What did you run today? (HO and other scales)

[Kamome]

Hopefully the administrators won’t mind a new topic for the non N scale running opportunities.

 

I’ll kick off with some recent HO running over the weekend . Not having enough space at home to run anything too long, I headed to Stage One’s rental layout to give the Fuji blue train some exercise.

 

Kato EF65-1000 and 13 car Fuji 24系　Blue Train

Kato Kiha 81 Tsubasa 7 car.

Tenshodo 9600 and mixed Kato wagons.

Tomix EF71 and ED78 with 3x Ohafu 50s.

 

The Kiha 82 Kamome in the background was the owners with a ESU Loksound decoder fitted. 

 

 

 

[gavino200]

That blue train looks great. I'm tempted to get one for my N scale EF-65. Currently it doesn't really have anything of it's own to pull. 

[Kiha66]

Looks like a great outing!  I love the 81 series and the 9600 look good on the freight train.  The blue train has me very excited for the upcoming 20 series re-run, I'm very tempted to pick up a EF65 for it.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Kiha66

[Kamome]

I’m a bit of fan of blue trains despite them looking very similar. This Fuji formation is using the 25 100 coaches. I also have a 12 car consist of 25 0 coaches for the Tsurugi blue train.

I need to find a Fuji headmark for the loco as this particular model came with Sakura, Mizuho, Naha and Suisei. 

 

The N gauge formations seem to sell through pretty quick depending on the slight nuisances in coach inclusion. 

 

[marknewton]

Kamome,

 

That's a nice selection of JNR-era trains you have there. Makes me think I should be getting some more of the Tomix AC motors... 🤔

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Kamome]

Yes, they are a popular runner. One of the owners is a bit of a fan too and last time i didn’t take the EF71 and ED78 to run, he questioned what i was doing. The EF71 heading the Kiha 81 gets a lot of attention. Need to get these cement tankers finished and finally get a 20 series Akebono for them to pull. 

 

I’m slightly tempted to get some of the One Mile セラ Kyushu coal wagons but they don’t come with wheels or couplers and at ¥4000 each, i’m almost into Tenshodo セキmoney which look far better detailed.

[marknewton]

Friday night was a running night at the club, so the boy and I went down with a selection of Japanese and Australian trains. Here's some of mine on the Waterfall layout. I admit they look a bit out of place there but Kelly River, our other exhibition layout, has been sold and work has only just started on it's successor. 
 

 

 

Zoukei Mura DD54 with Tramway 61 series cars.

 

 

 

Kato D51 with Tramway 61 series cars.

 

Kato D51s with Kato Yo5000 brakevans, One Mile SeRa1 hoppers and Tenshodo SeKi3000 hoppers.
 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited May 1, 2021 by marknewton

[Kamome]

Cheers for the photos and footage. That DD54 is on the list but i was looking at one of the slightly earlier versions (3rd version i think) 

 

Ok that makes me want some SeRas even more. Which wheels did you use on yours?

 

Also i wondered about the markings. Do you know if they indicate where they were manufactured, refurbished or where they where based?

広, 岡 as examples

I had read somewhere that derailments were common so they were limited to 55km/h hence the yellow line on the side. 

 

Looks like a nice layout. Great depiction of Australian countryside. 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Kamome

[Martijn Meerts]

Looking good Mark 🙂

 

Just out of curiosity, what's the minimum radius on the Kato steamers? I noticed the little rods sticking out the front of the cylinders (I'm sure there's a correct term for those, but I wasn't able to find it within a reasonable amount of time) look like they might block the leading bogie from going through too tight curves. I know that Marklin for example often removes these completely, or adds them as optional parts. Both my C55 and 9600 have these as well, which might rather severely increase the minimum radius ..

 

[shadowtiger25]

C56 WITH Lok V4 with custom sound profile pulling a short local mixed consist of mostly Kato roll8jg stock

The combine car is tramway and the wamu 8000 and yamu (I might be wrong on that. The corrugated roof) are both endo kits

 

 

[Modellbahn JP]

On 5/3/2021 at 7:26 AM, Martijn Meerts said:

Looking good Mark 🙂

 

Just out of curiosity, what's the minimum radius on the Kato steamers? I noticed the little rods sticking out the front of the cylinders (I'm sure there's a correct term for those, but I wasn't able to find it within a reasonable amount of time) look like they might block the leading bogie from going through too tight curves. I know that Marklin for example often removes these completely, or adds them as optional parts. Both my C55 and 9600 have these as well, which might rather severely increase the minimum radius ..

 

If 9600 you have is made by Tenshodo, it would get through R=550mm for minimum because Tenshodo officially announced.

I heard Kato's D51 in HO sale can get through also.

Japanese model trains in HO scale aren't made consistently but I think almost of all models could get through R=550mm.

[Martijn Meerts]

5 hours ago, Modellbahn JP said:

If 9600 you have is made by Tenshodo, it would get through R=550mm for minimum because Tenshodo officially announced.

I heard Kato's D51 in HO sale can get through also.

Japanese model trains in HO scale aren't made consistently but I think almost of all models could get through R=550mm.

 

Thanks for the info, but both the 9600 and C55 are IMON kits. I've not started the 9600 yet, but I've been working on the C55. I have a running frame, but I don't have the correct curved track to test it on.

[Modellbahn JP]

7 hours ago, Martijn Meerts said:

 

Thanks for the info, but both the 9600 and C55 are IMON kits. I've not started the 9600 yet, but I've been working on the C55. I have a running frame, but I don't have the correct curved track to test it on.

I see.

That's to say you have imon's kit, it would be 12mm.

I've just seen the official page of imon.

They deal with R=732mm for minimum and don't officially announce that is for minimum but it would be so.

 

[Kamome]

Gave the DF50 some exercise over the weekend as I took a drive up to Stage One in Kokura. The other usual suspects were out too as there’s plenty of space.

 

Kiha 81 Tsubasa 7 car + banking loco

Kiha 82 Matsukaze 12 car

24 series Fuji 13 car + loco

Mixed freight.

 

On the way up I saw my first N700s arriving at Kokura station from Hakata. Annoying i was driving at the time.

 

[JR East]

On 8/2/2021 at 10:19 AM, Kamome said:

Quote

....as I took a drive up to Stage One in Kokura. .....

 

@Kamome  Can you share a Google Maps link where Stage One is in Kokura, I was not able to find it (probably because I typed the name in roman characters) ? 

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by JR East

[Kamome]

Copy and paste

 

ステージワン小倉

 

It should come up on Google.

 

Its on Route 199 between Kokura and Moji stations.

 

The shop isn’t as well stocked as it used to be. I think the pandemic hit them hard as they have no e-commerce site to sell products. Also both the HO and N rental layouts have been changed since this promo video.

 

The second video shows the layouts in their current state.

 

 

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Kamome

[The Birmingham train spotter]

That really is impressive

[Claude_Dreyfus]

One of our club layouts had its first public outing in 18 months. Being an informal show, more than the usual UK BR Southern region stock came out to play.

 

By some magical transformation, we suddenly experienced a rip in the space-time continuum, resulting in a gauge change of 1'2.5", a geographical shift of 6,000 miles and a time shift of 50 years, and the invention of invisible overhead catenary. How else can you explain the following? 

 

EF64 1015 rests in the station headshunt. Nice and convenient to the platform for the unwary trainspotter!

 

DE10 1726 pulls into the station (in order to run round its train of box vans). Old Mrs Crago cannot quite comprehend the presence of the imposter - but does concede that it is very pretty for a train...

 

The DE10 prepares to run round

 

Some time later and an ED62 is entrusted with the freight service. A KiHa40 railcar rests in the bay platform. It will be more than sufficient for this rural branchline.

 

Rolling stock was as follows - the EF64 is a Tomix model, the DE10 is from Kato, the KiHa and ED62 are Micro Ace and the wagons are Tenshudo.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Claude_Dreyfus

[ED75-775]

On 8/6/2021 at 3:30 AM, Kamome said:

Copy and paste

 

ステージワン小倉

 

It should come up on Google.

 

Its on Route 199 between Kokura and Moji stations.

 

The shop isn’t as well stocked as it used to be. I think the pandemic hit them hard as they have no e-commerce site to sell products. Also both the HO and N rental layouts have been changed since this promo video.

 

The second video shows the layouts in their current state.

 

 

 

Oooh! Thanks for the heads-up, Kamome-senpai. This looks interesting. Admittedly I model three-rail AC H0, but I won't say no to another hobby shop and especially if they have N scale stock to be purchased at reasonable prices. I'll probably have to do a full day trip to Kyushu this time, as last time around I barely scratched the surface. Up to Mojiko for the Kyushu Railway Museum, back to Hakata to catch a train for Shin-Yamaguchi and find a Popondetta store in the process - and that was it!

[Kamome]

As we are back into a state of emergency, the Kyushu Railway Museum is currently closed again. Essentially any attractions looked after and run by Kitakyushu City are immediately closed once a SOE is declared.  

 

You can probably take a cab to Stage 1. Their stock holding has declined over the years so I hope they can get it back again, once most have been vaccinated. Their prices are reasonable and usually less than SRP. The owners are lovely, knowledgable but only speak Japanese so brush up a bit before you visit. If you see 2 middle aged gentlemen with modelling aprons on, you know you’ve found them. One will usually be behind a soldering iron fixing trains or adding DCC. 

 

Poppondetta in Hakata station is on the 8th floor of Amu Plaza next to the Pokemon centre. There’s also a really really good bookshop opposite with a pretty good railway department.

[Kamome]

A few pictures from last weeks train exercise programme. 

Tomix EF71 and ED78 double heading the Kato 20 series Akebono. Still no train marks on the coaches though. 

 

Kato Kiha 81 Tsubasa service passing the Akebono and an out of shot DF50 with mixed freight. 

 

I probably need some different colour locos. Kato EF81 and DD51, Tomix EF71 and ED76 all in red.

 

 

My other red locos were on the track when this was taken, other  Kato DD51, Tomix DF50 and ED78. I was thinking of trying to obtain a DD54 next, obviously for the colour.

You can also see how much the bendy plastic handrails move when being handled, see EF71 and ED76. Need to change for some wire ones soon.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Kamome

[marknewton]

I've put decoders in these MA KiHa40s, so I gave them a quick run on the cameo to make sure I hadn't let the magic smoke out. 🤔

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Martijn Meerts]

I ran a WaFu22000 about 5cm each way using the hand of god ... 

 

It was mostly to test the couplers, I added some IMON couplers to it to test how well it couples up with the C55's tender. The coupling itself is really smooth, but there's a quite noticeable height difference between the C55 and the WaFu22000. I don't think the IMON couplers have any weight of changing the height, so I'll need to experiment a bit with that at some point.

[Kamome]

It’s a long weekend thanks to coming of age day on Monday. Managed to give the DD54 some exercise at Stage One although noticed some challenges with its inability to navigate  a few curves. At first thought it might be a some piping detail I added which mentioned in the booklet that it wouldn’t navigate R550 curves or less with this attached. On closer inspection, the centre bogie appears to have some details which may need to be filed down for it to swing effectively through some corners. It looks like it catches on pre-installed pipe detail along the side skirt. This shouldn’t take away from its appearance too much but will need to test a little more before any cutters come out.  Stage One was packed today with all 4 HO lines in use and almost all of the N ones too. Certainly a great place to just watch trains.

 

The DD54 is now fully detailed with the exception of loco numbers and other dry rub decals. I’ll add some more information in my “Adventures” thread but the running around had got her gears moving super smooth after a gravelly start from new.

[marknewton]

Took the "Slug" for a run last night with a wheat train and a coal train. D5120 is a superb performer. It handled both consists flawlessly. 
 

Jobs still to do: put accessory decoders in the brakevans to control the marker lights. Weather the remainder of the SeKi3000 hoppers (!)

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited February 12, 2022 by marknewton