I dont know how you guys do it!!

[Jimbo]

Have buildings finally, I don't know how you guys work with the small wires!!   what a pain! That will teach me to want to light them up lol,,,   Also got some new cars, Kato twight express, (4 add-ons)couplers are car mounted not on the trucks,,  ok now what???   cant seem to find anything on the net,, An also are the Tomix  decals, transfers water base??   It sucks no one in the U S has anything,    Any thoughts??   Thanks

[cteno4]

Lighting buildings does take a lot of work to do well and hide things and make it look realistic and not just glow!

 

not a big market for Japanese trains in the us. A few of the larger hobby shops like mb Klein (modeltrainstuff.com) at times brings over some Kato trains, but they generally don’t sell really well and they usually have a sale like 12 months later to clear out what’s left. Tomix does have a distribution deal with Walters, but it’s pretty spotty what they brought over and it’s close to double the price by the time your lhs orders it. 

 

Really easy to order directly from shops in japan and most have outstanding service.

 

The Kato cars are using body mounted couplers. You can get one of these for your loco hauling this to connect to it. I think the pocket may be on the car truck

s to mount a rapidos in if you want to keep rapidos on the engine.

 

most of the tomix are peel off pressure stickers. A few are dry runoff transfers. I don’t think any of the Tomix are waterslide.

 

jeff

[Kamome]

Hey Jimbo

 

The Twilight Express add on set from Kato has close linking couplers which connect to the rest of the consist. These are standard on their 24 series coaches. These don’t allow to be coupled to a loco.

 

If you have the base set, the front and rear cars have interchangeable couplers, either rapido or knuckle to couple to the loco. 

 

If you plan on getting the base set, leave the couplers alone. Alternatively you may be able to get some coupler mounts (that Kato use on front and rear coaches) or you’ll have to make some permanent modifications.

[Jimbo]

when I got mine it was just two cars an the power unit  ,Tomix,,,,,   I found some add on cars in JP  lol the wait killed me,!! they are  Kato,     Thanks for the info!!

[cteno4]

Ahh one of the problems Kato and Tomix couplers on sets like this do not always mate. Best to keepmsets like this to one manufacturer to not have to deal with these issues potentially.

 

jeff

[Welshbloke]

You can fit Kato knuckle couplers into the Rapido pockets on Tomix cars and vice-versa, that might help.

 

I have the Tomix Twilight Express set which is very lovely but a bit more involved than the Kato model. If you want body mounted couplers you have to buy multiple boxes of the right Tomix part, and also source the knuckle couplers for the loco as Tomix are apparently too cheap to include a few Yen worth of extra parts. The latter part can be the difficult one as they don't list the part number for the loco couplers in the instructions...

[Jimbo]

its a learning curve for sure!!   Thanks

[Jimbo]

that was a lesion learned  for sure!!  

[Jimbo]

Well TOMIX decals are water base!!   put them on my two trucks,    an then found out I put them on upside down!! oh my so goes it lol,, An for the above info so very right TOMIX an Kato do not mix!! so  I ordered some different rail cars, TOMIX so instead of having the twilight express   I will now have blue passenger cars,, Plaza Japan  must think I'm crazy!!!!    Oh well  lesion learned,, I've  had to re wire my buildings,   but want to use stick on leds for the over head station for better lighting, hopefully they work an give me what I'm looking for??  hopefully they work seeing how I ordered some

[Jimbo]

On ‎3‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 8:24 PM, cteno4 said:

Ahh one of the problems Kato and Tomix couplers on sets like this do not always mate. Best to keepmsets like this to one manufacturer to not have to deal with these issues potentially.

 

jeff

Boy you got that right!   Oh well my mistake, Just ordered some TOMIX cars

[Welshbloke]

If you want to complete your Tomix Twilight Express then look for 92460 and 92461, those are the additional packs to make the full train. The cases have enough extra space for the EF81 and two starter set coaches, plus a pair of blue DD51s (which hauled the train on Hokkaido, away from electrified lines). The restaurant car has functional table lamps and you get an alternative truck frame to fit a Rapido to the other end car.

 

The blue stock gets alternately frustrating and fascinating if you don't buy train packs. I have two incomplete formations here, the Hokutosei minus the four car basic set and half of the combined Fuji/Hayabusa in 14/15 Series form. I did at least manage to finish the Asakaze last year, having started from a Tomix 92332 pack over a decade ago.

[Jimbo]

Welshbloke TOMIX 98638 Limited Express Sleeping Train, Its 7 cars, set,    I just found out by searching  that the last car on the train is a power car!! well supply's power to the rail cars of the train!!  (in real life) didn't know that,, lol learned something today   but I would have thought they would run the power car behind the engine not at the back??    I have two mixed freight set ups an from what I've watched they don't really do in Japan,  They seem to be all tank cars or container cars or goods cars, lol dare to be different I guess,,  All this on a 4 by 8 table,,

[katoftw]

The power car is sometimes the first car as the train goes both directions.

[Welshbloke]

Yep, known as a KaNi in Japanese car designations. Rather than pass power from the loco to the train for hotel services they used a diesel generator.

 

Some earlier stock like the 14/15 Series had the generator under the floor of end cars, which presumably ensured that nobody got any sleep. These were discontinued for safety reasons after at least one fire, which does make you wonder who thought putting sleeping passengers above a noisy generator and a big tank of inflammable diesel was a good plan in the first place.

 

 

[Jimbo]

50 minutes ago, Welshbloke said:

Yep, known as a KaNi in Japanese car designations. Rather than pass power from the loco to the train for hotel services they used a diesel generator.

 

Some earlier stock like the 14/15 Series had the generator under the floor of end cars, which presumably ensured that nobody got any sleep. These were discontinued for safety reasons after at least one fire, which does make you wonder who thought putting sleeping passengers above a noisy generator and a big tank of inflammable diesel was a good plan in the first place.

 

 

Kind of makes one wonder now doesn't it!!

[Jimbo]

2 hours ago, katoftw said:

The power car is sometimes the first car as the train goes both directions.

so it could be a lead car or a tail car depending on direction,,, ok makes sense to me

[Kamome]

Yes, there’s a generator car at one end in most cases. I think some of the older 12 or 14 series coaches didn’t use generator cars but had generators underneath the SuHaFu ends. Probably delightful to sleep on those train with that rumbling underneath you all night.

 

Some formations had a SuHa 24-300 lounge car which had pantographs to pick up power from the overhead wires. These were usually in the middle of the train somewhere.

[Kiha66]

The 12/14 series were actually a huge improvement over the earlier classes.  The distribution of generator power throughout multiple cars reduced costs and headache as trains could be made and broken up without having to move separate generator cars around.  They reduced costs as extra non-revenue cars could be removed and the railroad would save on both maintenance of the extra cars as well as the lighter trains requiring less fuel to pull.  It also increased reliability as a single faulty generator wouldn't mean the whole train is without power.    

The generators are also much quieter than you might think, remember JNR had been building DMUs for many years and had a lot of experience with under mounted engines.  Once the doors closed I'm sure people had little issue sleeping.

 

[cteno4]

It’s amazing how fast you will also get use to a constant noise like a generator. I’ve spent a lot of time on ships and boats and folks swear up and down the engine, generator or ventilator hum will drive them nuts and they are snoring in 10 minutes (but that will keep you up!) 

 

jeff

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

For the sleeping car trains, , when one arrives at its destination, they're not going to shunt the power car from one end to the other, especially as it has an illuminated head board at one end, so would require turning as well.

For these train, there must always be an headboard  (tailboard) at the rear end, headboards are a big thing with Japanese railways.

So, the train is left as it is, and a loco goes onto the other end for the return journey.

The whole train could be turned on a wye or triangle, but that's a bit time consuming, so it's just a loco swap.

So, from the model point of view, the train can be run with the power car either behind the loco or at the rear, in one case it's going Tokyo-Osaka, the other case it's Osaka-Tokyo.

This also applies to such trains as 'Casiopiea', 'Twilight Exp.' and the like.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

 

 

[Yavianice]

It's also included in the schematics of the original packaging. 

 

Power car never moves, only the loco's do. And they affix the headboard to whatever is in the front.

 

Talking about the Cassiopeia power car, when did they even use it? I only know of its existence because Tomix produces it.

[Socimi]

Most JR named sleeper trains are treated like fixed-compostition coach rakes, essentially un-powered MUs, as there is little to no need to change the composition of the intermediate coaches.

 

[chadbag]

On 4/4/2019 at 8:15 PM, cteno4 said:

It’s amazing how fast you will also get use to a constant noise like a generator. I’ve spent a lot of time on ships and boats and folks swear up and down the engine, generator or ventilator hum will drive them nuts and they are snoring in 10 minutes (but that will keep you up!) 

 

 

On a ship/ferry, the engine noise is the least of your problems.  Unless you are a sturdy sailor type, the rocking and pitching will keep you awake a lot more than the constant background noise of the engine.

 

My experience on an overnight ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki was one I do not want to repeat.

 

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

On most of the sleeping car sets, the  tailboards were integral with  the car ends. and were illuminated, with adjustable roll type signs for various trains.

Some model sleeper trains  and limited expresses have similar roll type tailboards and for the ltd. exps, head boards, that can be adjusted from below by means of a tiny screwdriver , supplied with the car set.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.