My take on a UK style presevation line in Japan

[TimWay4]

So I've had this idea, and I really quite like it so I've decided to build it. Based on the research I've done and asking other members, it seems like Japan doesn't really have Heritage/Preservation lines to the same degree or in the same way that we have in the UK, so my Idea is to make up my idea of what one might look like if they did. So a lot of my design is in my head because I'm not super artistic and I don't want to spend a lot of time mocking it up. 

 

My trains to start with are likely to be C11's with a coach or two depending on length, if there is the space (i haven't checked yet) maybe a support diesel, if there isn't I might make a space to have a support diesel sat in a shed somewhere so it could be used if necessary. I'm hoping to make some areas to have some static exhibts, but I'll see how I do with space for those as running trains are the priority. 

 

I've bought a bunch of modular baseboards from https://www.scalemodelscenery.co.uk/ so all my boards are the same size, I have 6 modules (at the moment) to build this on, it has to be modules as I don't have the space for a full permanent layout at home and this way it'll be easier to take with me, should I want to take it out places. The layout will be an end to end layout with a station at either end. Beyond the stations, I have a couple of features I'd like, but it all comes down to space as the boards are only 370mm x 207mm.

 

Features I'd like:

2 stations

1 Level crossing (possibly the Kato Automated one but we'll see)

1 Turning wye (I'm not sure how realistic this is in the space given)

 

On Friday last week, I acquired a small local line station and platforms as well as the boards I need to get started, I've already ordered another platform to make both sides the same length and I have a footbridge to build. I've attached images of two different station placements, I hope you enjoy 🙂 Also the layout currently doesn't have a name and I'm open to suggestions on that. 

[Kiha66]

Looks like a fun project!  the kato rural station is a really nice set.  While it is true Japan doesn't have heritage railways like the US or UK, the private Ōigawa Railway is probably the closest equivalent in terms of operations and facilities.  You may be able to find inspiration for your line from them.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ōigawa_Railway_Ōigawa_Main_Line

[katoftw]

What is a Heritage/preservation railway?

[Kiha66]

11 minutes ago, katoftw said:

What is a Heritage/preservation railway?

 

From wikipedia "A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) in the history of rail transport."  

Generally this also has the connotation the line is run as a museum operated by volunteers, rather than a for profit enterprise.  

[gavino200]

I really like this idea. It allows you to run classic trains without having to make everything all "old-timey". Very clever!

[bill937ca]

There also are miniature railways which are narrow gauge railways often built for mining operations.  There is a Britain's Great Little Railways (BGLR) website. 

 

https://www.bglr.org/

 

https://www.bglr.org/category/bure-valley-railway/

 

For standard gauge, The Severn Valley Railway is an example.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Valley_Railway

 

https://www.svr.co.uk/

 

Edited April 20, 2021 by bill937ca

[Kamome]

My father is a volunteer at the Mid Hants Railway, also known as the Watercress Line. It’s relatively short compared to others in the UK, only 10 miles, but they do have a good range of steam and diesel stock.  Regular trains no longer use that stretch of track so it is classed as a heritage railway. There is a connection to the regular railway at one end though. 

 

These organisations run on very tight budgets. Mid hants make most of their money by having Thomas the Tank Engine days, which they own the locomotive for, or leasing TTE out to other preserved lines.  One other big expense is the maintenance of locomotives as well as the coke needed to run them. I believe most comes from China but the cost has risen considerably in the last few years. 

 

Mid Hants do goods train (freight/cargo) days for photographers to get some shots of steam engines hauling wagons.  Boxing Day usually has a 40s event with lots of people dressed up in period costumes. 

[TimWay4]

8 hours ago, Kamome said:

My father is a volunteer at the Mid Hants Railway, also known as the Watercress Line. It’s relatively short compared to others in the UK, only 10 miles, but they do have a good range of steam and diesel stock.  Regular trains no longer use that stretch of track so it is classed as a heritage railway. There is a connection to the regular railway at one end though. 

 

These organisations run on very tight budgets. Mid hants make most of their money by having Thomas the Tank Engine days, which they own the locomotive for, or leasing TTE out to other preserved lines.  One other big expense is the maintenance of locomotives as well as the coke needed to run them. I believe most comes from China but the cost has risen considerably in the last few years. 

 

Mid Hants do goods train (freight/cargo) days for photographers to get some shots of steam engines hauling wagons.  Boxing Day usually has a 40s event with lots of people dressed up in period costumes. 

That's amazing, the Watercress line is about a 20 minute train ride from me and is a fantastic day out but yes for those that don't know, the UK has many Steam and old diesel locos that are kept in working order and ran on lines away from the Mainline (with the exception of a few which are certified for mainline running), though as mentioned above some line the Watercress line do have a link to the mainline. They usually keep a small rotation of locos on hand so they have a few to choose from but they lend them to each other as well. As @Kiha66 mentioned, the Ōigawa railway is the closest I'm aware of that Japan has.  

 

In modelling terms, they are a decent reason to run a variety of steam/Old diesel together because the preservation/heritage lines aren't that fussed about mixing regions. A lot of them do have some form of Thomas the Tank, which to be fair I have the Oigawa model on Order so I'll be using that on this layout. As @Kamomementioned they also tend to keep freight as well, so I'll be doing the same with this as I have a selection of freight so it'll be easy for me to do Japanese Freight days to do something different with 🙂 

[TimWay4]

I spent some time over the weekend in my hobby room. I built up a couple more boards and some other bits and pieces and started to dry fit it on the board to see how it all looks. So far I'm really pleased with the look I've gotten. There are plenty of little accessory bits to add on to the station, I might see if I can print off some little posters/adverts to stick onto the bridge that'll link the two platforms. Anyway I took a couple of pictures, including some before I started building of a C11 sitting at the platform. I need to paint the board (probably gray) and find out the conbini building I have and start making the rest of the board look pretty before I start gluing things down and moving onto the second board. 

 

One of the things I wanted was a turning wye, mostly because it'd be easier than having a turntable, but I'f I'm honest I don't think I have space for either, so I may have to use runaround tracks and just have the trains run forwards on one journey and backwards on the other journey, which is acceptable if not what I had originally envisiged. 

[TimWay4]

Progress recently has stalled, but today I've ordered a bunch of different people so they should arrive in the not too distant future. 

My next steps are to:

Try and add the details to the train station

File the middle of the crossing down so it sits flush against the track

Paint the board brown

Put some flock down 

Work out what the fudge I'm going to do with the space at the front of the board

 

I'm hoping to get into the Hobby room this weekend if I can get some motivation together. I think for the space at the front of the board I may want some greenery and then some paving probably as the boards are a bit narrow there isn't a lot of room to fill which is handy.

[Kamome]

Can you not use single wooden tie straights and then the crossing would fit into the gap? That would mean not having to butcher your crossing if you decided to use it elsewhere in future. The space between tracks could have some storm drainage or other track related adornments.

 

I do like that new rural station. It is annoying that the platform pieces still have a sort of rounded edge which leaves a very visible gap between sections. It was the same on the older one. 

[TimWay4]

You raise a great point the @Kamome when I get a moment I might have a look at other options, though I'm not sure what they would be/look like. I may just sacrifice the crossing, it shouldn't be too big a deal.

 

I love the rural station and if I push them together the gap almost disappears, but it would have benefitted from a bit more thought going into it to make it look and fit nicer. 

[TimWay4]

I'd almost forgotten I'd made this thread and was about to start another 😛 

 

I've still been making (very) slow progress on what is tentatively being called the "Yuzu heritage line" to kind of have a take on the Watercress Line mentioned above, at some point I'll try and find a decent translation of it at some point. I went through a few boxes of my scenics stuff and found some Tomix buildings which I've now built and will be looking to place, I've also started to add the detailing to the platforms, but I found out that some of it needs holes drilled/made in the platforms before it can be attached properly so that's gone on hold until I can bring myself to do it. 

 

I've attached a couple of pictures showing what I've done. I've also gotten a few packs of people so that I can populate the platforms when ready. This weekend I'm planning on finding out some blue paint and starting to paint the back scene, then I can start priniting images to stick to the backscene as I can't find a backscene that gives me the right feeling. Once the backscene and detailling is done I'll probably start gluing down some kind of grass and I have some ballast that I was planning on using to make a path, along the front I still might shuffle things around as I don't know if I want the shops next to each other or seperated (i think that's the next picture I'll probably take actually) I'll see how both look. 

 

The Oigawa Thomas in the picture is actually a kit and not the Tomix one, but I did buy the Tomix one and it arrived recently, it'll probably be ran on this when it's all finished. 

[TimWay4]

Very nearly didn't motivate myself enough to get anything done this weekend, but then on Sunday had a burst of enthusiasm and managed to go and paint the back board of my layout, the wood is quite absorbant so I ended up giving the board several coats of paint, but I feel like it looks much better than the blank piece of wood, now I just need to print some pictures off to glue on to the back, then I can finally (I think) start gluing things down. I still need to sort out how I'm going to power it and I'll need to drill holes for that too, but theres a few questions around that I need to answer. 

 

I also remembered to put the buildings next to each other to see how I felt about that, and I'll be honest I'm not sure how I feel about them being like that. 

 

 

[railsquid]

"Buildings squashed together close enough to touch" is normal in Japan, particularly around a station, if that's what you mean.

[TimWay4]

4 hours ago, railsquid said:

"Buildings squashed together close enough to touch" is normal in Japan, particularly around a station, if that's what you mean.

Yeah, that's basically what I mean, I'm actually wondering if it's wroth trimming the bases they stand on to actually get them closer, or just butting the bases up against each other and putting some alleyway dressing in the gap for example a bike or something, as that also kind of feels like something you'd see 

[cteno4]

If you took around on Google streetview you’ll see everything under the sun stashed in those little gaps between building!

 

jeff

[Drunkenclam]

Google street view is a great help, But it also show how many of the buildings are simliar in shape and colour.

If you got an alley way. Then stick a vending machien in it 😄

 

oh. We brought my father a footplate experience on the Watercress Line a few years ago.

[JR East]

7 hours ago, cteno4 said:

.... little gaps between building!

 

jeff

 

 

Is that to prevent side-effects of earthquakes ? 

 

JM

[TimWay4]

2 hours ago, Drunkenclam said:

Google street view is a great help, But it also show how many of the buildings are simliar in shape and colour.

If you got an alley way. Then stick a vending machien in it 😄

 

oh. We brought my father a footplate experience on the Watercress Line a few years ago.

I should actually get some vending machines to put on the modules, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. As for street view I should start using it and stop trying to use my memory which I openly admit is awful lol. If anyone has any good recommendations of places to look for alleyway dressing or store fronts I'd love to hear those. I think as well as getting some vending machines I also need to get some bottle crates and air con units to populate things with from what little my memory remembers 🙂 

 

I've done a footplate experience there myself a few years ago, it was such a wonderful experience, I hope your father enjoyed his too 🙂 I can also recommend the Sunday lunch train experiences too, I did one of those with my partner a while back and we both loved it. 

[railsquid]

24 minutes ago, TimWay4 said:

I should actually get some vending machines to put on the modules, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. As for street view I should start using it and stop trying to use my memory which I openly admit is awful lol. If anyone has any good recommendations of places to look for alleyway dressing or store fronts I'd love to hear those. I think as well as getting some vending machines I also need to get some bottle crates and air con units to populate things with from what little my memory remembers 🙂

 

Try having a poke round the historical district of Kawagoe, e.g. here: https://goo.gl/maps/2DgbrcvpSZanDhnY8

or the more contemporary shopping district: https://goo.gl/maps/PEMejRnUJ6XnYKQw9

Edited October 26, 2021 by railsquid

[TokyoImperialPalace]

There is one thing that I would add. Often tourist recreations in heritage projects are built with separate buildings and space inbetween the buildings, but the original would be terraced especially in a city.

[cteno4]

8 hours ago, JR East said:

Is that to prevent side-effects of earthquakes ? 

 

JM

good question may be. Would prevent taking your neighbor down.

 

 I always figured it was because work may be needed to be done to one of the buildings and needed the access. Elsewise you have row houses with them all connected. I would guess with shorter term building life in japan that you would not want to share a wall or build off of an adjoining building wall. But fewer landuse codes in japan probably have little in easements so you can go right up to the property line many places to maximize the land use.

 

@railsquid may have some more thoughts on this.

 

jeff

[Drunkenclam]

10 hours ago, TimWay4 said:

I should actually get some vending machines to put on the modules, I don't know why I hadn't thought of that. As for street view I should start using it and stop trying to use my memory which I openly admit is awful lol. If anyone has any good recommendations of places to look for alleyway dressing or store fronts I'd love to hear those. I think as well as getting some vending machines I also need to get some bottle crates and air con units to populate things with from what little my memory remembers 🙂 

 

I've done a footplate experience there myself a few years ago, it was such a wonderful experience, I hope your father enjoyed his too 🙂 I can also recommend the Sunday lunch train experiences too, I did one of those with my partner a while back and we both loved it. 

 

Its the RAT Train I really want to do. But Mrs Clam never gave me permission 😄

 

I'll let the non locals try and work that one out 😄

 

[railsquid]

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

good question may be. Would prevent taking your neighbor down.

 

 I always figured it was because work may be needed to be done to one of the buildings and needed the access. Elsewise you have row houses with them all connected. I would guess with shorter term building life in japan that you would not want to share a wall or build off of an adjoining building wall. But fewer landuse codes in japan probably have little in easements so you can go right up to the property line many places to maximize the land use.

 

@railsquid may have some more thoughts on this.

 

 

Actual different structures on adjacent plots in different ownership being conjoined (e.g. terraced housing) or built with literally no gap (like older European-style apartment buildings) basically doesn't happen in Japan - I'm sure there might be exceptions but I don't recall any. The only thing which springs to mind is the 1872-ish Ginza reconstruction. Not wanting to be structurally bound to a different building during a seismic event is presumably one factor; as Jeff mentions, the relatively short life-cycles of structures is probably the main reason. I'm not sure off the top of my head what regulations there might be for distance between properties; I have fond memories of looking round a residential new-build, opening an upstairs window and touching the wall of the neighbouring house without stretching much. There are certainly regulations about how much of a plot can be built on, which do vary according to the type of area; e.g. for normal residential housing developments, in general only 50% of a  plot can be built on ("kenpeiritsu"), so that combined with requirements about not blocking light to neighbouring buildings means there will be some space all around the structure (also needed for access of course). In business districts the rules will be different.