Hello from Maryland!

[GDorsett]

Hey, all!

Recently rediscovered Japanese trains and have been "slowly" gathering models in N scale. Been into Santa Fe steam in HO (much to the disappointment of my Western Maryland focused club), but wanted to try out N and figured Japan was a good country to look at.

Currently, my fleet consists of only an EF66 and an ED61, but hoping to expand it soon enough. Mostly container cars (seven KoKi 104 and 4 KoKi 5500), but I have a mixture of tankers and gondolas as well. Figured I'd focus on freight since I see a lot of people doing mostly passenger service. That said, there's a Seto passenger consist from Tomix in my box. No layout is complete without a Blue Train of some sort! Or a Shinkansen, so I have a seven car type-0 that I picked up used.

I do have some KoKi 104 in HO as well as a DE10 (warm region) and an EF510 in the mail, but that's about as far as I'm going to go with HO.

 

Was directed over here by the Japan Model Railroaders of DC for assistance and answers to the many questions.

 

So, hello again, and hope to talk soon!

~Garrett Dorsett

 

P.S.

Recently picked up an older C11 from Kato, however it has an odd-looking knuckle on the end that looks like a squished knuckles instead of the square couplers I'm used to seeing. What is this and where should I look to find another one so I can actually pull something with this engine?

 

Picture attached is my EF66. No, I do not know what the headboard says, but it looked nice and was in the box. Yes, I am aware I am missing the number board under the windscreen. They were not in the box unfortunately. Will look into replacements eventually.

[Kiha66]

Welcome to the forum Garrett!  Sounds like you're off to a good start.  The Head mark on the ef66 is a combined Sakura (cherry blossom, the top pink part) and the lower one I think is Hayabusa (falcon, the lower green half), which were both blue (sleeper) trains to Kyushu from toyko.  They often ran combined in later years for the first leg of the journey.  Mind posting a picture of the c11?  Kato makes knuckle replacements for the rapido coupler but sometimes people put in other types.

[serotta1972]

1 hour ago, GDorsett said:

Hey, all!

Recently rediscovered Japanese trains and have been "slowly" gathering models in N scale. Been into Santa Fe steam in HO (much to the disappointment of my Western Maryland focused club), but wanted to try out N and figured Japan was a good country to look at.

Currently, my fleet consists of only an EF66 and an ED61, but hoping to expand it soon enough. Mostly container cars (seven KoKi 104 and 4 KoKi 5500), but I have a mixture of tankers and gondolas as well. Figured I'd focus on freight since I see a lot of people doing mostly passenger service. That said, there's a Seto passenger consist from Tomix in my box. No layout is complete without a Blue Train of some sort! Or a Shinkansen, so I have a seven car type-0 that I picked up used.

I do have some KoKi 104 in HO as well as a DE10 (warm region) and an EF510 in the mail, but that's about as far as I'm going to go with HO.

 

Was directed over here by the Japan Model Railroaders of DC for assistance and answers to the many questions.

 

So, hello again, and hope to talk soon!

~Garrett Dorsett

 

P.S.

Recently picked up an older C11 from Kato, however it has an odd-looking knuckle on the end that looks like a squished knuckles instead of the square couplers I'm used to seeing. What is this and where should I look to find another one so I can actually pull something with this engine?

 

Picture attached is my EF66. No, I do not know what the headboard says, but it looked nice and was in the box. Yes, I am aware I am missing the number board under the windscreen. They were not in the box unfortunately. Will look into replacements eventually.

 

[ianlaw]

Welcome,

 

Maybe you can post a close up of the coupler you've got. There are many types around. There are several threads here about couplers, and before you buy replacements you need a strategy so you don't end up with too many incompatible types.

[GDorsett]

Cool, now I know what that headboard is and will probably leave it on since I plan on doing a Hayabusa blue train.

I do not have a picture of the C11 handy at the moment, but as soon as I get home I will see about getting a decent picture.

[miyakoji]

Hi Garrett, welcome to the forum!

[cteno4]

Hey gerrett, glad you made it over here!

 

jeff

[serotta1972]

Hey Garrett, I believe that's a Tomix EF66 and I'm sure someone here has some extra number boards laying around.  I just recently sent one of those models out to the DC area. :)

 

Edited April 4, 2018 by serotta1972

[Sascha]

Hello. Welcome to the Forum!

[GDorsett]

10 hours ago, serotta1972 said:

Hey Garrett, I believe that's a Tomix EF66 and I'm sure someone here has some extra number boards laying around.  I just recently sent one of those models out to the DC area. :)

 

That is, indeed, a Tomix. all of my powered stuff is Tomix withthe exception of a C11

[chadbag]

 

Welcome. 

 

Beware: This can become quite addictive.  (And don't wander to European N scale -- the expense is tremendous :)  )

[cteno4]

Garrett is already a goner!  ;-p

 

jeff

[GDorsett]

I have no intentions of touching anything European aside from maybe a first gen TGV. Besides, they expensive.

And Jeff is right, I'm already gone. What started as a one engine, three car train is now a two (three, if you count the c11 I can't use yet) engine, twenty car set...not including the Seto passenger set and the 0-series Shinkansen.

 

iiiiin about four months.

[GDorsett]

I've done catalogued it, too.

Here's a link to it in Google Docs, if anyone is curious:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vvfKbcw3b__IbKTErS9ztAdO1RVxvBNQOJ6WvzPi-kk/edit?usp=drivesdk

 

Lots of oddball stuff, but hey, am beginning.

Would be willing to trade a KoKiFu 10000 for something, though. I don't have anything it matches.

Edited April 4, 2018 by GDorsett
Needed to add some things and did not want to spam replies

[chadbag]

14 hours ago, GDorsett said:

 

Lots of oddball stuff, but hey, am beginning.

Would be willing to trade a KoKiFu 10000 for something, though. I don't have anything it matches.

 

You know the solution for that...

 

Buy some matching stuff!

[GDorsett]

Working on it. Got some matching KoKi 104 that turned out to be new old stock. Got seven of them. Next order I put in, will be adding a couple more 5500s so those look like a full train.

[chadbag]

18 minutes ago, GDorsett said:

Working on it. Got some matching KoKi 104 that turned out to be new old stock. Got seven of them. Next order I put in, will be adding a couple more 5500s so those look like a full train.

 

Technically I don't think the KoKiFu 10000 match with the KoKi 104 (I think I have some of those arriving from my SIL in Japan today) and other later KoKi but who is counting?  (Don't match due to era differences)

 

I have a few KoKiFu 10000 and some Koki 10000 so when I feel like running older trains I can run a container train.   You never stop figuring out new permutations, and then a steal you get one place leads to needing more of something else to make it all fit.

[GDorsett]

The containers are the same green ones that you get on Kato's KoKi 5500s, which I think is why I got it, although it looks out of place, now.

[chadbag]

5 minutes ago, GDorsett said:

The containers are the same green ones that you get on Kato's KoKi 5500s, which I think is why I got it, although it looks out of place, now.

 

I am not sure but I think the 10000 and 5500 can run on the same train (I have both as well as KoKi 10000) and the 100 series and the 50000 series as well (I've seen photos with that mix in on prototypes)

[GDorsett]

If they're run on the same trains, then I'll keep it. I'll see if I can dig something up.

[mvaron]

Welcome!