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Takahachikawa


railsquid

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Put a giant angled mirror on the ceiling above!  Like one of those "questionable" hotels you may find in the less reputable parts of town~ 😁

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15 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Put a giant angled mirror on the ceiling above!  Like one of those "questionable" hotels you may find in the less reputable parts of town~ 😁

 

Unfortunately I don't spend much time on my back in the room where the layout is... It has occurred to me that I could plant small cameras in strategic locations and broadcast footage CCTV-style to a wall-mounted monitor. That would be useful for cracking down on layout crime too ;).

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Todo list item number 234 - make a little shelf for various controllers:

 

45953073255_3b41bfb2bb_z.jpg

controller-stand-2019-01-25_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I have been putting this off for ages as it would require cutting four lengths of wood to equal length, a skill which has thus far eluded me and any attempts to do such will be a guarantee of wobble, but happily my local 100 yen store has recently started stocking wood in various handy sizes, some of which turned out to be the exact size I need.

 

Todo list item number 235: tidy up the wires...

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Is that an old Bachmann E-Z Command controller I see on the top shelf, or just the Spectrum plain DC unit?

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1 hour ago, Space Beaver said:

Is that an old Bachmann E-Z Command controller I see on the top shelf, or just the Spectrum plain DC unit?

 

It's a Bachmann DC controller, don't recall seeing the word "Spectrum" on it, came with a Graham Farish set I acquired 2nd hand a while back.

 

It comes in useful as a couple of my British/German DCC-ready locos don't get on well with the Tomix ones for some reason, but are fine with the Bachmann one.

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I see. The casing is almost identical to the slave controllers for Bachmann's original DCC offering. I bought a complete system for thirty quid after the fancy version two came out and still haven't used it.

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I thought about doing DCC once but then I fell victim to a terrible addiction involving cheap, mainly second hand trains in either excellent or easily repairable condition, particularly Japanese ones, and last time I did the maths, the cost of chips alone would probably pay for a small car or something.

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I have been worrying about where to put controllers myself. Space considerations say it should be on the layout itself but I fear that such a move would be considered an unforgivable sin. And what happens when I start adding remote control switches? The problem gets bigger. 

 

But this is off topic. It’s always great to get an update from the land of the high quality leather 🙂

 

Edit to add: you should totally mount a bunch of webcams in strategic positions. 

Edited by Sheffie
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Indeed, I had originally reserved some space on the layout, but that would indeed be a tragic waste.

 

I have seen a few Japanese home layouts with similar solutions and determined through experimentation that it's not too uncomfortable, especially as I'm not planning to do any complicated operation for the forseeable future.

 

What is the reference to "high quality leather"? First time I've heard that associated with Japan.

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35 minutes ago, railsquid said:

What is the reference to "high quality leather"? First time I've heard that associated with Japan.

It’s what came out of google translate when I put in “Takahachikawa”. I’m beginning to think I should stop using it 😕

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Ah.

 

It's a totally made-up name derived from stations on the western part of the Chuo Line in Tokyo (Takao, Hachiouji and Tachikawa), as those are where I draw my primary inspiration for the layout.

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On 1/25/2019 at 4:40 AM, railsquid said:

Todo list item number 234 - make a little shelf for various controllers:

 

45953073255_3b41bfb2bb_z.jpg

controller-stand-2019-01-25_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I have been putting this off for ages as it would require cutting four lengths of wood to equal length, a skill which has thus far eluded me and any attempts to do such will be a guarantee of wobble, but happily my local 100 yen store has recently started stocking wood in various handy sizes, some of which turned out to be the exact size I need.

 

Todo list item number 235: tidy up the wires...

 

I ve had this problem on all my layouts so far,it never seems to look quite right so I ve been giving it a lot of thought the last couple of weeks and I think I’m going with a shelf integrated into the front of the layout,point switches just above the controllers and inverted so the plug and cable point downwards,obviously I won’t be able to connect them to the controller but a simple cable connected from the switch to 12v will do the job just fine.

I ve been measuring up the timber needed to complete the baseboard and shelf today.

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Sure is pretty nice layout, really makes me want to start a Japanese layout instead of the t track I am looking to start... 

 

Also in the US, Testors/Floquil has the same type of paint pens.

 

🤔 Though I am curious as to why the N'EX hasn't made any more appearances...😁

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10 hours ago, Pauljag900 said:

 

I ve had this problem on all my layouts so far,it never seems to look quite right so I ve been giving it a lot of thought the last couple of weeks and I think I’m going with a shelf integrated into the front of the layout,point switches just above the controllers and inverted so the plug and cable point downwards,obviously I won’t be able to connect them to the controller but a simple cable connected from the switch to 12v will do the job just fine.

I ve been measuring up the timber needed to complete the baseboard and shelf today.

 

At this point it's just a question of getting something reasonably usable in place...

 

3 hours ago, nscaler711 said:

🤔 Though I am curious as to why the N'EX hasn't made any more appearances...😁

 

I am sure it will be back, the other trains need a look-in too 😉

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That’s an excellent progression of shade, from the hills in the foreground to the mountains in the distance. 

 

Another great pic!

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On 1/29/2019 at 10:52 PM, Sheffie said:

That’s an excellent progression of shade, from the hills in the foreground to the mountains in the distance. 

 

It's pure luck it turned out like that. I am literally making this up as I go along. One day I will get round to having those images printed on a single sheet of paper (they're just cheap A4 prints from the printer at the convenience store at the moment).

 

On 1/25/2019 at 1:40 PM, railsquid said:

Todo list item number 234 - make a little shelf for various controllers:

 

45953073255_3b41bfb2bb_z.jpg

controller-stand-2019-01-25_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Slightly tidied up, and I have finally been able to wire up some of the points down this end of the layout. Need to add a small light underneath though.

 

46034641245_61cdd4571f_z.jpg

controller-stand-2019-02-01_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

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Meanwhile this small space where I added a slightly dodgy board extension needs filling:

 

46034643025_2506662ab4_z.jpg

lower-tunnel-front--2019-02-01_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Hmm, what to do? Aha, the Department of Scenery Recycling has an idea:

 

32007674167_b6aa9f7c74_z.jpg

lower-tunnel-front--2019-02-01_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Chop chop, cut cut:

 

32007674217_16af87eca9_z.jpg

lower-tunnel-front--2019-02-01_03 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

It will do as a base.

Edited by railsquid
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