Suburban Tokyo Themed Layout

[Philphil]

The beginning of layout level 2! 

I decided to try and do it cheaply, by using 2" pipes and hot glue for $12, instead of buying another $90 worth of 2-inch foam at Home Depot. Guess we'll see how it goes!

[Philphil]

More of the upper level is installed, with the foam finally cut to a rough shape.

First photo is without the foam, with the 2" tall support pipes installed, and the second photo is of the upper level of foam installed, on top of the pipes.

[Kiha66]

Nice progress Phil!  I was confused what the pipes were for at first, but now its all become clear.  

[Philphil]

1 hour ago, Kiha66 said:

Nice progress Phil!  I was confused what the pipes were for at first, but now its all become clear.  

Thank you! Yeah, I didn't know if the pipes would work or not, but I just wasn't interested in spending a ton more money on foam, so this solution sort of works! Unfortunately, as I was cutting foam for this tight area where the all these tracks have to turn this corner, I managed to slice the top of my finger off, but that's okay, isn't that just part of the fun? 

[toc36]

I like the way you are using the spacers.  It appears that it makes your under track electrical easier.

 

Are you seeing any deformation in the flat blue foam?

[Philphil]

22 minutes ago, toc36 said:

I like the way you are using the spacers.  It appears that it makes your under track electrical easier.

 

Are you seeing any deformation in the flat blue foam?

There's a bit warping with the foam, mainly it just bends a bit on the long ends, but nothing major. It's partly because my table and shelves aren't  exactly level. I also have a pack of Woodland Scenics Foam Nails (or whatever they're called) which I use to keep the foam pieces together, which has worked out pretty well so far.

[Philphil]

Almost enough space at the new bus station! 

[defor]

Love your buses- are these from the tomytec collection?
Do you plan to use any of their driving bus chassis?
I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to get a good number of the container trucks from their truck line, but prices are crazy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Philphil]

4 hours ago, defor said:

Love your buses- are these from the tomytec collection?
Do you plan to use any of their driving bus chassis?
I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to get a good number of the container trucks from their truck line, but prices are crazy!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Right!? Some of those vehicles are just so expensive!

Most of my busses are indeed from Tomytec, I have a few from other manufacturers, like those diecast Kyosho busses. I don't like the standard Kyosho city busses as much as the Tomytec busses because the detail isn't even close to as crisp as the plastic busses (plus some of the wheels stick out too far).

As for the Kyosho coach busses, those are pretty nice, since they have mirrors and everything. (Plus those are basically the only Japanese coach busses I know of in N-Scale so there isn't anything else to compare them to.)

At the moment I don't have any plans for the moving bus system, possibly in the future. Though I would like to have a short streetcar line somewhere on the layout, probably above the JR East station on the lower level. 

If the streetcar line doesn't work out, then I certainly would consider putting some moving busses there instead.

-Phillip

[JR 500系]

7 hours ago, Philphil said:

Right!? Some of those vehicles are just so expensive!

Most of my busses are indeed from Tomytec, I have a few from other manufacturers, like those diecast Kyosho busses. I don't like the standard Kyosho city busses as much as the Tomytec busses because the detail isn't even close to as crisp as the plastic busses (plus some of the wheels stick out too far).

As for the Kyosho coach busses, those are pretty nice, since they have mirrors and everything. (Plus those are basically the only Japanese coach busses I know of in N-Scale so there isn't anything else to compare them to.)

At the moment I don't have any plans for the moving bus system, possibly in the future. Though I would like to have a short streetcar line somewhere on the layout, probably above the JR East station on the lower level. 

If the streetcar line doesn't work out, then I certainly would consider putting some moving busses there instead.

-Phillip

 

That's a nice lot of Tobu buses! I love uniform bus lines!

 

 

[Philphil]

Cut some more foam for the upper level, and managed to pave over the subway tunnel with Kato track pack paper backing, to give it that dark subway feel. I actually might make the walls for the subway tunnels out of the paper Unitrack pack backings, they're pretty sturdy, and they also bend well, which makes it easy to wrap them around corners.

[Philphil]

I also did some work experimenting with splicing Kato catenary poles together in order to capture the look of these poles on the prototype:

[Philphil]

If all that wasn't enough, I spliced the wires from two Kato track feeders together in order to have one power pack control both tracks, in opposite directions on the subway loop.

[katoftw]

53 minutes ago, Philphil said:

I also did some work experimenting with splicing Kato catenary poles together in order to capture the look of these poles on the prototype:

 

Looks good.

[Philphil]

On 4/5/2018 at 12:46 PM, katoftw said:

Looks good.

I can't say I'm thrilled with how the first pole came out, it's very weak, and one of the sides already snapped off. For the next version, I'll probably drill out a thin shaft into the top and bottom parts of the pole, then put a straight metal piece inside of it, to keep the entire pole straight, and to give it extra strength. Hopefully I can chop up a couple of paper clips for the metal parts to do it on the cheap!

[Philphil]

A new and unexpected problem has recently occured on my layout. The subway loop was only designed for a total of two 7-car trains, and at the moment I have three subway trains on the way, AND one of those three trains is an 8-car train.

Since 7-car trains fit about perfectly at a four piece long Kato stations I have planned out, both stations on the line need to be lengthened, and the subway line needs to have a new siding, which is a bit costly. 

The addition of a third track on the subway line necessitates every single catenary pole be changed out to the thinner 23-060 poles in order to fit between the main line and the siding, and the 23-060 and 23-059 poles be spliced together in order to span three tracks, as seen in the first photo.

So... Lots to do this week!

[Philphil]

Installed the upgraded catenary poles until I ran out of bases, which happened pretty fast since I only had one pack on hand. Also went and mocked up the siding with wooden tie track and the bumpers I had one hand. Once my Amazon order arrives, and the rolling stock arrives I'll take some more pictures.

[Philphil]

You guys know what I realized?

I realized that I over-ordered station platforms! While the Tobu 70000 is only 7-cars long, and the Tobu 20050 is 8-cars long I made a drastic error in my station length calculations... I originally thought all of the cars were the same length, which meant I had to add an additional Kato platform to my subway stations in order to fit in the 8-car train. 

BUT, I recently found out that the 70000-series cars are 20 meters long, whilst the 20050-series cars are only 18 meters long, making the trains approximately the same length (+/- a bit) so I could still fit the 8-car train in the same size (4-platforms long) station as the 7-car trains, and I can shorten all of the stations back to 4-platforms long!

Aye... Life.

[Philphil]

Time for some platform upgrades! The older Kato platforms look terrible (at least to me), so it's time to make them slightly better!

[Philphil]

Brand new Hibiya Line platform texture! 

[Philphil]

Managed to get my first switch into the yard, so now I'm just waiting for Amazon to ship the other two so I can attach both sides of the yard on to the Tokyo Metro line. I ordered one of the switches on April 12, and Amazon just updated my order saying it won't ship until May 12th... So I might be waiting awhile...

[gavino200]

11 minutes ago, Philphil said:

Managed to get my first switch into the yard, so now I'm just waiting for Amazon to ship the other two so I can attach both sides of the yard on to the Tokyo Metro line. I ordered one of the switches on April 12, and Amazon just updated my order saying it won't ship until May 12th... So I might be waiting awhile...

 

Wow. That single line is very close to the edge. Plexyglass? Tears? 

[Philphil]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

 

Wow. That single line is very close to the edge. Plexyglass? Tears? 

You know, that's a very good question. I'm pretty concerned about it, too, especially for as many times as I've hit the catenary poles on the two main tracks... I'm trying to figure out how to attach the plexiglass or other material to the foam, but I just haven't figured out a good way yet.

If worst comes to worst, I'll probably knock an entire train off the edge, get sad, and then never use that siding again. 

[cteno4]

Phil,

 

could get some like 12-20x2mm disc magnets on ebay and just epoxy them to the foam every 10-12”. Then pop a magnet on each magnet and a dab of epoxy to epoxy the plex strip to the magnets. You can probably hold it in place with screw holes in between the magnet placements and use a drywall screw (big nasty threads) to hold things in place till it sets. Easy to pop on and off. Don’t need thick plex at all, the thinnest you cannget or even just heavy acetate sheet.

 

Can also just epoxy on a fascia board onto the foam with a simple groove cut in the top to slot the plex into (may have to put a thin strip of styrene along the bottom of the plex to make it sit firmly into the slot.)

 

jeff

[gavino200]

On a previous layout I glued plexiglass to the side of the foamboard. Liquid nails or something like that. The plexi was the height of the foam plus one inch. Giving a plexi fence of one inch. My foam was 2 inch thick but it was so secure, I'd bet it would work with one inch.

 

I painted the surface of the plexi where it was glued to the foam, leaving the fence part clear. I used masking tape to get a nice clean line. It actually looked ok, and worked great. No more crashes. No more tears.

 

I'll see if I can find a picture.