JNS/N-scale Newbie - Day Zero

[DanielMackay]

I've spent $0 dollars on N-scale or JNS, but that's where my hobby time and dollars are about to go as I transition from 1:700 scale naval modeling.

 

An intentionally wide-open question for you all: given your own years in the hobby, what would you have done differently if you were to start all over? 

 

What decisions would you have made differently from the perspective of where you are now? Preferred brands, new vs. used, essentials vs. luxury items, layout design - all fair game.

[kvp]

First, welcome here! Imho it all depends on what you like to do in N scale. Some people like diorama construction, some realistic operations, some just like to watch the trains run and there are collectors too. Most modellers are a bit of everything. First you have to find out what you like and what you want to do, then it gets much easier to find information or get advice from others. At least this is the first advice that i like to give to anyone starting rail modelling in any scale.

 

[Welshbloke]

Tbh starting with the right set still isn't a bad plan. See what's out there. Buying the transformer/controller domestically makes sense as you know it'll have the right input voltage. Kato and Tomix track use different power connectors and can only be joined with adapter track pieces, so picking one and sticking to it isn't a bad idea. Both offer what's essentially a train set minus the train, so if none of their complete sets appeal there's an alternative.

 

Look up HobbySearch, ModelTrainPlus and Amazon Marketplace as well as eBay, between those you'll find most things.

 

If you plan to buy a named train which is split over multiple packs then make sure you can get all of the packs, and buy them ASAP. Japanese N tends to be made in batches and, once sold out, may not be made again in that format. Beware of sets which want you to go hunting for individual vehicles to complete them, sometimes these are long out of stock and won't reappear for ages.

[cteno4]

Daniel, 

 

big questions there! But good to ask when starting out.

 

i guess one big things when getting into model trains is to figure out what sort of playing with them you want to do. Folks tend to get knotted up a lot in the layout planning step and many times after finally deciding and getting going they find it’s not what the actually like andnthis can delay, waste and stall things out. This is why I am a huge fan of getting a pile of the Kato or Tomix track and just playing with it on a table or temporary bench and trying different things out. Kato and Tomix track resells very well on ebay so you can get quite a bit out of extra stuff if you don’t use it later and I’ve found it’s always handy to have around down the road anyway. Also important to look at what you like doing with the trains in relation to the space you have. 

 

with temp track setups you can start buying structures you figure you would probably end up using (luckily the Tomytec and sankei structures are decent price and well detailed so not hard to do over time) and plunking them down. Colored construction paper is a great way to start thinking scenery ideas and makes the temp layout fun and perceived scenery going. Also making little bits of scenery on pieces of stryene or cardboard like they do in wargaming is a great way to both practice doing scenery techniques but also to make a really nice temp layout. It also makes great “scenery swatches” to use when thinking about what technique can be used where and you can always glue them down on a permanent layout and fare into the rest of the scenery. It’s a great way to play with scenery like you can do with the sectional track for the track layout design. Great article on this here:

 

https://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/tempoary.html

 

if you are more into doing scenery than running trains a lot then you might think of sectional layout where you can set it up in small size in limited space but make more modules eventually to expand if you can in a new space for short bits in a temporary space. Sectional or modular can also let you swap out modules on a small layout to change things up when you get bored. Modular runs on a standard where track is set at specific places on most or all modules, like Ttrak. Upside is you can move things around and meet up with others at shows, downside is it tends to give more boring layout and can not give optimal and varied track and scene designs. Sectional is more coming up with an interesting track and scene plan and chopping it up into smaller modules, but track is not at standard places on each module. Usually in sectionals you can find expansion places where you can slip in a new module later to expand. Downside of this is it takes both track and scene planning to break layout into sections and also expand scenes with expansion modules.

 

My experience with a couple hundred trains is all the Japanese manufacturers do very good equipment. Each has their pluses and minuses and specialties but I would not say I would only go with one brand. I go to the brand that has what I want most. Most times an older train is only made by one company and usuaally the smaller brands like microace or greenmax and is a bit more expensive. Something more popular many times both Tomix and Kato make them and then it’s fine things like details or features like all wheel pickup with power connecting couplers or such that may make the decision. But all and all I’ve had only a few models I was ever disappointed in from Japanese companies and it’s been across all brands. So it’s hard to go really wrong! Bang for the buck is great as well.

 

Keep asking more more specific questions as you focus in here.

 

my best recommendation is to get a train and some track and start playing though. Mock things up with wadded paper for hills and cardboard boxes for buildings to mess around it really helps focus things for you. Doing too much in your head or onnthe computer can get you into loops or into corners that when done in reality are not where your really enjoy.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Sascha]

One thing I would do different is to chose a region I want to collect the Trains from and stick to it. Now I have trains from all over Japan, but decided to do Tokyo only. Its not too bad,  because Japan really has some beautiful trains,but I would have been about 15 Trains closer to my goal.

[Welshbloke]

One other thought, check the minimum radius for trains you like the look of. Kato sell their starter track sets and train sets with 315mm curves, which will accommodate any of their N models. The Swiss RhB stock and the little Japanese KuMoHa 11/12 EMUs they released a while ago will handle 150mm radius, which can make for a good desk layout, but in general curves that tight will severely limit your choice of stock.

 

Try searching for Japanese trains on YouTube and see if anything grabs you, there are even videos of the old JNR days which have been digitised and uploaded. Searching loco types or multiple unit series will usually work, although finding and copying the Japanese character for "series" will produce more useful search results in the latter case.

[chadbag]

Why do you want to do N scale trains?  Answer that question and the other questions, and maybe answers, will flow from that initial question and answer.  

[toc36]

Dan,

 

Here are my thoughts of what I would have done differently:

 

1.  A simple oval on your kitchen table is a GREAT start.  I fell into the planning trap.  I was constantly planning my ultimate layout and lost over a year when I could have been learning modeling  skills and enjoying running trains.  Expand the layout, add switches, etc.  

 

2.  Don't know you age or life circumstances.  But T-Trak is a great start if you want a tiny bit more permanence for your track and scenery, but don't have the room or you are still in a more mobile life style.  Jeff/cteno4 has numerous posts on building a module layout that you can move as your circumstances dictate.

 

3.  A little blasphemy here.  For a quick start, this is the kit I would buy:  https://www.modeltrainplus.net/products/kato-10-025-starter-set-special-rhatische-bahn-rhb-abe8-12-allegra-3-car-set .  Like Welshbloke said, it was designed to run on 150mm/6" radius turns.  You can build your layout in a tight area.  Also, this train looks good coming and going.  

 

4.  Don't get locked into building a double track layout.  There are other ways to simultaneously run two trains.

 

5.  If you are forced to start small, Modemo is a good brand to look at for street cars that can run on tight radii's.

 

6.  For  now, keep it simple.  Simple yards, flat designs, basic kits.  Learn new skills and best practices.  

 

7.  Join a club.  

 

8.  There is a lot of great stuff on You Tube.

 

Hope you have a blast!! 

Edited October 24, 2018 by toc36
spelling

[Kiran]

Welcome and this is a great place to be. I am fairly new to the hobby and folks here have been extremely patient and helpful.

 

One fine April afternoon, a friend and I were walking along Ginza and he told me that there is model train store. We walked in to Tenshodo and that got me hooked. I got myself a Tomix starter set and a 500 series Shinkansen. Now I have a bunch of trains and track from both Tomix and Kato. That April afternoon though, I knew nothing about model trains or N scale. So just relied on the recommendation of the sales folks at the store.

 

After trying various things for 6 months, I would have definitely done things differently.

 

Firstly, I would have started with Kato Unitrack instead of Tomix Finetrack. Kato is great for beginners. Most of it just works out of the box. The turn outs and things are easier to install and run. Most importantly, you can buy Kato track pieces in the US. Unless you have some way of bringing over stuff from Japan, you will pay quite a bit for shipping. You can sometimes find Kato track pieces in your local train store (if you have one). In the US, I have begun using modeltrainstuff.com or even just amazon.com. Tomix Finetrack is great and it has a lot of potential for advanced modeling but can be a challenge for beginners. Also, you can't just go pickup a few pieces for your temporary layout from the train store. I have had instances when I have a layout in mind only to discover that I don't have enough pieces.

[Ochanomizu]

Hello,

 

I'm over $60,000 into Japanese N scale hobby.  Here is what I would have done differently:

 

1.  Set a budget, say, all in $5,000;

2. Plan a layout that can run 3 or 4 trains at once in analog;

3. Stick with analog and avoid DCC;

4. Stick to my budget;

5. Plan a layout no bigger than 8' x 4', divided into 4' x 2' sections that fit neatly on the back seat of a car and in the trunk;

6. Plan a layout that has a variety of features, say, twice-around loop to run express and shinkansen, a single loop or branch line for local trains, a branch in the hills with several switchbacks like Hakone, a yard, couple of stations, small town, farm, and forest;

7. Stick to my budget;

8. Pick a region in Japan to model.  Probably Kyushu or Hakone / Fuji / Enoshima area;

9. Purchase no more than 5 or 6 train sets, each no longer than 6-8 cars;

10. Stick to my budget.

 

[nah00]

9 hours ago, Ochanomizu said:

Hello,

 

I'm over $60,000 into Japanese N scale hobby.  Here is what I would have done differently:

 

1.  Set a budget, say, all in $5,000;

4. Stick to my budget;

7. Stick to my budget;

10. Stick to my budget.

 

What is this 'budget' thing that you speak of?

 

First off, welcome to the hobby! I would say a little research on the different regions and eras of Japanese railroads can go a long way. Then again there's nobody saying you can't mix them, it's entirely up to you but you down the road you might want to narrow your focus. Also my biggest piece of advice is set something up so you can get trains running as soon as possible. A lot of layouts get stuck in the design process and never go anywhere and there's nothing more frustrating then having rolling stock you can't run because you're trying to get the perfect track plan. 

 

Regarding track I'd say stick with Kato or Tomix. They take a lot of frustration out of tracklaying which can be a major obstacle when you're starting out. Tomix is more expensive (in the States, you have to import it) but has a much greater range of track pieces to work with. Also even though you can mock up track plans on a computer always try to put it together to see what it actually looks like, you may find what looked like a great idea on paper is in practice not so great. 

 

And finally (this is just more general model railroading advice) make the investment in good tools to help you work on your layout, rolling stock and structures. It can greatly improve the quality of your finished work. Also patience, patience and more patience is the most valuable tool and won't cost you a dime but will save you a lot of frustration and money.

[Beaver]

What I should have done differently? Advice based on that hindsight? Ok, well:

 

First, not going and impulse buying things because you think you like them. I spent too much on a bundle of EMUs because they looked cool and I ride on some of the real ones a lot. It took not long for me to get bored stiff with the lot of them and hate to even look at the things. I had never even thought about why I wanted them. It was a lot of money wasted with the low resale value but still worth having them gone.

 

Best thing to do once you find something that looks good is to wait a bit and look at other things, come back to it later and then you can perhaps be honest with yourself as to whether it is what you really want. (This also helps with staying in budget). Fortunately, basic track and scenic items are rather generic and can be a part of most any project, its the trains that need careful selection.

 

Second: being more wary of second hand and less allergic to buying new. Second hand can be a false economy for a variety of reasons, including:

 

- May actually be more expensive if the seller thinks they can get away with it.

 

- May be in poor condition requiring skills one does not have, parts etc which can add up to the same price as new, or simply beyond repair. It may not be easy to judge condition just by looking.

 

I would suggest establishing the core of your project with new items and then as you start to establish a focus and direction, cautiously begin to add second hand things for elements of your project that will cause fewer problems if they don't work out, such as scenery, an unimportant small train on the sidelines, etc.

 

Third: avoiding concentrating early spending on too few or too narrow a range of things. There is little joy in owning a long and impressive train without the track to run it on or a station for it to stop at. Far better to have a short train, short track, small station and then have them grow bigger together over time. Two short trains may be more fun than one long one and a few extra turnouts give you more things to do with them than just adding more straight track to the main line.

 

Fourth: if and when reaching the happy  situation of being sure what you like, not giving in to the urge to change because of what others are doing or what seems to be the norm or vogue. It is a hobby and for fun so should not matter how conservative, obscure or outright weird your preferences are.

 

I know almost exactly what I like in model railways and was happy doing that sort of thing for years , but when I began doing Japanese outline I seemed to find myself at odds with what everyone else seemed to be doing so went off on a complete tangent from my previous work only to wind up with a hobby that was everything a hobby should not be. In the end I found a way to square my preferences with the accepted norms and and get to something that suited me, but only after a lot of unnecessary budgetary and emotional strain.

 

I hope the above is not too personal. Sorry.

[cteno4]

Ohhh the dirty budget word! This is a personal thing on how you budget for your hobbies. There is a bit of a collector edge on trains though so Ochanamizu is wise to warn that the investment in trains (and other pieces) can sneak up on you with time. Since Japanese trains tend to be made in runs that sell out in weeks to months a lot of the time it can get you into that I have to buy it now if I want it when a train comes out mentality along with reserving products 6-12 months before they are released and with the little plastic card in your pocket can add up to trouble!

 

how many trains depends on the permutation if your interests, is it the trains, running them, the scenes, the process, your budget, are you a collector type, etc. it’s personal.

 

what you collect and how you do your layout with it being regional, stylized, era based, fantasy, etc is highly personal as well and something you need to look inward to see what you really enjoy as it’s your layout, time, money and life and that should be based on your joys not others. Some collect and model a very specific region and or time, others collect just what they like. We have one club member that only buys trains he has ridden! His large layout goes from Kyoto, to philly to Zurich! He really loves it as he has traveled extensively by train in Europe and japan and grew up riding the interurbans in philly, but others would scream blasphemy for those worlds to intersect like that! 

 

The model train community can have some strong views on various bits and gets expressed strongly on line and even in person, but it should always be taken with the large lump of salt that it’s your layout, not theirs, do what you enjoy! Listening to what others enjoy and why is good but in the end you should decide for yourself what’s good for you.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Welshbloke]

Forgot to mention that too. Before buying anything 2nd hand with missing or broken parts make sure you can get spares. Kato and Tomix seem prone to releasing spares with the initial release of the model and not restocking, which isn't terribly helpful if you're trying to repair one years later.

 

What's especially maddening is knowing that the odd parts you need are probably lurking in the junk corner of a shop in Akiba for a few hundred Yen, but won't be listed on ebay as the price is too low to be worth the effort.

[DanielMackay]

Thank you kindly all for these initial replies, which, although varied, represent a diversity of experience and opinion which I look forward to spending time with. I will be replying with more detail on how I've come to this hobby and some initial responses and follow-up questions. 

 

Manny thanks!

[DanielMackay]

No track yet, but first trainset purchased: Tomix J. R. Series 0-7000 Sanyo Shinkansen in a 6-car set, via HobbySearch.

 

As a child, a photograph of this train in National Geographic captured my full attention; it was my introduction to Japanese technology and transportation engineering.

 

in conjunction, i’ve been organizing my basement and evaluating just what space is available for a layout. Additionally, thinking about layout concepts and thinking I have three priorities: an extended distance of high speed track for Shinkansen operations, with a secondary line for freight operations (and multi-track staging area behind backdrop) and two focused scenes on each end of this general dogbone design: a high density city scene focused on multi-modal passenger station operations and a coastal port scene on the opposite end.) Ultimately, three separate vignettes, interconnected.

 

I don’t anticipate I am going to focus on realistic  operations or any one time period, or even a restrictive geography. I think my initial aspiration is to run trains on a length and distance of track and setting that shows them off well.

Edited November 9, 2018 by DanielMackay

[serotta1972]

I think there’s a thread where many of us first Japanese Train is the 0 Series Shinkansen and I predict this will be one of many. 😀

[cteno4]

Daniel,

 

great the first train! Good way to start by just doing something fun and general. As you do stuff you may find you want to specialize in some way or you may be happy with the initial approach! That’s kinda of my approach for the last 20 years. Important thing is get something running and start playing! Don’t overthink it at the get go or it can be hard to get rolling.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Ochanomizu]

Hello,

 

Specialising in a region or two give you an excuse NOT to buy all the other beautiful models the manufacturers release !!!

[DanielMackay]

On 11/1/2018 at 3:18 PM, DanielMackay said:

No track yet, but first trainset purchased: Tomix J. R. Series 0-7000 Sanyo Shinkansen in a 6-car set, via HobbySearch.

 

Time for some track and power. HobbySearxh has a special on Kato’s EF210 Container Train Starter Set, so that’s now on order. And a JR Limited Express Series 485 Hatsukari 10-car set may make its way into the shipment as well.