

客324D awaits 客323D at Kamimiyori (8:24/8:25)

客325D awaits 客326D at Nishi-Wakamatsu (10:34/10:35)

客328D awaits 客325D at Aizu-Ochiai (11:59/12:00)

客329D awaits 客330D at Monden (17:13/17:14)
客329D awaits 貨364 at Yunokami (18:01/18:17)
客329D awaits 客332D at Aizu-Tajima (18:57/19:09)

客331D awaits 客332D at Monden (20:11/20:19)

貨361 awaits 2312D at Kamimiyori (~6:31/6:32); if work at Monden takes longer, 貨361 waits for 2312D at Monden.
貨361 awaits 客321D at Nishi-Wakamatsu (8m gap, okay)

貨362 awaits 客327D at Kuwabara (~14:48/14:50)

貨363 awaits 客325D at Yunokami (10:58/11:36)

2311D has a clear track all the way

 

One thing that the above TT does assume is that Aizu-Ochiai did indeed have a second track as I theorised earlier. But now I've got fairly complete timetables for both freight and passenger trains. I'm going to do further math with these to determine actual travel times between the stations, and then determine how long each train stays at each station - to have both arrival and departure times - for use during eventual op sessions on the layout. But I'm not going to discuss that here.

 

[Pashina12]

Spend the day at our local big autumn train show (Vancouver Train Expo)... for fun I got a couple of pictures of my first KiHa on someone's module there. Looks good with the autumn foliage. I'm still trying to decide if I want my Aizu modules to be autumn with all the reds and golds, or spring with all the sakuras and greens...

 

[Pashina12]

From Day 2 of the train show... snapped a couple of pics of two items of TT scale rolling stock that I made (but are no longer mine).

 

One was a straightforward thing - I just painted an old (1960s) brass tank car black and applied custom decals to make one of the Imperial Oil tank cars that used to run around on Canada's rails from the 1910s to the 1950s. This lettering scheme in particular originated in the 1930s and lasted into the early 1950s.

 

The second one is the black SW in the foreground. The Southern Pacific had these SW8s with dynamic brakes, so I decided to kitbash one of the RTR SW1200s from MTB of Czechia into an DB-equipped SW8. This was more involved... I opened up the front grille area, and into there I installed a bas relief fan made of .005" sheet styrene, the rotating louvres over those out of styrene strip, and the etched grille over that. Was probably overkill, since the only way you can see the fan is if you look from one certain angle with strong lighting... then of course I rebuilt the sloped area on the hood for the dynamic brake's fan and the vent louvres on the sides, and added the high-mounted handrails along the upper edge of the hood, custom decals, painted and weathered... but never finished it, and now I've sold it... funding me a C11 :D

[Pashina12]

Oh... and since I'm sure the question will come up in somebody's mind... the track is Unitrack at one remove; it's made by Tillig under a licence from Kato for the Unitrack joiners.

[Pashina12]

So I'm sitting here eating my dinner of venison stew and starting to plan out the first module, which will be the simple(ish) station scene of Tabehara.

 

The pink outline is that of the module area itself - 12" deep by 39" long (or possibly 2 x 19.5").

 

The module itself will be more or less T-Trak style. I've decided that I'm going to take that approach, so that they'll be light (and so easy to carry) and I can set it up easily anywhere. I'm going to use short sections of unitrack at the module edges to join them, but using hand-ballasted "plain" track for the rest of the track on each module. As I mentioned I might possibly make this in two sections - depending on whether I can arrange it such that the platform is all entirely on one module, and the level crossing is far enough away from the end of the module to allow room under the surface of the module for the actuation mechanism and control unit for the guard arms and lights at the crossing.

 

Based on the distance bar, I calculated that one pixel is 12.5 cm; using this number I determined that the platform is 64.25 m by 4.25 m; the gate (on the walkway from the street to the station) has a roof of 4 m width by 2.75 m. The station building is a bit trickier but I determined that it is 9.5 m long, and got a roof width (along the sloped edge) of 4.5 m, and a building width at the base of about 2.75 m; I did a rough check against the picture linked, and those numbers seem roughly reasonable in terms of proportion. I'm going to build a mock-up out of cereal box cardboard and see how it looks.

 

I may take some liberties with the arrangement of the houses along the bottom edge... we'll see, that's further down the road yet.

[Kiha66]

That seems like the perfect place to start, a simple but interesting scene!