What length of trains do you run on your layout/How big is your station?

[David]

Due to the difference in length between shinkansen and regular commuter trains I worded this as the length of the station rather then the number of cars. Use your own judgement in picking the option that best describes the size of trains you run.

 

Unlike modeling North America, which is freight centric, with passenger centric Japan we get some stiff control over just how big a train can realistically run on our layout - a passenger train that can't fit in the station is "too big" for regular use (that doesn't preclude running your 16 car m250 around and showing off though, I hope the person I'm directing this at knows who they are).

 

Myself I'm in the process of going from a limit of about 4 commuter cars (wee station with immediate turns on both ends), to a new station (992mm) that will be able to handle a 7 car commuter train (Relay Tsubame 787) or a 6 car shinkansen (Tsubame Shinkansen 800).

 

So what length of (passenger) train do you feel confortable running on your layout? Do you buy complete sets (i.e. 10 or 16 car) even if you don't have the space to run them on your home layout? Do you shorten long trainsets to non-prototypical configuration in order to make them fit? Does anyone prefer running 1-3 car (i.e. light rail/rural) trains instead of the longer trainsets?

 

Edit: I guess sizes would be a bit different if you run one of the mini-Shinkansen like a 400 or E3, since these are restricted to the same 20m maximum length as commuter trains

[Kabutoni]

Rural 1-4 car diesel trains. Some locomotive hauled and some freight trains which are longer then the passenger trains. I have room for longer trains, but I don't wanna

[grumbeast]

with my new plan (still working on it) I'm aiming on  max of 8 car Shinkansen (I'm using the 700 series as the maximum standard).

The layout is about 11' x 8' with a central operating area and the double track mainline will do a twice around, so a decently length run.  I might get some pics or video of a temporary setup later today if the missus lets me have a little time to myself (wife, daughter and female cat!.. there should be laws protecting a man's train-time that's defined by the number of women he lives with :)

 

G

[marknewton]

David, I prefer short trains, since they are characteristic of the private railways that appeal to me most. Come to think of it, most of them ran single trains when required, even better! 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Martijn Meerts]

A bit of everything in my case. Tokyo Station will be able to handle full length shinkansen in its full-length version, and 8-car shinkansen in its shortened version. The stations on my Ghibli modules will only be able to hand a 2-car railbus. Other modules/stations will be anything in between ;)

[Krackel Hopper]

hey hey,

 

Great topic.. this is something I've been mulling over for a while now.  The layout I'm working on (which will be my first permanent layout) is only 600mm x 1200mm.  This has my station limited to a 400mm platform.  Realistically I can only fit 2 (maybe 3) cars at this station.  So I've been spending a lot of time trying to track down unique rural 2/3 car sets (many of which seem to be limited runs that are very hard to find).

 

I still plan on collecting/running big train sets.  Mostly with the hopes of one day having a big layout to run them on.  In the meantime I have a Kato V11 set to run them on the floor of the living room.

 

My rational on buying the full train is that I would be extremely frustrated if I purchased the starter set because that is all I could run on my layout.. and a few years later when I have a bigger layout, I find out the add-on has been discontinued and is impossible to find.  Best get the whole set while you can..

 

Jon

[Kabutoni]

Great topic.. this is something I've been mulling over for a while now.  The layout I'm working on (which will be my first permanent layout) is only 600mm x 1200mm.  This has my station limited to a 400mm platform.  Realistically I can only fit 2 (maybe 3) cars at this station.  So I've been spending a lot of time trying to track down unique rural 2/3 car sets (many of which seem to be limited runs that are very hard to find).

 

Hey Jon, maybe here are some interesting plans for you: http://homepage3.nifty.com/syomonai/sekitan/plan.htm That is if you're interested in doing more then just a simple oval. ;)

[David]

Wow, a lot of people running short trains.

 

Does that mean there is someone out there who actually runs Tomix's 3 car shinkansen sets without the expansion sets (I support the concept of making trainsets more affordable by splitting up the larger ones, but at 3 cars you're selling the absolute minimum that can actually move unless Tomix starts putting the motor in one of the cab cars).

[disturbman]

I'll be runing 6 cars trains on my floor layout but my real layout will be able to accomodate up to three cars sets or six cars B-trains.

[Bernard]

Great Poll!

I would love to run the full Shinkansen 16 car but it takes up so much space on the layout. (Some of the video posted here on a 16 set are impressive)

After finishing my main station I'm able to fit in an 8 car train comfortable any more and we not in the station any more. 

[nik_n_dad]

If Nik had his way, we'd be running trains with 200 cars  ;-)

 

The layout we are building is a folded loop or twice-around to be able to accomodate totally non-prototypical & crazy-length trains.

[David]

If Nik had his way, we'd be running trains with 200 cars   ;-)

 

The layout we are building is a folded loop or twice-around to be able to accomodate totally non-prototypical & crazy-length trains.

 

Longest I've seen is a 135 car coal train at a show (there is a video of it on YouTube). While it's certainly doable on a club sized layout, think for a second how much the rolling stock alone on a 135 car train cost...

[CaptOblivious]

I'm like Krackel Hopper: I buy full-length trains (I very nearly lost the chance to buy an extension once, now I am dedicated to always getting them all at once), but I don't have room (right now) to run them. So I run shortened versions, maybe 4 or 5 cars total.

[to2leo]

With 3 Kato elevated station sets for 4 platforms, I am able to fit a full set of TGV, ICE and Shinkansen E3.

 

The 12 car Shinkansen 700T, Southern Pacific Daylight and the Orient Express is another story.

[disturbman]

With 3 Kato elevated station sets for 4 platforms, I am able to fit a full set of TGV, ICE and Shinkansen E3.

 

That's not really a full set. A full set of TGV is 20 to 24 cars long (depending of the version it's 400 to 470m long) and I think a complete ICE is around 14 cars long (around 400m). The same as a complete Shinkansen. 

[to2leo]

Yikes don't tell me that because now I am tempted to buy the TGV full-full set!  :confused2:

Tam tam has it for 30000 yen... :happy2:

[bc6]

Since I dont have the luxury of a permanent layout and a small space Im stuck with running an 8 car maximum train set. I actually like running 8 cars since the set up time is less than setting up a 16 car set. I usually like to run multiple trains, Series 700, Dr. Yellow, Super view ect together. Im currently debating if I should get a Series 700 set because of my space restrictions, since it looks like 16 car sets are the norm.

[bill937ca]

One station accommodates four, perhaps five cars and I usually run 4 car trains.  The other station is a tight four car, more realistically three cars on the platform.  I run trains up to seven cars on the layout.

[bill937ca]

hey hey,

 

Great topic.. this is something I've been mulling over for a while now.  The layout I'm working on (which will be my first permanent layout) is only 600mm x 1200mm.  This has my station limited to a 400mm platform.  Realistically I can only fit 2 (maybe 3) cars at this station.  So I've been spending a lot of time trying to track down unique rural 2/3 car sets (many of which seem to be limited runs that are very hard to find).

 

 

Jon

 

Have you seen this?

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10003439

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10003542

[disturbman]

Yikes don't tell me that because now I am tempted to buy the TGV full-full set!   :confused2:

 

Don't worry, they do too run in 10 or 12 cars consists on some destinations or certain time of the day.

[David]

Since I dont have the luxury of a permanent layout and a small space Im stuck with running an 8 car maximum train set. I actually like running 8 cars since the set up time is less than setting up a 16 car set. I usually like to run multiple trains, Series 700, Dr. Yellow, Super view ect together. Im currently debating if I should get a Series 700 set because of my space restrictions, since it looks like 16 car sets are the norm.

 

There are 2 700 variants that run in an 8 car configuration. The one that currently runs is JR West's Hikari Rail Star (700-7000 series) - it stands out from the regular 700 types due to the gray and yellow paint scheme. However only Tomix ever made it and it is not currently in production:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10037671

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10037672

 

There is a B Shorty version of the Hikari Rail Star, and it's one of the few shorty sets available as an A and B set - you get the full 8 car train without buying extra packages:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10082550

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10082552

 

The other variant is the upcoming N700-7000 series, which is an order from JR West/JR Kyushu, for when the Kyushu Shinkansen line is completed (right now there is the gap in the line where the Relay Tsubame runs). It will be an 8 car variant that removes the tilting present in other N700 series.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JRW_N700-7000series_S1.jpg

[Guest ___]

3 car is the longest I can accommodate due to both my track plan as well as the Tomytec stations I am using. Since I am modeling rural Kyushu, three cars is good. I do have a JR Kyushu class 412 that is four cars, but it only runs in a 3 car configuration.

[bc6]

Since I dont have the luxury of a permanent layout and a small space Im stuck with running an 8 car maximum train set. I actually like running 8 cars since the set up time is less than setting up a 16 car set. I usually like to run multiple trains, Series 700, Dr. Yellow, Super view ect together. Im currently debating if I should get a Series 700 set because of my space restrictions, since it looks like 16 car sets are the norm.

 

There are 2 700 variants that run in an 8 car configuration. The one that currently runs is JR West's Hikari Rail Star (700-7000 series) - it stands out from the regular 700 types due to the gray and yellow paint scheme. However only Tomix ever made it and it is not currently in production:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10037671

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10037672

 

There is a B Shorty version of the Hikari Rail Star, and it's one of the few shorty sets available as an A and B set - you get the full 8 car train without buying extra packages:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10082550

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10082552

 

The other variant is the upcoming N700-7000 series, which is an order from JR West/JR Kyushu, for when the Kyushu Shinkansen line is completed (right now there is the gap in the line where the Relay Tsubame runs). It will be an 8 car variant that removes the tilting present in other N700 series.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JRW_N700-7000series_S1.jpg

 

Thanks David, thats a lot of useful information.

[Nozomi]

My current layout has no stations or better said no platforms and buildings (I tend to imagine the stations...) . But that should change in the future. My biggest concern is the shinkansen yard. At the moment the yard manages one 16 car set and another four 12 car sets and eight 8 car sets. My trouble is that I don't have a lot of free time to play around with my trains and therefore I like my trains to be on track at all times.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Currently our through platforms can hold up to a 9-carriage set, with the three bays able to accomodate 8, 5 and 5 respectively. The basis of the platforms was originally to hold a full UK HST set, eight carriages with a power car at each end. The length disparity is mainly down to the coupling gaps being far wider on the UK stock than the Japanese, as well as the two power cars being much shorter.

 

The trick we employ for the through platforms, which I do recommend, is only to portray part of the platform. We have a section of town-scape which covers the platforms at one end thereby enabling much longer trains to service the station without the over-hang.

 

Incidently running trains too long for the platform is quite common in the UK. I often work in London, and the train I take is twelve carriages long, either a lash-up of 3 four-cars, or 4 three-cars. Most of our stations have shorter platforms, my local one can accomodate eight and the next station up the line was until very recently only able to accomodate four!