Beginner's Question - Rolling stock suitable for 1965-1970?

[MilgeekAchoo]

I've proceeded this question with 'beginner' as this is my first post to this forum as someone who is new to the hobby, so please forgive me if it's a bit of an old chestnut or a bit too simplistic.

 

Anyhoo, I'm interested in theming my layout (loosely) in the mid-to-late 1960s in rural Japan and I just wondered if members of the forum might advise me on what would be period correct locomotives and coaches for this period please? 

 

I'm also favouring northern Japan (colder regions I guess) but am not being a complete stickler.

 

Any advice about modelling for this period would be very gratefully received.

 

Thank you,

 

Beaty

[Nick_Burman]

4 hours ago, MilgeekAchoo said:

I've proceeded this question with 'beginner' as this is my first post to this forum as someone who is new to the hobby, so please forgive me if it's a bit of an old chestnut or a bit too simplistic.

 

Anyhoo, I'm interested in theming my layout (loosely) in the mid-to-late 1960s in rural Japan and I just wondered if members of the forum might advise me on what would be period correct locomotives and coaches for this period please? 

 

I'm also favouring northern Japan (colder regions I guess) but am not being a complete stickler.

 

Any advice about modelling for this period would be very gratefully received.

 

Thank you,

 

Beaty

 

Roughly speaking, anything JNR painted brown or cream and red will be appropriate. Plus black for the steamers, of course.

 

Cheers NIcholas

[MeTheSwede]

In your situation I would probably start by heading over to Hobbysearch (because they've got the best product database to search) and do a search for Japan National Railways and then use the search filters. You can use the "item series" filter to search for diesel cars, passenger cars, locomotives etc.  The product descriptions will usually give information about between which years the rolling stock was used and in which parts of the country.  You may also wish to tick the option Exclude Sold Out just to avoid getting overwhelmed, although that will make you miss stuff that might be still available from other sellers (or second hand obviously).

 

You can also serach for regions such as Hokkaido or Tohoku and then progress from there.

 

If you want to find out more about some interesting piece of rolling stock, head over to the Japanese product page by removing /eng from the web adress, copy the name in Japanese of the rolling stock, head over to Japanese language Wikipedia and hope that some online translation tool will understand what the artivle says...

 

 

[disturbman]

Depending of how cold and northern, Tomix just released two JNR Hokkaido sets, a passenger (98413) and a freight set (98787), and a C55 steam locomotive (2010). These should be still widely available.

[katoftw]

I am of no help.  But I have a question. Sorry.

 

How does one decide which era to model and not know what rolling stock to use?

 

The reason for asking, is that most you pick a era to model cos we liked a certain loco or carriage from said era. So just curious to your select of era.

[Cat]

2 hours ago, katoftw said:

How does one decide which era to model and not know what rolling stock to use?

I could certainly see choosing mid-Showa for architecture and freight operations in general and without any other clues to get started with.
 
We chose 2015–2016 in Ibaraki based on a single train — BTrain Shorty, Kashima Rinkai series 6000 Kihas in Girls und Panzer wrapping.  Then went down a happy rabbit hole of figuring out what the heck was running on the JR East Joban Line at that time, and discovering the delightful Kiha wonderland of the neighboring Minato Line.  Roxanne gets wistful about modelling older architecture, of which very little survives in Ibaraki, but we're putting in every one we find!
 
Welcome, Beaty!

Edited February 23, 2023 by Cat

[Nick_Burman]

22 hours ago, katoftw said:

I am of no help.  But I have a question. Sorry.

 

How does one decide which era to model and not know what rolling stock to use?

 

The reason for asking, is that most you pick a era to model cos we liked a certain loco or carriage from said era. So just curious to your select of era.

 

Most of my Japanese trains relate to private railways of the 1960's and 70's with a few excursions into more modern times. The 60's were a crucial moment in Japanese history - it was the period when Japan finally turned its back on the ravages of WW2 and began being a prosperous country again. The Shinkansen opened in 1964 to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics; the 1960's were the period when JNR reached it's highest ever freight transportation volumes, before trucks began eating into the high-value traffic and energy imports began eroding its bulk transportation base (which was mostly coal from Hokkaido and Kyushu mines moving to ports). Freight could be seen everywhere and station freight transfer facilities were full of cars being loaded and unloaded. Because mass motorization had yet to take hold in the countryside it was the period when rural private railways were still very active... and what a delightful bunch of lines some of these were, before the private automobile, trucks and buses began forcing their closure.

 

This said, it's sometimes very difficult to make a definite decision on the era being modeled due to the extreme longevity of some Japanese locomotives and rolling stock. For example I have a free-lance Arumodel boxcab electric which could be just easily at home in a 1950's-60's setting hauling a short string of 2-axle black freight cars a la Tobu Nikko or switching 1990's Kokis in a Gakunan-style operation.

 

Cheers Nicholas