Takahachikawa

[railsquid]

I made the mistake of buying a book about the history of the Chuo Line in the Tokyo area and it turns out pretty much every pre-war design of electric loco (apart from most of the EF5x classes, with the exception of the EF52) have operated on it at some point so now have a large collection of those...

 

Hasn't stopped me acquiring EF57s, partly because one of those was the gateway drug to the old-style locos, that one being the one on the right here:

 

EF57 lineup by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

which is by Endo and cost me 1,000 yen "new" (the shop I bought it in had a pile of them in mint condition which had presumable been sitting in a stockroom for a couple of decades). A bit clunky and overscale but of historical N gauge interest.

 

The others (from left to right) are:

 

- MicroAce EF57-1
- Kato EF57
- World Kogei

 

(The World Kogei one has no plates attached but it's also EF57-1).

 

[Martijn Meerts]

These loco's are great, with their own private balconies 😄

 

I have a World Kougei EF53 kit I still need to finish, frame is done, but haven't started on the shell yet. I lacked the skills and experience at the time.

 

[railsquid]

The World Kogei one is one of their RTR pre-assembled ones, sticker on the box says "28,000" though I paid a lot lot less for it.  Very high quality item, albeit no directional lighting.

 

Building a locomotive kit is on my bucket list, but I lack the skills, experience and particularly time...

[Martijn Meerts]

The EF53 kit was around 16000, so even 28000 for a completed one is not actually that bad. They are really high quality with lots of nice detail, but they definitely lack any sort of lighting. I'm not even sure any of the kits I have have lighting. The Kiso Forest Baldwin has openings in the headlight, but doesn't include LEDs if I remember right.

 

It's quite rewarding building them, but basically, expect the first 1 or 2 to fail to the point where it might only be usable as a static / broken locomotive scenery piece. Luckily, there are some cheaper kits as well to play with. And, check the instructions several times, and do lots of test fitting. World Kougei does have a habit of having errors in their instructions, mainly wrong part numbers, or the drawing shows parts bent in the opposite direction, things like that. Sometimes they have a post on it on their homepage, but often they don't even know there's an error.

 

[railsquid]

Come to think of it I have vague plans to own an EF50, but as due to work and small child most of the time I can only just about summon up the energy and concentration to attach the normal detailing bits to RTR locos, that will have to wait for a few years.

 

Meanwhile: invasion of the body swappers!

 

ef58-ef13_2020-05-28_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Hmm,  awkward corner space:

 

inari-jinja_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Rummages in box of scenic bits...

 

inari-jinja_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

inari-jinja_03 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

inari-jinja_04 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

inari-jinja_05 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

inari-jinja_06 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

inari-jinja_07 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

inari-jinja-2020-05-10_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Pauljag900]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

Hmm,  awkward corner space:

 

 

inari-jinja_07 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

inari-jinja-2020-05-10_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

it s  amazing what you can do with a bit of imagination and a box of bits,looks superb buddy👍😀😀

[railsquid]

If anyone has ten minutes to spare and the desire to be disorientated by an unending series of Ken Burns effects, about 3 years worth of layout photos expressed as a video:

 

 

 

[marknewton]

What are "Ken Burns effects"?
 

Mark.

[railsquid]

1 minute ago, marknewton said:

What are "Ken Burns effects"?

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns_effect

[marknewton]

Thanks Squid. I thought it was some obscure modelling technique I hadn't heard of. 

[railsquid]

The obscure modelling technique on display is technically known as "slap stuff together randomly while making it up as I go along" 😉

[Cat]

Very nice.

Now it also needs a voice-over from Garrison Keiler reading the letter home:
"Dearest Mother,
The trains are still running on reduced schedules.  Even the cars on the roads don't seem to be moving.  We've been waiting at the platform for what seems like eternity and the soba shop is closed.  It looks like it should be open, but no one can get through the door."

Edited June 26, 2020 by Cat

[Kamome442]

Great stuff, I love the way you have arranged the tunnel portals.

[Pauljag900]

2 hours ago, railsquid said:

The obscure modelling technique on display is technically known as "slap stuff together randomly while making it up as I go along" 😉

I m right with you there squid,planning is overated😂😂👍andfrom the evidence on that video it proves the point

superb work buddy👍😀

Edited June 26, 2020 by Pauljag900

[JR 500系]

12 hours ago, railsquid said:

If anyone has ten minutes to spare and the desire to be disorientated by an unending series of Ken Burns effects, about 3 years worth of layout photos expressed as a video:

 

 

Wow that looks great! It inspires me to do something like this for mine too... brings back memories watching the layout grow... Which software did you use to edit the video and include music and the pan/ zoom effect may i ask? It looks very well done !

[railsquid]

3 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

 Which software did you use to edit the video and include music and the pan/ zoom effect may i ask? It looks very well done !

 

The standard iMovie software which comes with Macs. Seems it (or at least the version I have) does the effects (the "Ken Burns effects") automatically, unless you turn them off.

 

The music is part of Youtube's royalty-free selection, however not having used it before it turned out you can only add one track via the editor on the Youtube website (which is why it only lasts a few minutes), though you can download multiple tracks to include via whatever editing software you use.

[railsquid]

So, the cunning plan (as mentioned previously) is for a single-track container siding towards the front of the layout, like this:

 

layout-front-area-2020-05-15_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

but depends very much on a solution for the rather temporary embankment section (top of photo) which has been like that for a couple of years now... Fortunately the Department of Making Stuff Up As We Go Along recalled the existence of a randomly acquired, old and very incomplete Greenmax viaduct kit, from which there were enough bits to put together three "arches", which fill the space quite nicely:

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-05-31_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

They did however need splicing together, for which a disposable chopstick comes in handy:

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-06-21_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

A lick of paint and simulated grime:

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-06-26_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

(the leftmost "arch" will be a tunnel) and looking better already:

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-06-27_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

[marknewton]

On 6/27/2020 at 1:23 AM, railsquid said:

The obscure modelling technique on display is technically known as "slap stuff together randomly while making it up as I go along" 😉

That's hardly obscure, Squid. We all do that. 😂

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

Yes I would call it a basic skill!

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Lighting and a hint of interior detail.

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-07-07_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-07-07_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I imagine this to be some kind of break room.

[AhmadKane]

55 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

 

 

 

That break room reminds me of my school days in elementary. When the teacher would slap your hands with a giant wooden ruler if you're unruly.

 

Good times

[JR 500系]

10 hours ago, railsquid said:

Lighting and a hint of interior detail.

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-07-07_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

 

These look nice! Are these the Tomix kits of the 'below the viaduct' structure series? 

[railsquid]

12 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

 

These look nice! Are these the Tomix kits of the 'below the viaduct' structure series? 

 

Parts of the old Greenmax kit (sadly unavailable), as mentioned here:

 

 

[railsquid]

The next challenge is how to "interface" the viaduct with the railway line it supports, which is slightly challenging as it is an odd shape with a slight incline... after a bit of thought I hit upon the idea of slicing the sides off some Tomix overhead viaduct track and hiding the gap with a sheet of plasticard .

 

front-left-concrete-viaduct-2020-07-08_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr