z gauge Hakuho

[kevsmiththai]

Some more pics.

 

 

 

 

The show is now a week away and I'm starting to get a little panicky! I'm on leave next week so need to do the lighting rig and fascia board and once they are done knock up a flightcase to take the supports, the lighting unit and the three bolt on boards.

 

After the last show of the last season my trusty rolling toolbox finally gave up the ghost and started to disintegrate. I think it was mainly plastic fatigue so to the tip it went, a veteran of about sixty shows in total so it didn't owe me anything. So I started to look for a replacement a couple of weeks ago and blow me the exact same thing is still for sale on the internet, just moulded in yellow rather than red. it is just the right size to stand behind the passenger seat in the X-trail with the seat pulled forward. Once I've put all the stuff in it I'll post a pic.

 

Tomorrow is going to be more testing as I suspect I've got a couple of things fouling the railheads as you can see the wagons kick a bit when they go over. The 3D brass Deki 500 is also jerking a bit and it looks as if the steps are catching the Marklin point motors so I'm going to shorten them a bit and run it at the show unpainted jst to show people what you can get these days. Hopefully the Corona virus isn't going to impact the exhibition (fingers crossed) but me and the lads will be going to go into Macclesfield in the evenings to some of the many real ale pubs in the town to get some pints of 'Medicine'!

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

Like most countries in the world the U.K is in the grip of the Corona virus panic. It was touch and go whether the Macclesfield show would go ahead but following a statement by the Prime Minister and a risk assessment by the organisers and the school it was decided at Five O'clock the day before that we were good to go.

 

One trade stand did not turn up but otherwise we were all there. Setting up the layout was easy and the hard work ofr getting the second flight case completed paid off as getting everything into the hall was really quick. It holds the scenic extension boards, Control panel and contoller, Lighting rig and some of the mans leads. it has two wheels at one end and a handle at the other end and you just pull it along one handed.

 

 

As I was going to do some extensive testing I took all my Z scale Japanese stock which meant three stock boxes, two of the wooden ones and one of the alumnium ones

 

 

During the show these sit on the flight case the baseboard transports in which when empty acts as the stock table

 

The new rolling toolbox looks very bright!

 

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

So not everything got completed. Ang did not have time to hem up the curtains so I had to resort to using thumb tacks to hold them up. They will have Velcro patches stitched on to them for future shows.

 

 

The layout sits on two folding steel trestles which are quite heavy but very stable and the lighting rig cantilevers off the back of the layout to give the public an uninterrupted view

 

 

once set up on Friday afternoon a quick test showed all the sections were working and the track was given a good clean. One of the DD51s was then tried over every section. Saturday was going to be the real test and i decided to do the shakedown tests with the diesels and electrics and introuduce the steam locos on Sunday. The container train, a mix of Rukuhan and PRM Loco KOKIs ran perfectly on the outer track and I had one of the Hokutosei DD51s and its matching coaches on the inner track in one siding and the KIHA 52 in the other. So the public saw them first. on the outer track the middle siding had the DE10 and a rake of coal hoppers, These kept uncoupling at the same piece of track and running my finger along the railhead revealed a lump under the bridge which turned out to be a solder track feed joint sticking up. Some quick work with a needle file before we opened on Sunday sorted that after which the hoppers ran around quite happliy behinf the C57 4-6-2 all day.

 

The third siding on the outer track has the C11 2-6-4T and a couple of Tenshodo coaches  and this little train ran perfectly . The coaches seemed to curb some of the waggle the loco has when running by itself.

 

 

There are still a couple of issues to resolve. The D51 2-8-2s seem to keep derailing their leading trucks on the Marklin points and I think they are fouling somewhere and I'll do what I did when I had a similar problem on Shasta. Film them with the HD camcoder and then watch it in slow motion to find the problem!

 

Video part 6 of the layout in action at

 

 

[kevsmiththai]

The show did have a drop in attendance compared to previous years obviously but was still quite well attended. There was another Japanese layout there in N scale called Hironocho displayed by a member of the Japanese railway society

 

 

Sadly it looks as if all future shows have bitten the dust for now. I was supposed to have Republic Steel at Sheffield and Maryport shows but both of these are off. The big shows London, York and Bristol etc are all looking very vulnerable as well as these have thousands of visitors.

 

I'll keep you posted

 

I'd sent the article  and pictures about the layout to Contintal modeller magazine and they have snapped it up so expect to see it in there soon

 

next thing will be to get the scenery at the back further on so I'll keep updating this thread as I go along

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

Just heard the the big Quorn show at the Great Central railway in June has now bit the dust. 

 

Seems a good time to getting round to finishing my 1nM C56 that I started in 2007!

 

gauge 1 running on 0 gauge track it is one of the C56s taken to Thailand to run on the SRT. It has the modified cab roof applied to many of the Thai C56s.Constrcuted in Nickel Silver, steel and brass with cast iron wheels turned from castings

 

 

I'll start a seperate thread on it once I get stuck in

 

Kev

[Sheffie]

Nice work! I’m glad it all went so well. 

 

It seems strange watching all the familiar Japanese containers and having to remind myself that they’re Z gauge. 

[MichiK]

Thank you for the nice video, Kevin! Very enjoyable, though the look of a C57 towing SeKis is a bit strange. Yet, utterly understandable, when the D51s are on strike...

 

Your C56 is a beauty, too!

[kevsmiththai]

So had a pleasant suprise yesterday when a package came from Peco Publications, Inside was  the January edition of Continental Modeller Magazine in which the 'layout of the month' was Hakuho!!

 

 

Sadly not on the front cover but eight pages in total so quite a result

 

 

Must get on with finishing the back area now

 

Kev

[Cat]

¡Wahoo!
 
Went to the Peco website to order a copy, but they're not showing any issues of CM after August 2020.  Sent them a note on Facebook through the Railway Modeller page, hope I can sort this out; usually we pick up an issue or two each year for articles of interest.

[kevsmiththai]

hi Cat

 

It won't be in the U.K bookshops until tomorrow probably. Contributors and subscribers get it a few days early usually

 

Kev

 

[ranger10178]

I'll have to check the WHSmiths at work today, if not after the Christmas break!

[Cat]

23 hours ago, kevsmiththai said:

hi Cat

 

It won't be in the U.K bookshops until tomorrow probably. Contributors and subscribers get it a few days early usually

 

Kev

 

I'm in the US, so I order direct from Peco Publications; but they stopped listing any single issues of CM back after August this year.  They keep listing new issues of Railway Modeller, so I can't figure out what's up with them.

[Tony Galiani]

I subscribe to CM but have not received my December issue yet.  It's later than usual and no idea when I will get the January 2021 issue.  Sometimes they arrive quickly but sometimes it takes a month or more.  With the way things are going right now, I am thinking it will be awhile before I get either issue.  As a subscriber, I can also look at the online version so may do that to see the article.

Cheers,

Tony Galiani

 

[Drunkenclam]

I only get CM when there is a Japanese layout in it. 😄 Thanks for the heads up

 

[kevsmiththai]

The exhibition scene in the U.K is now fully back up and running post pandemic. By this summer Hakuho should have done at least ten shows but they all got cancelled

 anyway, back in August it came out of the flight case for the show organised by Leyland Model railway club. 

 

Brooklyn had his first 'stopping in a hotel' show experience and loved it. He concentrated really hard all show and ran the layout very well

 

A couple of weeks later we were called in at the last minute to take it to Carnforth show as one of the pre-booked layouts had to scratch due to health issues.

 

 

It ran perfectly all weekend

So the big question is what to do with the back of the layout? I've changed my mind at least three times now so I've cleared all the exisitng track and work and am starting again

 

 

The layout is already picking bookings up for 2023 so I had better get cracking!

 

More soon

 

Kev

 

 

[cteno4]

Kev,

 

great work! Brooklyn enthusiasm is great, wonderful experience for him.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[kevsmiththai]

So the plan is to model the 'SL Railroad Park Hakuho' a rail museum with an extensive collection of historical Japanese Rolling stock on display with a mainline connection to run excusrion trains out onto the main line

 

So with the area now clear of track the main line connection was put in, the other end of the Forestry track comes out of the abandoned tunnel and the display tracks added

 

 

The low relief museum hall entrance was scratchbuilt. The running shed will be the Cab Forward shed formerly used on my Dunsmuir module on the Shasta layout

 

More soon

 

Kev

 

 

[kevsmiththai]

I decided to take the opportunity to finally fit the 'Push to make' switches for the point motors and so started to carefully drill the additional holes in the panel top with a cone cut drill. With two holes to go there was a crack and the panel split into three pieces. probably putting a little too much pressure on.

 

Any it wasn't salvageable so I had to make a new one using the original as a template

 

 

Same technique as before with the track diagram colours matching the colour of the feed wire to the baseboard

 

 

More soon

 

Kev

 

[kevsmiththai]

I had a bit of an epiphany the other day when i rembered there was a cool railroad museum featured in an episode of Train Cruise on NHK world which I had recorded 

 

The Otaru museum was just the sort of thing I have in mind, They have an interesting mix of exhibits including some early steam

 

looks like Stonysmiths 4-4-0 has a new lease of life

 

avaiable on shapeways 3D printed it is one of the best 3D miniatures we have ever seen,. The wheels revolve, the trucks swivel, The coupling and conneting rods move. All printed in situ. The woodburner is straight out of the box. The coal burner started out the same until four AZL GP7s pulling 3 meters of coal hoppers collided with it (My Mistake) there was only going to be one loser! Hence the plain smokestack and some tender repairs I have hidden quite well

 

 

 

early draft of some signs for the museum grounds, The random parenthesis has been elimnated now

 

comments welcome on this!

 

kev

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Should be good, you can never have too much steam on your layout 😄

 

[kevsmiththai]

It has got a bit warmer outside after the big freeze so I can get a bit more done.

 

Much of the ground cover has been added and I have started to arrange the exhibitis to see what works. The C57 under the canopy is a resin one I picked up a while ago. The series 0 Shinkansen is the Atlas editions one. The 485 is Plus Z

 

 

The visitors just park on the street. On the right hand side is the picnic area

 

 

The streetcar is from Stonysmith on Shapeways sat on a shorty chassis. The Kiha 40 is the Platz one (Beautiful runner). I have been extending the paved area in front of the running shed this morning. The entrance to the disused tunnel has had a chain link and barbed wire fence put across the entrance

 

I wanted a coach to go with the early locos and came across this

 

 

Amost identcal to the Marklin early USA coach 

 

More soon

 

 

[JR 500系]

I like the idea of the front car museum display near the yard, i almost reminds me of Japan immediately!

[kevsmiththai]

The donor coach was a Marklin Clerestory

 

 

Quick repaint but I'm going to lose the clunky couplers. I've got some 1mm red alphabet decals from the old SMS range but I'll have to see if they are still any good

 

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

So I've added some more semaphore signals and telegraph poles. The picnic area needs something like an ice cream stall.

 

 

Looking over the roofs of Hakuho town

 

 

Surrounded by workshop clutter ready for boxing up for the show. After this weeked I'll make the rear photo extension board and photograph ot for the magazine.

 

 

all the point motors are wired up now and I've done some repairs round the front (The footbridge got damaged) and added a few figures around the station

 

More soon

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

Kendal Model railway club 60th anniversary show.

I went the night before to set up. Didn't get time to revarnish the waterfall and stream but everything else was done. Did some basic testing with a diesel railcar and headed home.

Saturday morning, set Brooklyn off putting all the Road vehicles out and setting up the container trains while I checked all the running lines and pointwork again. Damm! section G, the longer siding on the inner circuit wouldn't isolate. Checked inside the control paneln Nuttin there, Checked the big tag strip under the baseboard, nothing feeding it there either Hmmmmm.Split the D plug that goes into the panel, Nope.. Left a Platz railcar moving slow while I turned each section off until it powered down. The outer platform line in the station as feeding the volts in These two sections are nowhere near each other in any way. Any way we worked around it for the morning by using it for the railcar and lifting it off when not needed.

Around 11.00 the fire bells went off. Brooklyn was in the lift going up to the floor above and started pressing buttons just in case but after 90 seconds they went off again

30 minutes later they went off again and kept on going so the entire building was evacuated. The exhibitors, traders and public assembled out in the car park. God it was freezing! and because all the doors were left open the temperature in the hall dropped like a stone.

When we were allowed back in we started running again and, Guess what?, Section G had cleared itself and was working normally again. Spooky

 

 

 

It was a really busy show and we picked uup some invites for future exhibitions including two for 'Kiriibyama' which I've only just really started but the show organisers trust me to bring something good 

 

Kev