Building a tram layout

[westfalen]

That's great.  It takes several weeks for MR to show up in the local bookstore here in the States, but I usually pick it up when it does. I'll keep an eye out for your layout.

 

The April issue's still on the shelves here in Australia but there's a Welsh guy in the club who gets them sent from home, if he's there on sunday I'll have to sneak a look.

[IST]

Thanks, but it is just 2 pictures and about 5 sentences, so not a full article but I think it is good to show to the readers that there is available a good looking tram system.

I am a subscriber of Model Rail so I get the magazine 2 weeks late after the releasing. British railway themed magazine is not available here in the shops. :-(

Connection with Model Rail: I simply sent an e-mail to Richard Foster with the links of my Unitram articles on my home page. He liked it and asked some pictures in bigger resolution and few sentence about it. It was 2 month ago.

[IST]

Interesting update, but the current issue of Model Rail contains a full, 2 pages review about Kato's Unitram set. I am curious that Model Rail would test this set without my pictures? :-)

[KenS]

I suspect you were an influence. 

 

The July issue also included the "Ring Road" layout which, although it was British-themed, included a tram line featuring (pg. 37) structures and trams "from Japanese manufacturers" which were not otherwise identified. It looks like the modeler repainted a Kato or Tomix Portram and a Modemo model of the Tokyu Setagaya 300-series. The lack of information about them (they weren't even mentioned in the list of layout rolling stock) coupled with your layout may have caused readers to ask questions.

 

Kato's Portram has a generic look to it; for someone who doesn't know trains in detail, it looks like something they might see in a nearby city. I can see Kato trying to sell it overseas as a result of that, and I can see it appealing to casual modelers.  What surprises me about MR reviewing it is that most of their articles seem to target the very hard-core detail-oriented modeler. And I wouldn't have thought that Unitram would appeal to that audience (other than the small number who model Japan). Perhaps you gave them a wake-up call.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

 

 

The July issue also included the "Ring Road" layout which, although it was British-themed, included a tram line featuring (pg. 37) structures and trams "from Japanese manufacturers" which were not otherwise identified. It looks like the modeler repainted a Kato or Tomix Portram and a Modemo model of the Tokyu Setagaya 300-series. The lack of information about them (they weren't even mentioned in the list of layout rolling stock) coupled with your layout may have caused readers to ask questions.

 

 

Which is odd as the guy who built it is well aware of the provenance of the models...he is on another forum I am a member of and we have talked about these trams in the past. Incidently, he is a bit of a Japan-fiend...he's the one that converted a Kato 885 to a class 395 Javelin set....

 

Part of the problem is the almost tribal approach to modelling the UK modelling press has. Mags such as Model Rail and Railway Modeller are UK only...Continental Modeller is for everything else. Model Rail has just started to produce an off-shoot called Model Rail international, which is is a good thing, however you still have the situation of "hey, look at this lovely Dapol class 58 in EWS livery with the new super-creep motor hauling a full rake of Bachmann HAA hoppers, crossing the finely detailed new viaduct release from Scenecraft. Below it is some foreign tram from a Japanese producer...its not scale 1/148 so its too small."  

[IST]

Little update, it did not happen too much:

- I was curious about Kato trees, so I bought 2 package. Because of the foliage started to fall apart, I used my wife's hair-spray to fix it with a very good result. I attached a before and after picture, the difference is quite big.

- I bought the new Kato office buildings, so my city landscape became very different.

- As I have Portram in 3 different liveries, I made a small, two tracks depot for them. Not a prototypical one, but I like it how it looks like. I will find another place for it when I will extend the basements.

- At the weekend I got some vehicles from one of my friend, he did not really use it, especially the trucks, so he gave me. As the effect of this, I can model traffic jam in my city.

[IST]

Nothing new for a long-long time, except I bought my fifth Kato Portram:

 

 

and started to get some experience with Tomytec Bus System vs. Kato Unitram plates:

 

[KenS]

What kind of wire did you tape underneath the Unitram plate? Was it from the bus roadway or something else?

[IST]

Something else. I went to a DIY store (OBI) and asked steel fiber, but they had only 5 cm thick, twisted version. They said that the horticulture department can have steel fiber to tie flowers, and it was true. I bought a pack from this, but it is rounded around a metal holder, so I have to figure it out how can I make it straight.

But at least it is working over the thick Unitram plates.  

[disturbman]

By scavenging paper clips maybe? 

[cteno4]

IST

 

thats brilliant that the flower wire work with the tomytec busses on the kato unitram plates! flower tie wire is just plain old steel wire so best for the steering magnet to lock onto. you can also usually find pretty pure steel wire in the supply store where they have stuff for doing cement walls and such. its steel wire used for tying together rebar and usually comes in two thicknesses, one you can very easily bend by hand and the other needs a bit of help with pliers, but for the big radius stuff you can do that by hand.

 

its good to see the steering magnet in the tomytec busses is much stronger than they were in the old faller vehicles. i could only get the faller to work through 020 styrene or thin chip board reliably.

 

btw you can also make Y intersections with the wire so you can do a turn around loop, just break the one return arm about 1/4" from the continous line

 

keep us posted on your progress on this!

 

jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

I wonder why it loses contact with the wire's field,

 

Maybe run redundant wires?

[cteno4]

I wonder why it loses contact with the wire's field,

Maybe run redundant wires?

Web not sure what you are asking

 

The old faller mechs has a weaker magnet in the steering mechanism than the tomytec does. Extra wire probably won't help, only a thinner material between the wire and steering magnet will do it. Just want plain steel wire to get the best interaction with the magnet's field.

 

Jeff

Edited February 9, 2013 by cteno4

[IST]

The old faller mechs has a weaker magnet in the steering mechanism than the tomytec does. Extra wire probably won't help, only a thinner material between the wire and steering magnet will do it. Just want plain steel wire to get the best interaction with the magnet's field.

 

My solution to combine Unitram and Tomytec is not the best one, as I experienced it in the last few weeks. Sometimes my bus looses the wire and start to go somewhere else.

[IST]

Now the turnouts are available for Unitram, so I made a plan. :)

I attached it as a picture and I would like to ask your oppinion about it. For info: in the lower left section the 2 tracks would end in a tram shed, while in the lower right section there are "open" tracks for a possible extension. Its size would be approximately 140*90 cm.

 

[bill937ca]

Why the crossover at the top?  Are you going to use the road plates?

[IST]

Why the crossover at the top?  Are you going to use the road plates?

 

To change between the inner and outer tracks. I know that I could do that just before the planned tram shed, but I have a feeling that I should put another one into the layout. Maybe this is a wrong feeling.

 

And yes, I would like to use the road plates, but at this moment I do not know how it will happen. AnyRail does not have the plates in its database, so I can not plan with it.

[KenS]

I don't think you really need the crossover at the top, because the S-curve through the middle moves a train from the inside track to the outside on its own.

 

But it looks like a good design either way. The streetless crossover in back can easily be hidden by a couple of tall buildings.

[Densha]

Now the turnouts are available for Unitram, so I made a plan. :)

I attached it as a picture and I would like to ask your oppinion about it. For info: in the lower left section the 2 tracks would end in a tram shed, while in the lower right section there are "open" tracks for a possible extension. Its size would be approximately 140*90 cm.

 

 

unitram_plan_v1.jpg

Hmmm... the outside trams (and current) will eventually end up on the inside tracks. If I understand it correctly you placed some kind of isolators on the plan. As I have limited knowledge about this I don't know much about it though.

[IST]

I don't think you really need the crossover at the top, because the S-curve through the middle moves a train from the inside track to the outside on its own.

 

Hmm, I think you are right, with the loop I can change between innner and outer tracks.

[IST]

If I understand it correctly you placed some kind of isolators on the plan.

 

Yes, the black triangles are isolated unijoiners. I hope these works well with Unitram also.

[lab1950]

Been reading through this thread and have to say I am well impressed by the information you are giving and the layout you are building.

 

I noticed that you were having a problem utilising Kato #4 switches on a straight section of Unitram Street track. Kato get over this problem by widening the Unitram track centres from 25mm to Unitrack centres of 33mm by using a conversion track (Kato 40-021). Hope this helps.

 

Les

Unitram to Unitrack Conversion Track.tiff

[IST]

Thanks for the kind words and the info. I know this type of track, if I remember well I have one or two packages from it at home. But at this moment I am planning something completely different. If I will have some time to step ahead I will start a new topic about it...

[IST]

Old topic, but yesterday evening I built the planned layout just for fun and to see how it would look like.

 

 

I have to say, looking it in the real world and not only in a track planner software, I've got the feeling that something is missing. I do not know what but I do not find the layout as attractive and playful as I imagined. So maybe there will be a complete replanning...

[kvp]

The layout contains two ovals and a reversing loop. The loop can only be used once by every tram, because there is no reverse loop, so they can't loop again without changing direction and that looks funny on a two track layout. I think the best way to make a layout that is fun to run is to have real operational possibilities and have a task for every train that is moving (like moving from stop 1 to 2 and then back to 1) and don't have dead routes that don't have any use.