How did you improve your rolling stock?

[gavino200]

2 minutes ago, Pauljag900 said:

Well at least you got some and you know it’s on it’s way.

i got 1” diameter as there ll be at least 23 point motors so needed a fairly big one.

 

What's the noise level like in that shed when you're running all the trains together? You wearing earplugs?

[Pauljag900]

The four viaduct tracks are a bit noisy but the ground level tracks there s hardly any noise as it’s all laid on foam and polystyrene,plus I try not to run them really fast anyway,tho I do try to keep it in proportion,shinkansens the fastest,express a bit slower,etc etc.

[Khaul]

8 hours ago, railsquid said:

The slight downside to this very cheaply acquired pointy-nosed Shinkansen:

 

revealing that the (or a) previous owner had evidently tried to rectify the problem with liberal amounts of oil which had worked itself inside the chassis, bathing the motor in a thin film, though they had neglected to apply any to the motor bearings, which quietened it down a bit. However after cleanup and reassembly the general screechiness was still very present, further investigation revealed that the frames holding the worm gears were a teensy bit loose and a combination of vibration and inconsistent contact with the bogie gears was causing all the noise.  No idea whether that's a design flaw, or if maybe chassis and worm gear frames have malformed slightly over the years. Anyway 3 strips of vinyl tape (two to hold it in place vertically and one lengthwise to stop it bumping up against the chassis - not visible) pretty much solved the problem.

 

 

 

In my short experience noise has always been caused by loose motor mounts. Oiling has never helped so far.

[railsquid]

1 hour ago, Khaul said:

 

In my short experience noise has always been caused by loose motor mounts. Oiling has never helped so far.

 

I've had a couple (mainly older Kato) where a dab of oil on the gears has made a difference, though yeah, in general simply oiling is not the cure.

 

In the case of this MicroAce 155 series recently acquired for 3,000 yen, also suffering from Massive Painful-Sounding Screeching, a drop of oil on the motor bearings has worked wonders.

 

 

Edited February 18, 2018 by railsquid

[JR 500系]

And finally got enough courage to challenge installing interior lights on the Shikishima....

 

Overall, it isnt that tough, as there already seem to be slots dedicated for the 11-214 LED light bulb, and they fit in securely nice and tight... it's just the sheer fear of opening the shell on such an expensive and beautiful train... but i had to have the lights in it to showcase the beautiful interior that Kato has did such a fine job...

 

the details of the interior are truly amazing... from the engine block on the end cars and the observatory, to the lighted up lights on the table of the buffet car, to the light up fireplace on the entrance car... it's just breath-taking... even more so when you open up the shell to view them!   

[railsquid]

12 hours ago, Pauljag900 said:

Nice work squid,you ve got the patience of a saint buddy👍😀

 

I like fixing things, makes a change from the tedious amount of mountain building I seem to have got myself into.
 

Anyway it's been running round and round quite happily for 30 odd minutes and responds with a beautiful surge of speed when you turn the dial all the way to 11 so feeling very satisfied with this.

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

 

I like fixing things, makes a change from the tedious amount of mountain building I seem to have got myself into.
 

Anyway it's been running round and round quite happily for 30 odd minutes and responds with a beautiful surge of speed when you turn the dial all the way to 11 so feeling very satisfied with this.

I know what you mean squid,I had one where the motor had gone and with the help of Martijn I managed to identify the correct replacement motor and then successfully fitted it myself! Probably no big deal to some and maybe not that hard to do but when you ve never done it before it s a challenge.Like you I felt quite pleased with myself ha ha👍😀

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, JR 500系 said:

And finally got enough courage to challenge installing interior lights on the Shikishima....

 

Overall, it isnt that tough, as there already seem to be slots dedicated for the 11-214 LED light bulb, and they fit in securely nice and tight... it's just the sheer fear of opening the shell on such an expensive and beautiful train... but i had to have the lights in it to showcase the beautiful interior that Kato has did such a fine job...

 

the details of the interior are truly amazing... from the engine block on the end cars and the observatory, to the lighted up lights on the table of the buffet car, to the light up fireplace on the entrance car... it's just breath-taking... even more so when you open up the shell to view them!   

When this train first came out I thought it was a bit expensive,I still do,but when you see the detailing as you ve just pointed out,it truly is a wonderfully detailed train and goes some way to justifying the price tag.

good job on the lights sammy👍😀😀

[railsquid]

21 hours ago, railsquid said:

 Anyway 3 strips of vinyl tape (two to hold it in place vertically and one lengthwise to stop it bumping up against the chassis - not visible) pretty much solved the problem.

 

Tomix 500 series Shinkansen modification by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

Right, just given the same treatment to another late 90s Tomix EMU with essentially the same chassis design which was also a bit rattly-screechy (but not as much as the 500 series) and it's now silky smooth.

[Gryphr]

Ha!
After reading Squid's posts I decided to try and oil the motor bearings and reseat everything on my E259 motor car which was also rattling/screeching unbearably, it runs almost like new again now :)

[Gryphr]

Installed some Interior lights for the first time today. It was an easy and quick job on the newer 521 series, however on the older Aikan 2000 series model the lightbar/guide has to be jammed under the roof inbetween some protruding nubs of the window bands which took some force. I wasn't really sure if this was the way you're supposed to do it as it felt pretty close to breaking the shell apart...
Anyhow, it worked out in the end and I have to say it does look pretty nice although a bit empty...I guess I'll have to detail the interior a bit and possibly add passengers someday
 

 

The new Kato power pack and it's constant lighting "ability" really helped with taking some pictures, as it would be nearly impossible to take a sharp one with the train moving ( or maybe I just need a good camera )

Edited February 19, 2018 by Gryphr

[gavino200]

56 minutes ago, Gryphr said:

Installed some Interior lights for the first time today. It was an easy and quick job on the newer 521 series, however on the older Aikan 2000 series model the lightbar/guide has to be jammed under the roof inbetween some protruding nubs of the window bands which took some force. I wasn't really sure if this was the way you're supposed to do it as it felt pretty close to breaking the shell apart...
Anyhow, it worked out in the end and I have to say it does look pretty nice although a bit empty...I guess I'll have to detail the interior a bit and possibly add passengers someday
 

 

The new Kato power pack and it's constant lighting "ability" really helped with taking some pictures, as it would be nearly impossible to take a sharp one with the train moving ( or maybe I just need a good camera )

 

That looks really good. Did you use the standard Kato lighting kit? Did you take any pictures of how the light guide sat before you closed the body?

I'm thinking of trying the Kato light set again. The TORMs are easy to use but I think they're way to bright.

[Gryphr]

19 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

That looks really good. Did you use the standard Kato lighting kit? Did you take any pictures of how the light guide sat before you closed the body?

I'm thinking of trying the Kato light set again. The TORMs are easy to use but I think they're way to bright.

 

Thanks!

I used the standard clear lighting kit (11-212), with the color filters installed.

 

In the 521 series the light guide sits on top of some pillars of the interior. the pillars have small pins that fit into the "rails" of the light guide and keep it in place:

 

In the Aikan 2000 series the light bar is jammed inbetween some protrusions of the windowbands, you can kinda see those at the center doors and the rear doors:

Edited February 19, 2018 by Gryphr

[railsquid]

 

[Kiha66]

Coupler upgrades, I really should have ordered more of these than I did.  They really do improve the look between cars.

[Densha]

Kiha66,

 

Are those bogie-mounted or body-mounted couplers? I know that Kato released a set of body-mounted couplers for their 50 series coaches. The body-mounted ones look much better, but are also very difficult to find.

[Kiha66]

2 hours ago, Densha said:

Kiha66,

 

Are those bogie-mounted or body-mounted couplers? I know that Kato released a set of body-mounted couplers for their 50 series coaches. The body-mounted ones look much better, but are also very difficult to find.

 

I've been trying to find the body mounted couplers but they seem to have been a very small production run and are sold out everywhere.  However I tested the body mount couplers from Kato's kiha 80/180 series and those will fit with slight modifications.  I'm using the truck mounts for now unless I can find a source for either type of body mount.

[kvp]

On the left is a very cheap Kato series 10000 container car, on the right is a new Tomix 5500. The Kato one seems to be an ancient design with one solid row of containers. The heights are matching, but the Kato containers seems to be squashed longitudinally. Is this car compressed or did this smaller container really exist? The Kato cars are low detail, but look ok, except the one huge solid piece of silvery weight visible under the moc containers. I had to disassemble them and paint the edges matt black to hide them.

[railsquid]

2 hours ago, kvp said:

On the left is a very cheap Kato series 10000 container car, on the right is a new Tomix 5500. The Kato one seems to be an ancient design with one solid row of containers. The heights are matching, but the Kato containers seems to be squashed longitudinally. Is this car compressed or did this smaller container really exist? The Kato cars are low detail, but look ok, except the one huge solid piece of silvery weight visible under the moc containers. I had to disassemble them and paint the edges matt black to hide them.

 

The Kato containers represent 6000 series 11ft containers, whereas the Tomix 5500 wagon is carrying more standard 12ft containers. The 50000 series wagons were designed to be able to carry 5 12ft containers. See Nine Scale World, Dec. 2017 (Vol 97), page 5.

 

Kato do seem to have got a lot of use out of those 10000 series wagons toolings, they're still available in modern packaging with 4-digit product numbers, while the chassis still carries the original 3-digit one.

[chadbag]

3 hours ago, kvp said:

On the left is a very cheap Kato series 10000 container car, on the right is a new Tomix 5500. The Kato one seems to be an ancient design with one solid row of containers. The heights are matching, but the Kato containers seems to be squashed longitudinally. Is this car compressed or did this smaller container really exist? The Kato cars are low detail, but look ok, except the one huge solid piece of silvery weight visible under the moc containers. I had to disassemble them and paint the edges matt black to hide them.

 

 

The KATO shows older 10 ft containers.   It looks like your Tomix has larger (12 ft?) containers.   Based on an image from a museum in Osaka of the kokifu version (car with cab) showing 4 of the 10 ft containers, like the equivalent KATO model (kokifu  10000) I am guessing KATO is correct with them compressed.  

 

ETA:  Somewhere I remember reading on Wikipedia that the containers are actually 10.8 ft, or almost 11 ft, but are called 10 ft container colloquially.   https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fja.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F国鉄C10形コンテナ&edit-text=

Edited March 15, 2018 by chadbag

[kvp]

Thanks! So these cars are fully in scale. The ancient Kato molds do explain the detail level but imho the silver weight plate shining through the container legs looks horrible off the self. I painted them black so you don't notice it, but now that i think about it, maybe removing them would be a better option? The Tomix cars have no visible weight in them at all.

[chadbag]

I have several of these (and the cab version) coming from Hobby Search.  Stuck in customs it appears.  I am anxious to look at them now that you mention these issues.

[katoftw]

If it has a weight in the wagon.  It is probably an older version also.  I got some older Tomix Koki 50000s once that had weights.  Then newer versions do not have weights and are slightly more/better detailing.  I would assume the same for Kato also.

Edited March 15, 2018 by katoftw

[railsquid]

12 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

Kato do seem to have got a lot of use out of those 10000 series wagons toolings, they're still available in modern packaging with 4-digit product numbers, while the chassis still carries the original 3-digit one.

 

The models were introduced in 1967 (see RM Models 2006-06, vol 130, page 111/112), originally with very crude lettering on the containers.

[Khaul]

I have done some work on my Tomix 103 Tsurumi line. It's high grade so I had to deal with finicky small pieces to fit. I was also a bit scared of the dry transfers. Things turned out quite well. Let's see:

 

Train with lights and a driver, but no details

 

Same end of the train after detailing. Note the absence of the JR logo at the front. I got mixed up with the small and large logos, plus one failed attempt... 

 

The other side of the train. JR logos are fine. The train got a bit dirty with the decals, see the black line under the door. I have cleaned it, but somehow like the effect. I am thinking about painting black the seam between the sliding doors.

 

And yes, people like riding the Tsurumi line.

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by Khaul