Nippon Bali

[AhmadKane]

Alright firstoff, thank you for following me through the development of this layout. i'm sending an email to the exhibition guys tonight. I would really appreciate some feedback on the current phase, and perhaps guidance on how to proceed afterwards.

 

Anyway. there is a recent run in with a guy in facebook. He's selling his TOMIX track sets. Old ones, I'm thinking of making a viaduct above some of the track and the city. Presumably have a bridge passing thru the waterfall body. This is for a highspeed extension and a fourth loop in the layout. This is Track Layout C from Tomix, and an old one, seen from the track color and the beams. 

 

Now from what I could gather is that these beams are stackable. Which makes it useful in creating a wholly elevated circuit on top of the layout. But these beams are so rare, let alone in Indonesia.

 

KATO viaduct beams however, are available. The question is, would it be possible to use Unitrack Viaduct piers to support the rails, as well link KATO viaduct tracks into TOMIX viaducts?

 

The idea would be to keep the curves, but add some more straights until the forests. This would add a high speed rail.

 

 

 

[bill937ca]

What radius are his curves?

 

The brick piers are Tomix 3018.    https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10009758

 

The single track is called Tomix Overhead Track and  can be obtained in individual packages.

 

R354-45 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10032046

R243-45 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10032045

S158.5 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10032044

S99 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10032043

R317-45 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029051

R280-45 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029050

S280 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029049

S140 https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10029048

 

To support Tomix overhead track you need Tomix supports, Kato won't work.

 

 

Edited May 24, 2020 by bill937ca

[katoftw]

I would get some concrete piers anyway. Those brick piers dont look correct with concrete viaduct spans.

 

Concrete piers are alot easier to come by.

[AhmadKane]

Update:

 

I got the viaduct line now

 

So to add with the layout. I got a used tomix viaduct line, with some catenaries and a Ganesh made out of actual temple stone. I'll go about the ganesh and the catenaries later. Now as with most viaduct sets, the only thing that I could construct with the current kit is just a circle around the city. It is an interesting way to isolated the town area with a commuter-like route in this line. 

 

The best idea would be to add the truss bridge over the city and have the pillar in the water. It makes it more reasonable to have the truss near the waterfall. The idea would be either a commuter/shinkansen running quickly on the viaduct, or a slow tour train like this one over the waterfall. Which is one of the highlights of the layout. 

 

But back to the loop. Like I said, this is just a circular line. I'm struggling to incorporate the theme into the layout. There are some ideas. First is to hook up this overhead loop with the outer loop that climbs the mountain. The heights of these two masses are similar, and I could try to manage something with it. 

 

Now this is the sketch of the viaduct and the original line. The green mark is an area in which the viaduct would lay on top of the mountain. If I were to link the outer line with this viaduct. I'm going to need to do some kitbashing on the plastic viaduct. Cutting the walls would be a start, and switching the track. Now how to link it, I had some ideas

 

Now my main idea would be to cut the original loop that links into the bridge, and start making a small rail yard/maintenance yard. Maybe another station or industry there? idk. One thing for sure is that the train would loop into the viaduct through a cross turnover or a crossover. And would either spin around the viaduct once before moving on down, or have a turnover that basically has the train loop around the viaduct. Now ideally, these routes are connected. However, as you can see in the scarm file.

 

This is such an enormous task. For one, I'm going to need to find the crossover or the turnover necessary for this. I might decide to have them made by a local guy, he makes turnovers and complex ones for the community, which garnered some attention from abroad too. I might ask him to try and create a turnover system that might be applicable in the loop. This would also mean making another route going down into the bridge, so I might decide to go with it, I might decide against it. I don't know, maybe you guys know what would be the best setup for the small clifftop.

 

The next would be to try having a station that integrates with the bottom one. Since the tracks would meet the stations on a curve point. It would rule out the use of the TKAO viaduct station. The idea would be to use the leftover viaducts, the ones that are absolutely wrecked, and kitbash them into a station. The railings would be cut off and the area will be filled with PVC. Some leftover kits would be used to create a station roof and a building on the side to simulate the escalator or the elevator going unto the platform. 

 

 

So far phase 2 is in the works. I have a couple of used figures and cars coming soon. I'm going to fix up some more paper houses too, and I'll post about fitting the Ganesh into the lake somewhere since I decided against spending 30 quid on a temple when I could spend 3 quid on a stone statue of Ganesha.

 

So here's my update, let me know what you guys think. I really appreciate feedback and some ideas to point out regarding the construction.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Using the inner curve viaduct for the platform base is a good idea. It's logical to use bits and pieces you already have to create this, and it certainly looks neater to have the inner loop closely adjoining the 

 

Just trying to navigate where you want to add the point on the elevated loop. Will it be where the loop crosses the townscape?

[railsquid]

On 5/25/2020 at 8:13 AM, katoftw said:

I would get some concrete piers anyway. Those brick piers dont look correct with concrete viaduct spans.

 

 

Personally I'd just assume the railway company decided it had some perfectly good brick piers it could reuse, like here on the Chuo Line in Tokyo.

 

 

1 hour ago, AhmadKane said:

 

 

Is that a Minitrix British Mk1 coach there?

[AhmadKane]

1 hour ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Using the inner curve viaduct for the platform base is a good idea. It's logical to use bits and pieces you already have to create this, and it certainly looks neater to have the inner loop closely adjoining the 

 

Just trying to navigate where you want to add the point on the elevated loop. Will it be where the loop crosses the townscape?

 

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Your message is cutoff there.

 

4 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

Is that a Minitrix British Mk1 coach there?

 

Specifically an Arnold Rapido MK1 Coach of the old British Railway Blood and Custard Livery. Pulled by an E69 I can't get fixed

[railsquid]

3 minutes ago, AhmadKane said:

Specifically an Arnold Rapido MK1 Coach of the old British Railway Blood and Custard Livery. Pulled by an E69 I can't get fixed

 

Nope, that's BR Western Region chocolate/cream, very likely Minitrix (possibly Lima, but I don't think so).

[AhmadKane]

1 minute ago, railsquid said:

 

Nope, that's BR Western Region chocolate/cream, very likely Minitrix (possibly Lima, but I don't think so).

 

Oh sorry, got it mixed with some Triang Hornby I saw. Yeah that's the chocolate cream. But this isn't minitrix, because Minitrix would always place their mark in the bottom of the passenger car. Old minitrix would have "Minitrix made in west germany" etched in the bottom. This here is not. 

 

Actually to be honest, I don't know what the brand is. The man who sold them is an antiques collector, and packaged this carriage in an Arnold Rapido Box. 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

1 hour ago, AhmadKane said:

 

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean. Your message is cutoff there.

 

 

Apologies, must have got sidetracked with my second paragraph...

 

2 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

Using the inner curve viaduct for the platform base is a good idea. It's logical to use bits and pieces you already have to create this, and it certainly looks neater to have the inner loop closely adjoining the track section.

 

You didn't miss much!

 

That Mark 1 is almost certainly a Minitrix example (the Lima version sat far higher on its bogies. I suspect it may be produced as Hornby Minitrix so may not be branded Minitrix on the base.

[railsquid]

7 hours ago, AhmadKane said:

 

Oh sorry, got it mixed with some Triang Hornby I saw. Yeah that's the chocolate cream. But this isn't minitrix, because Minitrix would always place their mark in the bottom of the passenger car. Old minitrix would have "Minitrix made in west germany" etched in the bottom. This here is not. 

 

Actually to be honest, I don't know what the brand is. The man who sold them is an antiques collector, and packaged this carriage in an Arnold Rapido Box.

 

As Claude_Dreyfus says, it's definitely Minitrix. I have no idea whether it would have a mark on the underside or not (manufacturers are remarkably inconsistent with that kind of thing), but there have only been three [*] manufacturers of British Mark 1 coaches in N scale (Graham Farish, Lima and Minitrix/Hornby Minitrix); Farish models never had the deep reccsssed windows like that, and Lima ones were underscale.

 

[*] four if you count the ancient not-quite N-scale "Lone Star" OOO ones)

[AhmadKane]

15 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

As Claude_Dreyfus says, it's definitely Minitrix. I have no idea whether it would have a mark on the underside or not (manufacturers are remarkably inconsistent with that kind of thing), but there have only been three [*] manufacturers of British Mark 1 coaches in N scale (Graham Farish, Lima and Minitrix/Hornby Minitrix); Farish models never had the deep reccsssed windows like that, and Lima ones were underscale.

 

[*] four if you count the ancient not-quite N-scale "Lone Star" OOO ones)

 

I see.... I suppose these MK1 carriages are common from Hornby Minitrix?

[railsquid]

They are certainly not rare, and can be found quite cheaply on the second hand market.

 

I thought I had one like that somewhere:

 

Minitrix Mk1 BCK (W 21194, chocolate/cream) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

For the record it has "Trix Western Germany" imprinted on the chassis, though a couple of the other ones I have are completely blank.

[roadstar_na6]

5 hours ago, railsquid said:

Western Germany

Which makes them around 30 years old

[railsquid]

3 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

Which makes them around 30 years old

 

More pedantically it means the moulding was produced before ca. 1990 😉 (I think Minitrix British outline products were still being produced in the early 1990s). AFAIK the Mk1 coaches were first produced around 1968.

[roadstar_na6]

Well I guess some manufacturers kept their "Western" in "Made in Western-Germany" for a while longer than 1990. 😄

[Cat]

Moulds aren't cheap!

[AhmadKane]

Just a small update. 

 

I got rid of the Tomix Viaduct. Some guy in the Indonesian community had a V2 coming from Japan via handcarry, and I decided to barter it with him, plus some extra cash. 

 

KATO would be much easier to kitbash and expand since it's easier to find. So I'm going to holdoff making the overhead rail line, but I'm going to brainstorm a bit on the rail yard on top of the mountain concept. 

 

I'm also planning to switch all of the minitrix turnovers with a custom built one, and supply a motor underneath the table. I suppose it would be much better to operate later

[AhmadKane]

I'd like to share a new addition to the team. My mechanic is a bit in a tight spot thanks to this entire pandemic and I've taken the liberty of helping him out a bit. That includes having to transfer some of his arsenal to mine. 

 

 

Henceforth, Not only I've got a D51 rolling now, I've also got some Bachmann Acela carriages with arnold couplers and lighting. Just a couple or rolling vids, if ya don't mind

 

 

Here are some rolling vids

[AhmadKane]

I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO TELL YOU GUYS!!!!

 

Phase 2 of The Nippon Bali Layout is going spiffingly. Forgive the mess in the lake, I'm placing the layout materials there so I won't get a bad back everytime I arch back for a tool. Now I'm sure you see a couple of additions in the layout, and I am running them as I'm typing these along. So let me walk through what I did.

 

(Note: I've not been doing much progress not only because I'm waiting for funds and stock, but also I'm focusing on my thesis too. I need to tend to my lab rats to prepare for the experiment. If it's something you guys are keen on, let me know, and I might run through a couple of things we do in the animal lab)

 

 

Firstoff, I completely did an overhaul on the turnovers and points. Stripped all of them apart and laid them out in another way. I bought a V7 from one of the Indonesian N scale members who sell in the auction market. I have to say the doublecross is such a godsend, and I say it's money well spent for such a precious component in the layout. There has been some length issues, so it is the first time for me to kitbash the tracks I used. Mixing and matching used tracks from sets. There has been a lot of attempts in trial and error

 

I also got a V2 from the same guy. The V2 had problems in the bridge part and some missing components, particularly the 124 Viaducts. So it was a bloody steal and I got it for cheap. It was the old V2 component in which there's still an incline you can't break off the side pillars from the bridge. So since the side pillars of the red bridge is broken, I switched it with the grey bridge I had before. One of the problems was height issues, since the middle loop has an incline, and may crash the bridge, luckily there is clearance.

 

Speaking of clearance, the reason why I took such a shitton amount of time on trial and error on the turnovers was so that I could extend the inner track into the V2. The idea would be to increase the amount of length a train has to go through in the inner part as well as create an entry to the end station. 

 

 

 

As you can see in this picture, this is basically the definition of a near hit clearance. I had to roll my shinkansen stock around this piece of track for a long time in order to get the clearance I needed without severely destroying the V2 laid in the layout. 

 

The Viaduct spin would then end on an express turnover I've placed in the inner circle. The battle for clearance had also mean for me to control how steep the incline without causing engines to struggle or cause a long stock like the shinkansen to be stuck between two tracks. I learnt that the hard way on the outer loop, in which entry from the right to the bridge would more often cause the sinkansen to be stuck in an edge. I'm planning to increase height on the turnover to reduce incline percentage

 

The outer circle had also its alterations. I've recently grown fond of the flextrack. I have to say that with gundam nippers, they are godsends. Using my knife I cut the laid kato track away from the ballast and repositioned a flextrack unto the bridge. The trouble is I can't seem to get the proper radius that lays unto the terrain I molded. So I'm currently propping them up using pushpins and cardboard. I would need to encircle the cardboard using toiletpaper terrain, and then I would start using track pins. Not sure whether it would be best to use track pins or glue unto the terrain. But I figured pins would be better in case I need to reposition later on. One thing for sure, I can't fully test it until I find something that could keep the curve structure in place. So that Nozomi is going to have to wait until construction is finished.

 

From the threeway turnover, I've constructed a fourth route going to an end. I've ditched the tree farm idea and made a small depot. The idea would be for the rice plantation to load up their rice and produce unto the trains. I'm also looking for a small shed to put trains in. It's still a work in progress, but the idea is close. I might have to cut through the paddy field and extend a track there to make it more like a shunt.

 

Last but not least I feel like with the enormous space usage by the V2 and the other components. There isn't much space anymore to create a station. So I'm planning to get rid of those streets and have an end station there. Currently a double platform and my plarail advance platform. Would perhaps decide on using the paper platform. Now I was watching marklinofsweden's videos and figured that I could create a quay station.

 

There will be an attempt to create a box on top of the embankment of the river, and begin the quay there. Much like Clarke Quay in Singapore. So on the KATO platform, there will be an extension in which the station building would be there, and alongside are the commercial buildings on the embankment of the river. Which would extend unto the other side. This would mean less road space for my vehicles but it could create more dynamics. I'm going to have to explore other means to create roads, perhaps I'll look into using ballast to create rough roads.

 

https://www.dreamstime.com/editorial-stock-photo-clarke-quay-old-port-singapore-september-ancient-historical-riverside-located-image77615183

 

So that's my update for Nippon Bali now. It feels crazy that I'm stripping away a lot of things and reinventing more ways. I don't open my SCARM file anymore for this, and I am fully engrossed in designing in chaos. Something that some of you may find distasteful. I'd like to think it's the chaos that makes all of this fun. 

 

So, any feedback? any suggestions? Thank you for reading this far

[AhmadKane]

Couple of thoughts

 

I found some magnorail and the Tomytec Moving bus system. My city isn't exactly the largest. So would it be wise to buy them?

[cteno4]

Moving bus you can do your own roads and put it anywhere. Actually looks better on little used roads so you dont have the issue of the whole buss road having to be clear with no other vehicles or running by a bunch of static cars (only really works if it’s a bus express lane and all the other lanes are jammed in stopped traffic!)

 

you just run a wire under some thin styrene roadway as your guideway. You can do loop backs at the ends and have it travel across the layout.

 

monorail has very large radius and is only a static model (although there are some plans out there to make your own mechanism to run battery powered via rc, but you would need a very large space due to the large radius curves).

 

jeff

[AhmadKane]

Just a couple of running pics. The Deutsche Reichsbahn BR 01.10 by Fleischmann carrying some mail and passenger cars

 

[Martijn Meerts]

The Germans sure knew how to make good looking streamlined steam locomotives 🙂

 

[AhmadKane]

So there has been some progress. Mostly foundational for the viaduct. 

 

On the left I've covered the cardboard supports with tissue and glue. Then painted them with dark nearly volcanic-like mountain texture. I've nailed the flextrack and it's massive improvement. The only problem is that the trains would drop towards the centre due to the force. I might have to make a banking somehow, without ruining the flextrack joining. (Flextrack is annoying to realign after you've cut them out. 

 

I've been experimenting. There are some slowing downs in the middle track and flickering lights. So I've been cleaning every single electric part of the german passenger and baggage wagons. The copper inductors are so annoying in the Fleischmann especially. It still used a small lightbulb over the optic than the Minitrix one. I've also cleaned the track. 

 

Now about track cleaning. I've been looking at alternatives. Track Rubber, IPA or WD-40. I was really interested in using track rubber, but I hear they may scratch and destroy the tracks. IPA has water and I fear it won't be as well (Despite me having a shitton of it in my house). WD-40 is a controversial choice, they say it's going to freeze and gel up the gears and tracks like concrete? That's what I heard about it at least. 

 

I looked at basics. and basics dictate that DC model railway is a simple electrical circuit. So instead I came with a compromise. I think that the WD-40 had some problems with some people because of the silicone and the petroleum. I therefore used the WD-40 Fast Drying Contact Cleaner. No silicone, no petroleum. Sprayed and rubbed using some cloth.

 

I am gearing for criticism from all of you, but I think the fast drying was really beneficial. My passcars aren't flickering and my engines are really happy. So I have that going on. It's still a bit flickering though it never dropped until off.

 

Now the viaduct had some issues. Most notably from the crossing towards the end station and the viaduct entry. Since the viaduct is sloping, there is more or less 5cm between the board to the viaduct. Coupled with the KATO track base, it leaves such a short gap for trains to pass. The solution was to release the pillars from the S joiners and slide it a bit to gain more clearance. 

 

Of course, removing pillars from S Joiners do carry a larger problem. Namely the tracks dipping from the weight of the train. So I had to construct some manmade pillars

 

There is a pillar available for the S joiner between the straight and curve crossing the river. However the gap between the river and the viaduct is too large for the pillar. So I had some gray painted cardboard cut and glued together. Then closed it with cardstock brick texture. I just printed it in B&W. It certainly helped accommodate the weight of the train

 

Due to me needing to slide the pillar in the crossing rails, there are no pillars supporting the S Joiner. So there are some dips. Reducing clearance. So I needed to make some pillars that would work well with the concrete viaduct pillars. 

 

The best inspiration I got was the Readville Station bridge. (Link Below). The bridge was supported by two brick walls that align with the bottom track

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/New_Fairmount_Line_bridge_at_Readville_station%2C_December_2017.JPG/1280px-New_Fairmount_Line_bridge_at_Readville_station%2C_December_2017.JPG

 

 

So I just cut a piece of cardboard, and covered it with the cardstock brick texture. It's a bit difficult to make this a bridge support and not just a brick wall. So I might need to do more research. But this brick texture is helpful in keeping clearance and preventing anymore dips in the viaduct area.

 

I've also begun making the quay wall going unto the end station. Using a used box lid. Cut into scale and taped together. Once then, I printed the grey concrete wall texture for the quay sides. I then printed small sett paving textures from sketchup to make it look like the pathway. It would be enough to make the city look larger after having amputated the road over the bridge. All I need now is to make the other side of the quay. I'm going to need to plan the stairs between the quay walls and have enough space for the buildings. I'm planning to make traditional hawker stalls on these quay walls later on.

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2020 by AhmadKane