Prototype for everything (scenic edition)

[Socimi]

1 hour ago, MeTheSwede said:

I can't remember having seen this anywhere else, but maybe any of our resident experts know more examples and/or can tell us it's purpose?

 

Those wooden slabs are used as temporary "filler" inbetween and around rails in areas where heavy maintainance or construction works are going on. Their purpose is essentially to make easier for maintainance and construction workers to walk around the site without having to worry about tripping on rails, sleepers or fasteners.

I don't have photograpic evidence, but i suspect those are also useful for small excavators and other light construction equipment to move around the site without damaging the tracks.

[katoftw]

Yup as above.  Also used on bridges to create a safe crossing or access for non rail vehicles and rail maintainence workers.

[railsquid]

12 hours ago, MeTheSwede said:

As concrete slab track was mentioned in another thread, I was reminded about this photo of "wooden slab track" I took at Kita-Shinagawa Station.

 

 

 

 When will Tomix release a product for this? 😄

 

I can't remember having seen this anywhere else, but maybe any of our resident experts know more examples

 

Visible anywhere where construction work is going on (e.g. many stations on the Seibu Shinjuku line between Nakai and Iogi); at Kita-Shinagawa that will be related to the "rollercoaster" project to get the Keikyu line into Shinagawa without any level crossings; the line will be raised here.

 

11 hours ago, Socimi said:

 

Those wooden slabs are used as temporary "filler" inbetween and around rails in areas where heavy maintainance or construction works are going on. Their purpose is essentially to make easier for maintainance and construction workers to walk around the site without having to worry about tripping on rails, sleepers or fasteners.

I don't have photograpic evidence, but i suspect those are also useful for small excavators and other light construction equipment to move around the site without damaging the tracks.

 

Yup, als for avoiding damage to the equipment. Sometimes you see the cute little tracked diggers or whatever parked up between the tracks.

 

The other thing you'll see similar to this is where tunnelling is taking place, then the track will be on girder structures (possibly with the wooden infills as well).

[chadbag]

On 1/27/2023 at 7:44 AM, railsquid said:

GDR Trabant in Japan, with British numberplates? Go ahead (though probably not on a public road):

 

 

 

Can you even get 2 stroke oil in Japan any more? 

 

I moved to Germany in 1991 and it was amazing that all the (West) German filling stations had shiny new 2-stroke pre-mixed gasoline dispensers installed...

 

Most interesting thing I saw was in Berlin in Jan 1990.  I went into E Berlin for a day and there was a street with about a dozen Trabants all parked 45 degrees on the street and at the end was a Ford Escort (US model) with US SOF plates and it dwarfed the Trabants...

[railsquid]

On 1/18/2024 at 7:37 AM, chadbag said:

Can you even get 2 stroke oil in Japan any more? 

 

I moved to Germany in 1991 and it was amazing that all the (West) German filling stations had shiny new 2-stroke pre-mixed gasoline dispensers installed...

 

Most interesting thing I saw was in Berlin in Jan 1990.  I went into E Berlin for a day and there was a street with about a dozen Trabants all parked 45 degrees on the street and at the end was a Ford Escort (US model) with US SOF plates and it dwarfed the Trabants...

 

I still remember the street canyons of Altbauwohnungen in the former East Berlin echoing to the sounds of Trabi motors being warmed up...

[railsquid]

7-11 konbini in the car park of a 7-11 konbini?

 

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14343003

[railsquid]

So you have a whole lot of container chassis trailers and want to store them on your layout? No problem.

 

[cteno4]

Wow, I assume it’s a lift system like the car vertical lifts (not the carousel ones).

 

jeff

[Cat]

We're going to need a smaller Gojira figure  — there's a new sherif in town!
https://consequence.net/2024/03/godzilla-tokyo-police-chief/

[MeTheSwede]

Do you think the stairwell in your latest Tomytec building acquisition looks a bit tight?

 

 

Welcome to a bar named "TiGhT" in downtown Shibuya.

 

 

XL sized westerners may want to head somewhere else.

 

[cteno4]

I grew up on boats and ships so no problem, has to shimmy up and down ladder ways like that a lot. Learned to keep my shoulders at a diagonal to the ladder to fit through the ladder way and hatchways.

 

but is good deterrent to someone already drunk coming into your bar! Good selection also if too drunk to make it out you shouldn’t be back on the street. Obnoxious drunks can be just slid out head first…

 

definitely some thing to model.

 

jeff

[railsquid]

 

[cteno4]

But rude peeing in the panda’s mouth!

 

jeff

[Socimi]

Short on Japanese-style signals? No problem, you can use US-style searchlights!

(that is, provided that your route is a small rural line set no later than the 1980s!)

 

http://senrohaisenzu.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/08/24/19800316kabuto03.jpg

 

(Kabuto station on the Kansai Main Line)

 

http://senrohaisenzu.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/04/1980316_a069.html

http://senrohaisenzu.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2020/03/post-aa5f9d.html

 

 

Apparently a few stations in Hokkaido were also fitted with searchlights as well...

Checking some sources, seems that the first searchlight-type signals were installed in 1936 on the Ou Main Line, and the last ones were removed from Kamitokoro station on the now-closed Hokkaido Chikoku Kogen Railway in November 1995.

[bill937ca]

A Lawson in the view of Mt. Fuji.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/26/fujikawaguchiko-town-japan-block-mount-fuji-view-overcrowding

[brill27mcb]

"Oh, yes, the Lawson's that has a Mount Fuji . . . "

 

😀

 

Rich K.

[bill937ca]

From Japanese Facebook. Don't know the explanation for this one.  In the background a distress alarm is going off. Not recommended parking!

 

 

[Tony Galiani]

Here is the new improved Trabant which I am sure would be permitted in Japan and just about anywhere else for that matter.  In fact, if I had seen this first, I am sure I would have gotten it for my wife instead of her current hybrid.  Not sure how many miles per wind-up it gets though ....

Tschuess,

Tony

[Tony Galiani]

And one more.

[cteno4]

My old earth science in jr high school (like 73’) has a mini cooper and had made a windup key like that and it was on a low geared motor to slowly rotate it. Cracked everyone up all the time, he got lots of honks, whoops and laughs! He had to only put it on now and then it got so much attention. Wish I still had a picture of it.
 

He was a very creative guy, he built a whole flight simulator from scratch (circa 1970s electronics) for his classroom as well as a very functional remote controlled R2D2 from electric car door locks, window motors and windshield wipers and a car 12v battery. He would bring it to public fairs and events and run it around for an hour to greatly entertain the public just for fun to get folks interesting in tinkering. I was already a tinkerer by the time I met him, but he really stoked the fire in me.

 

jeff

 

[Cat]

For the folks who are fortunate enough to be wealthy in the old Tomytec trucks, the Kei Truck Garden Contest would make a superb mini-module!
 
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/06/japanese-mini-truck-gardens/

[cteno4]

Ooooh very fun. Yes I have a small pile of kei trucks from a friend’s layout, maybe I need to try a few and have a little contest going on. Could be part of the dekotora truck meet I want to make. Only issues is at scale it will be hard to make the gardens look much different as they will be like 7mm x 12mm.

 

jeff

[Cat]

Plenty of variety of garden plants to choose from for easy distinctions: kerria bush (yellow roses), andromeda bush (white or pink flowers), young bamboo, low flower beds, mossy rocks, tiny koi canal edging...

[cteno4]

Yes but all fit in 7mmx12mm! Like working in T scale. I can see it will be placing individual tiny bits of ground foam on one at a time.

 

jeff

[Cat]

Ayup.  That's why we have grip-to-release tweezers.
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