How did you improve your rolling stock?

[gavino200]

3 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

Well I hear there's a simple solution to that being enacted by one current EU member state 😉
 

 

It ain't looking so simple these days 😮

[Yavianice]

4 minutes ago, railsquid said:

Is this a different source to the Hong Kong-based densha.me? https://www.densha.me

 

Looks like it as I can't see any items from Densha.me on the website and vice versa.

 

5 minutes ago, railsquid said:

Well I hear there's a simple solution to that being enacted by one current EU member state 😉

 

Not sure what you mean by that. Am I missing something?

[gavino200]

Just now, Yavianice said:

 

Not sure what you mean by that. Am I missing something?

 

A reference to the ultra smooth Brexit process, I think 

[Yavianice]

Just now, gavino200 said:

 

A reference to the ultra smooth Brexit process, I think 

 

Derp, got it 😄 

[disturbman]

Small and perhaps slightly unreasonably expensive project (JPY 4.000). I wanted a model of a renewed JR East KiHa 40 in metropolitan colors. Bought a roof section in Yahoo Auctions and installed it on a Tomix 8404.

 

 

Still need to install the other pieces and find a suitable number.

Edited March 26, 2019 by disturbman

[katoftw]

roof from a kiha 40-500 ?

[disturbman]

Yes. Roof was from a recently released Gonoh Line trains (Tomix 9435 or 9436)

[katoftw]

I find it interesting that JR East when they renewed the Kiha 40/47/48s that they added two aircon units on the roof.  While JR West added one aircon unit on the roof.  Even though Chugoku and Kansai would get hotter than Tohoku.  Am I missing something?

 

[JR 500系]

10 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

I bought the Sunrise and the E235 sets. It took a day before my credit card would work through Alipay. But I'm all set now. I think I'll go browsing the Chinese n scale trains.

 

Can you recommend any other good stores on Taobao?

 

 

Nice! Glad it worked! Tabao has a huge wealth of N scale stuff around, depending on which ones you might be looking for ~ From trains to interiors to buildings to building interiors to building materials etc. Really heaven!

 

*p.s. I fixed your linky to the Taobao sites, hope you don't mind!  🙂 Cheers!

[JR 500系]

8 hours ago, railsquid said:

Is this a different source to the Hong Kong-based densha.me? https://www.densha.me

 

 

Yes it is ~ Densha.me has quite a large selection of stickers too, but they are usually only for the seats. Hayashi seems to do more than just the seats, going into the floor boards and areas near the doors for the basic E233s to the more detailed ones like the Sunrise and 7 stars ~

 

I liked the Tohoku Japan and GSE seat stickers on densha.me though ~ 

[Yavianice]

Does anyone make a Premium Express Shimakaze set? That's probably a train I think could benefit the most of an interior sticker set.

[JR 500系]

5 minutes ago, Yavianice said:

Does anyone make a Premium Express Shimakaze set? That's probably a train I think could benefit the most of an interior sticker set.

 

A Japanese maker did, apparently it's called Rail Craft Awaza, as shown on Miyakomokei video here:

 

 

Havent found one from China though... Hopefully it will be soon... but I'm hopping more for the Shikishima!  🙂

[railsquid]

I acquired a Kato 183-0 series set about a year ago, it seems to be from a 2003 production run but the previous owner had evidently never done anything with it, and apart from the power car being in urgent need of lubrication, it was in as-new condition. However the old-style lightbulb directional lighting was very "watery" and not at all satisfactory, so I acquired 3rd party after-part replacement LED units which were supposedly drop-in replacements, but the Kato lighting unit/destination blind block:

 

Kato 183-0 series "Azusa" by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

is a bit of a pain to dismantle and reassemble, and the wires on the replacement LED units needed a lot of bending before they fit, then I lost one of the celluloid destination blinds, and the LED unit was way too bright (at a "would blind passengers on a platform 5km away" level), so I gave up and put it away to await better times.

 

Anyway I have since found the missing destination blind and had another crack at taming the LEDs, mainly by adding some additional strips of the orange crepe tape provided with the LED units, and inserting a couple of vertical strips of plasticard in front of the bulbs, visible here if you look carefully:

 

Kato 183-0 series "Azusa" by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

It does seem to be much more satisfactory; here with no power applied:

 

Kato 183-0 series "Azusa" by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

with power:

 

Kato 183-0 series "Azusa" by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Kato 183-0 series "Azusa" by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited April 2, 2019 by railsquid

[Sheffie]

Insert Tab A into Slot B

— can’t find Slot B

Seriously, I don’t think there’s anywhere to mount the handrail and brake if you mount the reflectors on that end. 

So I’ve got the handrail on one end and reflectors on the other. Not sure how the prototype would run. Does the railing / brake have to face the front of the train?

[Sheffie]

But really, the Tomix Koki 250000 with its reflectors is nothing compared to the Kato Koki 107 and its reflectors. 

 

When you realize that THIS

means cutting a tiny sliver of plastic off the corner of one of the two provided reflectors, eeesh. 

I’m lucky I had two sets, because two of them took off with a quickness. 

Two sets of wagons, no spare brake wheels, no leftover reflectors. I’m declaring this a glorious victory:

[katoftw]

Dont think the 50000s have the ability to mount the reflectors. Both Tomix and Kato.

[Sheffie]

Sorry, I was not clear. The first post was about the Tomix Koki 250000

[katoftw]

Same mould as 50000.

[railsquid]

Time to put the bits on my Yamanote line E231-500 series before the prototypes disappear from service.

 

Kato E231-500 (Yamanote Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Adding the destination indicator was easier than I thought, because the edges of the sticker are masked by the cab front.

[railsquid]

And while I'm in the mood, fixed up its predecessor too. Before:

 

Kato 205 series (Yamanote Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

After:

 

Kato 205 series (Yamanote Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

On 3/9/2019 at 11:03 AM, railsquid said:

Meanwhile here is a ca. 1997 Kato EF81 which was very noisy, unfortunately the camera's audio capture doesn't really do it justice, imagine a power drill rattling around in a metal can, not a locomotive you'd want to run for more than a few seconds.

 

I dunno if this was a design flaw, or the plastic clips which hold the motor in place have deformed over the years, but the motor (quite a hefty one with flywheels) was evidently rattling against the chassis block. A couple of strips of strategically placed vinyl tape have mitigated that, and while it's still not whisper-silent it's gone from "painful" to "normal" (the difference is much more apparent to the naked ear than the video suggests).

 

 

Unfortunately one of the pantographs is missing, and Kato have since changed the design so a replacement is hard to come by, and the Tomix version doesn't fit.

 

Some intensive googling of the Japanese model railway scene brought up the advice that the Kato EH500 pantograph is a close replacement:

 

Kato EF81 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

though it lacks the EF81 characteristic sloping "tail" on the side facing away from the ends. Much better than before in any case.

 

Kato EF81 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

Edited April 15, 2019 by railsquid

[railsquid]

An ancient but very serviceable Kato 165 series, sadly lacking corridor connectors:

 

kato-165-series-corridor_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Some corridor connectors and tools with cutting edges:

 

kato-z06-0227-horo_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Some corridor connectors after meeting tools with cutting edges:

 

kato-z06-0227-horo_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Some PVA-style glue (yes, really):

 

kato-165-series-corridor-attachment_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Corridor connector, meet glue:

 

kato-165-series-corridor-attachment_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

An ancient but very serviceable Kato 165 series, now with corridor connectors:

 

kato-165-series-corridor_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Das Steinkopf]

Yesterday I finally received my EF66-27 from MTP and got to work fitting all the bits and pieces including the air conditioner. I did have one major setback in that one of the side number plates was damaged, some of the sliver of the numbers and I had to repaint it. This caused many a hair pulling moment as I tried to fix it whilst it was fitted to the locomotive, this lead to a myriad of issues and I ended up removing it to facilitate the repainting of it. I decided to weather the locomotive and I am just waiting for the number plate to dry before I fit it back on, I can then call her complete. 

[Khaul]

😜 I am not the maddest weatherer around here. 

 

The loco looks great like that.

[katoftw]

1 hour ago, Das Steinkopf said:

Yesterday I finally received my EF66-27 from MTP and got to work fitting all the bits and pieces including the air conditioner. I did have one major setback in that one of the side number plates was damaged, some of the sliver of the numbers and I had to repaint it. This caused many a hair pulling moment as I tried to fix it whilst it was fitted to the locomotive, this lead to a myriad of issues and I ended up removing it to facilitate the repainting of it. I decided to weather the locomotive and I am just waiting for the number plate to dry before I fit it back on, I can then call her complete. 

Was there spare ac units in the packet?