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Kato Unitram City Layout


Tonytramman

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Tonytramman

view from the bus depot/Garage, actually that's a good point. I work in the bus industry in London and they are known as Garages. with a code N for instance is Norwood.

Whats the situation in Japan?

Trams are housed in depots in the UK and car barns I believe is the terminology in the US..

kt3.jpg

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Drivers will tell you car house. I should know. I'm surrounded by them. New Orleans uses station for its car houses.

Edited by bill937ca
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Tonytramman

Very nice, I'm a fan of Boston's streetcars since I read an article on modelling them some years ago in a magazine. I have a video somewhere lots of PCC's and Boeing, kinky and type7's i think 

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I grew up with the PCCs on the MTA's Green Line, they were awesome.  The wheels would squeal something wicked taking the sharp corners, and it was always a good challenge trying to balance standing up without holding on when they took those 90º turns!  There's still one sitting on an unused track at Boylston St. Station:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inbound_platform_at_Boylston_station,_August_2018.JPG

A century ago, all the exurbs and suburbs around the city were criss-crossed with a ton of trolley lines, and every town had their own car barn.

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I haven't ridden any of the lines in Boston for like 35 years...

 

This tram layout is pretty cool.  Trams are an interesting thing.   I have one KATO Centram or something like that but have only test run it.  Watching this inspires me to eventually get something set up it can run on.

 

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Tonytramman

thanks, appreciate it. yes they are fun and you can get away with a lot of things you can't with  heavy rail scenarios which is also a big plus! The Kato Centram is what got me interested in the Japanese trams to be honest, I didn't know much about Japanese trams/ trains until I got the starter set, then looked up some stuff on youtube and got a couple of books as you do.

Like I said the Boston trams I have been interested in for some years so was aware of them.

 

 

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Tonytramman

Seems a shame not to use these platform bases so I’m thinking a scratch built station might be in order as it was the original plan .. 

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Tonytramman

Been improvising a traverser out of piece of unitram track also cut down two road pieces to fit a larger depot in...C62E72B4-15D8-4356-9EA6-0544F1902D06.thumb.jpeg.33b58b9a8ac123d90ebdaf2b443faeb5.jpeg

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Nice! Simple and effective!
 

Two strips of copper tape or strip Nickel silver (off ebay) hooked to the feeder track and two strips on the bottom of the track section to wipe on them will get you track power on/off the transfer table.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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To move it, I’ve seen more long threaded shaft units that have stepper motors attached on ebay (I think for dyi printers) or you can usually find one in an old printer if you can salvage one. There are cheap stepper motor driver  boards you can then Get on ebay that have a pot on them to control speed.
 

usually transfer tables have 2 or more rails they ride on wheels under the table. When I was a kid I cheated and made one from a low girder bridge and just let it slide along the rails with 2 u tracks under the table (wheels were too fiddly to fit under it and the u channels kept the table very perpendicular to the rails) that I had my pickup contact strips in the bottom of the U to transfer track power from the pit rails to the track on the table.

 

then had a slot in the middle of the pit and a finger on the bottom of the table that went thru the slot and connected to a bolt that was on a piece of threaded rod that was just below the slot and powered by an old 12v geared down motor I ripped out some junk appliance (I grew up right next to a metal scrap yard so I was constantly tearing stuff apart for parts and materials!). I hid the slot a lot by putting some square stock on either side along with some thin fuzzy weather stripping so you didn’t see a complete hole down the slot. Worked well, I just hooked the motor up to an old cheapo atlas transformer to change direction and set speed. I got very good at hitting the spots by eyeball on the first shot! I messed with doing indexing, but finally decided it wasnt worth the work to replace my eyeball and lots of other projects to do!

 

jeff

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Tonytramman

thanks Jeff, certainly some things to think about. the threaded rod idea is one I've been thinking about as I have a a London transport OO depot layout that need one too! I think i'm becoming obsessed with them.

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Tonytramman

Kato road plates are very easy to cut, just used a stanley knife 2 mins, ended up cutting 3 in the end. 

kt6.jpg

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rare footage caught tram watching today of peak hour crossing in use 

Edited by Tonytramman
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Busy depot, managed to get on the roof of nearby block to get a picture 

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Edited by Tonytramman
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