Takahachikawa

[railsquid]

Just another day in Takahachikawa, with an EH200 hauling a rake of empty takis bound for Negishi.

 

main-station-approach-left_2021-03-12_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Real life version:

 

 

 

 

[railsquid]

The EF64s are among my favourites of all the favouritiest locomotives I like, and though I can normally resist picking up magazines featuring them on the cover, a quick flick through this issue revealed a lot of interesting shots of workings on the Chuo Line, which are always of great assistance in justifying curating my collection of ever more obscure Chuo Line stock, and to my delight it contains photographic evidence of a variety of "Joyful Trains", which helpfully justifies the Euroliner set I acquired a while back on a Rule 1 basis and also a future "Rainbow Express" purchase. Among others.

 

 

In other Chuo Line justification news, I discovered via another magazine that there was once a car factory at Higashi-Koganei which generated some Ku5000 traffic and the internet helpfully provides photographic evidence.

[railsquid]

Random work-in-progress...

 

container-yard-overview_2021-03-27_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[cteno4]

Someone in the yard planting trackside flowers?

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Recycled scenery 😄

 

3 or 4 years ago it was here:

 

local-station-2 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Now, from a different angle:
 

container-yard-overview_2021-03-27_04 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited March 28, 2021 by railsquid

[railsquid]

Ballasting time!

 

front-running-line-2021-03-28_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Getting there bit-by-bit...

 

container-yard-overview_2021-04-04_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Apropos of nothing in particular...

 

Tomix 72/73 series by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Some more contemporary containery stuff going on in the background...

 

container-yard-overview_2021-04-19_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Das Steinkopf]

On 3/13/2021 at 2:28 AM, railsquid said:

Just another day in Takahachikawa, with an EH200 hauling a rake of empty takis bound for Negishi.

 

main-station-approach-left_2021-03-12_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Real life version:

 

 

 

 

 

Certainly a very familar sight on the Chuo Nishi-sen, I still have it etched in my mind looking at the EH200's sitting in the yard at Minami Matsumoto after bringing the fuel trains in from Tokyo.

[railsquid]

Some random progress:

 

[

container-yard-2021-08-13_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr]]

 

resort-area-2021-07-25_03 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

resort-area-2021-07-25_05 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Edited September 21, 2021 by railsquid

[Tom C]

That second photo has a lovely depth to it that I'm rather enjoying 🤗

[railsquid]

Meanwhile, back in town, I had another stab at rearranging things so the tram line is no longer reliant on mini curves (please excuse the mess):

 

lower-station-area-2021-09-25_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

lower-station-area-2021-09-25_03 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

lower-station-area-2021-09-25_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

as I have a strange obsession with on-street running and would really like somewhere for my Keihan 800 series to feel at home (here on an earlier iteration of the layout):

 

MicroAce Keihan 800 series by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Oooh, and I can just about squeeze in a little tram loop, because why not.

 

lower-station-area-2021-09-26_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

lower-station-area-2021-09-26_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Now I have to figure out how to wire this all up reasonably sanely...

[JR 500系]

Nice! It feels just like squeezing my tram line in my city too, although it simply goes one round with one tram stop 😛

 

[Tom C]

👍 to that little loop. I love the idea of a tram disappearing down a side street looking for customers 🙂

[railsquid]

Somewhere to run the little trams has always been something I've wanted, as otherwise I'd have to send them all the way round the real railway loop, which would be kind of boring and potentially failure prone.

[railsquid]

Had a spare hour or so, so decided to progress the tram loop a bit, which mainly means a) gathering up all the tram track accessory parts which will be needed to complete it (will need some custom modification around the points) and b) strategic scenic surgery:

 

tram-loop-2021-10-03_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

tram-loop-2021-10-03_02 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

tram-loop-2021-10-03_03 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Methinks I can fill in the gap below the track with the recently(ish) re-released Greenmax viaduct kit, subject to some modification.

Edited October 3, 2021 by railsquid

[railsquid]

Scene from close to the ground:

 

tram-loop-2021-10-03_04 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

In today's exciting news I finally got the lower loop working again (I can't remember how long it's been, certainly well over a year) *and* a new USB camera arrived, so:

 

 

Apologies for the occasional jerkiness and the general mess.

[Pauljag900]

57 minutes ago, railsquid said:

In today's exciting news I finally got the lower loop working again (I can't remember how long it's been, certainly well over a year) *and* a new USB camera arrived, so:

 

 

Apologies for the occasional jerkiness and the general mess.

No apologies needed Squid,looks spot on,all of it👍👍😂lovin the tram loop👍Good effort mate👍😀

[railsquid]

I realised I needed to get the vacuum cleaner out:

 

 

 

[railsquid]

"Following their retirement from main line service in 2021, a few E4 sets were cascaded to local and interurban lines"

 

tram-route-2021-10-05_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

lower-station-2021-10-05_01 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

The real reason why I am trying to shoehorn some tram line into the layout is to have somewhere to run my Keihan 800 series:

 

 

[bill937ca]

Right down the tram line. Can it do tram curves?