The little 'private' railway

[Beaver]

These minor lines, there is just something about them... something vanished from many other first world countries, where you would hardly find such systems in existence any more, let alone as independent companies, let alone sometimes hauling freight.

 

In the UK I knew many people who love to research, model and even invent obscure minor railways, but all had to turn back the clock over half a century. The modern 'preserved' railways that some of these lines became are nothing like. Yet in Japan, I discovered, some live on, and may even be able to expect to carry on living.

 

If freight is to be on the list, the options seem to be either hauling limestone from mountain quarries down to cement works on the nearest seashore or other open place, or working mostly container trains between a seaside industrial park and the nearest JR main line. I figure it is possible to cheat a bit and have both. The line can run down a river valley from the mountains to the sea, meeting an inland JR main line in between. Of course the valley is very pretty, so there are special tourist trains using fancied up kihas or even loco haulage.

 

Imagine a mixture of Chichibu and Mizushima and so on.

 

To have interesting operation in a small space, a focus on one station with fiddle yards feeding it.

 

I have towards this objective a fair amount of small radius track and two diesel shunters. The amazing new Kato DD16 recieved as a present is a perfect runner, equal to an HO model. Maintenance advice appreciated. The old second hand Tomix DE10 is a very noisy runner and the lights don't work in one direction. I hear that Tomix sell spare gear sets?

Edited October 9, 2018 by Space Beaver

[Khaul]

Wonderful. You need is some torokko for the sightseeing train.

[Beaver]

On 10/10/2018 at 5:39 AM, Khaul said:

Wonderful. You need is some torokko for the sightseeing train.

 

Strange that there appear to be no models of them available given their increasing popularity. Scratchbuilding in N is... fiddly.

 

Anyhow, what with one thing and another, this is probably going to have to be a temporary, not fixed layout. By using a lot of ideas from wargaming tables it should still be possible to have something interesting and detailed.

 

Now, in order to have something unique at low cost, I intend to scratchbuild most buildings and structures. Far and away my favourite material for this is card. It is very versatile, needs only simple tools and harmless adhesives, and it is available everywhere.

 

However, I have noticed that the Kanto climate tends to be somewhat hostile to it. Large fluctuations in temperature and humidity. I think that a lot of multi-layering and cross-bracing will be needed.

[kvp]

2 hours ago, Space Beaver said:

Strange that there appear to be no models of them available given their increasing popularity. Scratchbuilding in N is... fiddly.

 

However, I have noticed that the Kanto climate tends to be somewhat hostile to it. Large fluctuations in temperature and humidity. I think that a lot of multi-layering and cross-bracing will be needed.

Microace has made some consists, one was afair two kiha-s sandwitching two 2 axle open passenger cars. I don't remember the name or number of the set though.

 

For weatherproofing cardstock, painting with acrylic paints works nicely as they are watertight once dry. The downside is that this paint type is usually water based, so if you don't soak the card walls while painting, they will be pretty moisture resistant afterwards.

[cteno4]

Best is to hit it with an organic solvent based spray varnish (ie dull cost) in light coats. This usually does not warp the cardstock when it goes on but seals it well. Then waterbased acrylics on top don’t tend to cause much warping. Some hit their cardstock on both sides before cutting as it can help with sharper cuts and edges and you can seal surfaces not easily accessible once assembled. Edges are then the only main unsealed bit, but much much less surface area there. Also stiffens up card stock a lot.

 

Also painting with light airbrushing coats is much safer than with a paintbrush as the airbrush will dry very fast once the droplet hits the surface (high surface area to volume) compared to a much thicker layer of paint applied with a brush.

 

multilayering is great and i usually brace larger roofs and such that can sag with some sort of internal strips. Check out some of the sankei kits as they are very cleaver in their multilayer approach that make super solid models. Their laser chipboard also has a lot of resin in it and stays very stiff and I expect is very humidity resistant.

 

jeff

[Khaul]

8 hours ago, Space Beaver said:

Anyhow, what with one thing and another, this is probably going to have to be a temporary, not fixed layout. By using a lot of ideas from wargaming tables it should still be possible to have something interesting and detailed.

 

Oh, that sounds great and very Barry Lowell https://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/tempoary.html

[cteno4]

Yes Barry’s work and article are great. It’s a wonderful way to get going on a layout when you can’t set up permiment and a fantastic way to learn and experiment with scenery techniques. Scenry parts can alway be used later in permanent layout as well.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Beaver]

Thanks for the advice about card buildings! I will need to find out what spray varnishes are available.

 

Lately I have been dealing with the issue of coupling and uncoupling.

 

Many models, especially newer ones, have no protruding pin off the bottom of the couplings so cannot use simple ramps.

 

I paid a lot of money for a few Micro Ace couplings but after breaking several springs and damaging a ホキ, I concluded that instead of all this trouble and serious extra cost the simpler Tomix magnetic rapido system was more suitable.

 

It works well with Tomix stock already equipped with magnetic Rapidos but Tomix does not seem to specify a part number for the separate magnets to attach to other stock. Are you supposed to find your own?

 

EDIT: it appears you do have to find your own. I think these may be suitable: https://www.supermagnete.de/eng/disc-magnets-neodymium/disc-magnet-diameter-1mm-height-1mm-neodymium-n45-nickel-plated_S-01-01-N

Edited October 19, 2018 by Space Beaver

[Beaver]

Progress!

 

I (mostly) finished my first ever piece of N scratchbuilding and first N building (that wasn't just bought)!😁

Yes, its a hut.😶

 

A hut for a fuel pump plus storage of  the attached hoses. Probably needs a ポンプ室  sign and safety notices.

 

Started putting together the first very simple 'scenery plate' diorama to act as scenic focal points. Refuelling area with pump hut, old van bodies and containers for stores, and enough hardstanding to turn and park the fuel truck and a few other vehicles associated with the railway.

[Beaver]

So I was looking for some kind of surface covering to provide sound proofing and a basic green rural terrain.

 

Tried looking for table cloths. Seems like they are not cheap in Japan. Looked at rolls of green paper. Too fragile, and easily degraded by repeated unrolling and rerolling.

 

Then I found some of those odd foam lock together temporary floor covering tiles in a 'grassy' finish. Too shiny and wrong colour but robust and economic. The 'carpet' coating is very short and stiff so can perhaps be painted a rice field colour and have bands of scatter glued on to make the dividers between fields.

 

Overview showing the tiles with joints and the use of the joints to hide wires.

 

Close-up. Quite 'low definition' looking but surprisingly convincingly grasslike. Fixing the 'seam' below the track and buildings is a problem.

Edited October 25, 2018 by Space Beaver

[cteno4]

Interesting find! Nice modular base. Airbrushing might give some interesting results or dry brushing. There are probably some interesting ground foam things you can do. Sacrifice a couple of panels for some Experiments! 

 

really is a decent neutral background to start with! Might look for fabric scraps at the fabric store to play with on top of this. The remanent bins at fabric stores can have the most interesting textures. Brown corduroy might work for plowed fields and glue lines of green ground foammalong the crests. Colored construction paper maynwork as well. Once you plop some structures and scenery patchs this may really fall into the background and be great.

 

Might vacuum well to make sure loose fibers don’t get sucked up, but if stiff fibers then not so much a problem!

 

great find!

 

Cheers

 

jeff

[Beaver]

On 10/26/2018 at 2:16 AM, cteno4 said:

Airbrushing might give some interesting results or dry brushing.

I tried both simple painting and dry brushing, dry brushing worked much better. I have managed to create impressions of different grasses, scrub and rice in summer. Nobody will be convinced at less than 40cm distance but finely detailed foliage does not seem practical in N anyway. Far cry from planting individual blades of grass in G scale!

 

Lately I have been preparing the layout space:

 

 

The estate agents called it a 'loft'. It is a single bed sized space above the kitchen area that is just about high enough to sit in comfortably. I don't own much and it is uncomfortable to sleep in in summer so it was not really being used for anything. Nice and out of the way, no direct sunlight and partitioned off from living area so dust etc stays out.

 

Initially I tried an end to end around the walls. Was not comfortable to sit with back to models. So instead I use one side of the space. A rectangle 310cm by 62cm. I am not fond of deep rectangles because the space for an end to end is too short and circuits tend to have a lot of dead space in the middle with the track looking as if pushed to the edges. This will need some creativity.

 

Have been digging through the confusing world of Kihas recently. Am considering ex JNR 40 series but Kato do not seem to have the cold region version and the Tomix one is expensive. Also considering Tomytec private railway Kihas but the liveries on offer are very specific to particular railways and I am not sure of how practical it is to repaint one.

 

Its worth taking time to get right as I will have only two powered cars, as on this sort of railway you would see no more than two passenger trains in action at once, meeting briefly at a passing station.

[sandiway]

On 10/25/2018 at 6:55 AM, Space Beaver said:

So I was looking for some kind of surface covering to provide sound proofing and a basic green rural terrain.

If you are in Japan, why not use green tatami!

I brought back rolls of tatami from my visits to Osaka, just so I could do this instead of a white surface.

[Beaver]

Thank you for the idea!

 

I already have bought enough tiles to cover the layout space, but thanks for reminding me that portable tatami is available. For some reason I was thinking you could only get it as installed flooring. Should get some to put my futon on so it dosen't need to be hung up to dry every day.

[sandiway]

37 minutes ago, Space Beaver said:

For some reason I was thinking you could only get it as installed flooring.

All tatami shops sell the rolls. See pic.

I got the expensive stuff called Ginpaku 銀白(made of Japanese paper, doesn't change color, etc.).

I special order the widest version (not normally stocked).

 

https://www.tatami-mat.net/PL/ginpaku.html

 

Or you could go real cheap with something from Aeon.

[Beaver]

Thank you!

 

A few more thoughts:

 

Necessary to have brakevans on mineral trains because of the old Hokis? Iwate Development Railway seems to not use them. Chichibu Railway has hopper wagons with guard's compartments but I am not sure if the compartments are actually used. (I would not like to be in the compartment when the wagon is being loaded, dear me no.)

 

Plausible to have a station with old wooden buildings from the steam age? Oigawa Railway has many but it is basically the closest thing Japan has to a preserved railway. JRE Hachiko Line buildings I suspect are modern reproductions as part of its revamp to attract day trippers.

 

Fine to mix Tomix and Kato track everywhere as long as the points at each end of a loop are the same brand so the spacing matches? (I suspect that most of the issues with geometry differences are not significant when using single track.)

Edited November 5, 2018 by Space Beaver

[Beaver]

Decided to review the around the walls idea and I feel a lot better about it. I find a long thin space is good for a model railway. In this case a circular thin space. I appreciate how a circuit lets you relax and watch trains but they always look silly to me. Sitting in the middle solves this by keeping at least half the circuit always hidden behind the viewpoint.

 

The intended trackplan is one set of loops on the right side as the fiddle yard and one passing station on the left. Given the simplistic nature of Japanese railway design, this will also be mostly a set of loops plus a few sidings into the corners. Station will be based on the large Chichibu passing stations with freight holding loops and depot, in order to make operation interesting.

[sandiway]

Are your renting or do you own the place? I was thinking, above all that, you could have a pretty decent Shinkansen double track loop at eye-level when you sit, either suspended from the low ceiling or using bookshelf supports.

[Beaver]

Renting, so no sticking screws in the walls.

 

I'd never thought about that, but yes, there is room for an elevated Shinkansen loop.I have no interest in models of those aeroplanes on rails, but now I come to think of it, some small private railways, even single track and diesel worked, do have elevated sections and even miniature elevated stations.

 

The slope between elevated and ground levels might be an issue though.

[Beaver]

On 10/18/2018 at 1:58 AM, kvp said:

Microace has made some consists, one was afair two kiha-s sandwitching two 2 axle open passenger cars. I don't remember the name or number of the set though.

Found this set recently, very nice but almost ¥20000 for a four car set is too much. I think that instead of actual torroko, some old 15 or 50 series passenger cars with the window areas cut away to give open sides, similar to the old Nostalgic View Train.

 

I thought I had found a good robust and simple solution for freight terminal platforms. Small 'shelves' from the cheapo shop. Seemed all that was needed was to make them concrete coloured.

 

However, they seem slightly too thick. Most pictures I have seen have the platform surface level with the tops of the sleepers or the railhead.

[Beaver]

At this point, I am considering whether to continue with N scale at all. This is the third time that I have tried a scale/gauge smaller than 00, every previous attempt ended in frustration as at bottom I do not really enjoy working with small, fragile, models, fiddly parts and using track power. Nor do I find so much interest in just copying real trains and railways.

 

I did look at Lego trains but the cost seems just as high as if not higher than serious models in N or HO.

 

I am trying to think of a practical way back into large scale narrow gauge protolance since this is always what I have enjoyed by far the most. Maybe scratchbuilt Japanese 2ft 6in local dentetsu in 14mm scale 32mm gauge. Only a handful of trains on plain tracks of course, but perfectly practical. There is a RC car shop literally across the road so the only parts probably needing importing would be wheels, axles, bearings and Code 200 rail. If the stock is built especially to handle tight radii then curves of 2ft-3ft radius should be practical, which is much the same as N.