The Introduction Thread...

[cteno4]

Ulli,

 

Willkommen! Your English is fine! We are a very world wide forum but generally use English as the common language so no one is concerned about that, please don't worry yourself about it! If we don't understand each other at any point we can just ask a few questions to figure it out, no worries!

 

Glad to hear you are determined this year to do the layout! 1x2m can get you quite a bit in n scale! Take a look around the forum and you will find many discussions of folks doing similar sized layouts.

 

Keep us posted apron your progress and ask plenty of questions, lots of folks on the forum to have ideas. Glad you found us!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

Edited November 24, 2016 by cteno4

[crunchbite]

Hello everyone,

 

I have just come back from my second trip to Japan and decided to spend the last of my trip money on some trains. This is my first time delving in to model trains aside from playing with my uncle's HO set when I was little. I'm currently building my first layout as well, so you'll probably see that on the forum in a little while.

 

Glad to have found this forum!

Edited December 2, 2016 by crunchbite

[miyakoji]

Hi crunchbite, welcome to the forum.  You can get plenty of information and help here.  Do you have any pictures from your trip?

[Suica]

Hello and welcome, crunchbite.

 

Interesting Avatar you got there. :)

I hope you'll have a good time around here and look forward to your layout.

 

[cteno4]

Welcome crunchable!

 

Glad you got to visit Japan and got hooked on Japanese trains! Start a project thread on your new layout! Lots of folks here to answer questions and bounce things off of.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[crunchbite]

Hi crunchbite, welcome to the forum.  You can get plenty of information and help here.  Do you have any pictures from your trip?

 

Thanks, it's already been a great source of information and inspiration. Of course, here's a few of them.

 

Hello and welcome, crunchbite.

 

Interesting Avatar you got there. :)

I hope you'll have a good time around here and look forward to your layout.

 

You also have an interesting Avatar. :P

 

Thanks, I'll make sure to stop and take some pictures every once and a while.

 

Welcome crunchable!

 

Glad you got to visit Japan and got hooked on Japanese trains! Start a project thread on your new layout! Lots of folks here to answer questions and bounce things off of.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

 

Thanks, I'll start one once I get to an interesting point in the project.

[tossedman]

Hey Crunchbite, welcome to the addiction!

[medusa]

Hi all,

let me introduce myself...

My real name is Diane, born in the Sixties in Germany. I got in touch with railways early in my life since my grandpa was a big railway fan. He had a huge H0 layout in one room, and he frequently took his grandchildren to the main station on Sundays. Was the time when the big steamers were still seen on a number of trains. Really impressive for a small child.
Fortunately in the Seventies some educational rules softened, and it was no longer impossible for a girl to have a N scale model railway. Even if I gave most of it away when going pubertary.

My hobbies kept technical afterwards... was interested in a lot of things, including computers and lasers. Lasers are the ones which still surpass my model railway. ;)

Being a student I got first in touch with japanese culture. For a short time I attended Kendo courses which of course triggered big interest in country, history and art of Japan.
Meanwhile I'm a member of a local Kyudo club for a couple of years. And, of course, I became Anime fan.

Two years ago I found my old Minitrix E 03 (the only one I never gave away) in a secret box, 40 years old... restored it, still running. And restarted model railway, this time mainly a japanese one.

For some time I joined the german 1zu160 forum but very few people seemed to be interested in JR stuff.
(See attached photo of my temporary "Nekomori" layout in an early stage, nobody noticed Totoro!)
Moreover, unlike many german model rail fans I'm not a rivet counter at all (and was very happy to read here is no rivet counter inquisition...). I like the "my railway, my rules" found in many international model railway forums.
This becomes a too long intro... so in short: I have temporary layout with Kato tracks and mostly Tomytec buildings on it, and homegrown background and homegrown analog power regulators.

JR rolling stock:
Kato Shinkansen 500, 12 car
Kato Orient Express '88, 10 car + modded imperial car + modded Kani 24 / Mani 50 "adapter cars"
Kato EF 65-500 (who can live without an EF 65?)
Kato Kumoyuni 82 / 83-800 EMU, 2 car

Non-JR rolling stock, bought 2nd hand needing repairs:
Mintrix ICE 3 + Fleischmann ICE-T cars, I made coupler adaptors for this
Minitrix ICE 410 (the prototype one), 110, 151
Roco 181
a number of modded (wip) models of different kind, of Piko GDR, Del Prado and Concor, Tomytec chassis

and of course my still running oldie Mtx E 03, cast metal with two (!) motors in it. :D

Regards, ~Diane.

[locidm]

Welcome Diane! Love the totoro you've got there on your layout. It must feel at home under the trees. :)

 

I'm also an anime fan, although I tend to put my Tetsujin 28 or VF-1 from Macross on my layout instead. Tomytec recently released some 1/150 VF-1s that would fit perfectly with N-scale. lol. :)

[miyakoji]

Hi Diane, welcome to the forum :)

[cteno4]

Welcome Diane!

 

Glad you found the mad house, sounds like you've started down the Japanese model train road well here!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Sascha]

Hello Diane. Welcome to the Forum.

[lighthouse]

Hello Diane, Welcome to the Forum.

[medusa]

Thanks to you all for the warm welcome. Yes, hobby communities are like madhouses. I belong to three now... :D

 

I will post some more detail about the stuff I set up the next days in seperate threads.

[cteno4]

Medusa,

 

We also have our other hobbies forum if you want to share your other madnesses here!

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/forum/34-other-hobbies-games-simulations-models-photography/

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[scotspensioner]

Hello from Scotspensioner

I saw a layout at an Edinburgh show many years ago but it was only when I got a tablet a year or two back and watched a circuit of the Yamanote line that I bought a Kato E231 set as an experiment.I have a collection of Athearn

And Hornby but it's now in retirement- like me.

I don't have a permanent layout , instead I have a folding plastic topped table 6ft by 2ft 6 ,on which I can get a double oval ,a passing loop and 3 sidings (Kato M1,V1,V3,V5 and V7) I discovered that a Kato controller and 4 switches is a perfect fit for the short side of the recess on the lid of a Family Circle biscuit box,which has 3 locos and 7 container wagons stored in it when it's not being run

I've never been to Japan so You Tube,Google and Wickepedia give me inspiration.Ive been astonished at the performance of the trains.

I live in East Lothians about 13 miles from Edinburgh.I think as far as my models are concerned I've gone Japanese

[scotspensioner]

From Scotspensioner

I should explain I'm 68 male and married for 34 years to Libby.

By chance I came upon an entry from a member called "fluff" posted on 2 February 2008 and he mentions two layouts ,"Katami Mittsu " and "Katamitu ".

It was the latter layout I saw all those years ago!

I better mention that I also have a32 year old son

[Claude_Dreyfus]

From Scotspensioner

I should explain I'm 68 male and married for 34 years to Libby.

By chance I came upon an entry from a member called "fluff" posted on 2 February 2008 and he mentions two layouts ,"Katami Mittsu " and "Katamitu ".

It was the latter layout I saw all those years ago!

I better mention that I also have a32 year old son

Welcome aboard.

 

'Fluff' is the builder and owner of both layouts - both long-retired. I believe he is more into US and German modelling now.

Edited December 9, 2016 by Claude_Dreyfus

[scotspensioner]

Claude - Many thanks for your note.

I knew Katamitu was long gone - Last I heard was about a German layout called Eisen Beau - a play on Iron Brew,a well known Scottish soft drink!

[cteno4]

Scotspensioner,

 

Welcome to the madhouse! Lots you can do even setting up temporarily like that! Most Japanese do their model railroading that way! Our club here in DC did our club show layout as a setup on the fly like this for the first 5 years of the club.

 

Check out this article on ways to add bits of scenery to temp layouts like that!

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/tempoary.html

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[scotspensioner]

Jeff

Many thanks for your post.Unfortunately at this time I have to take it down every time I run it! The garage is out of commission (full of junk - no car!) and it's not the most salubrious place.

The idea of scenery is appealing and maybe one day we'll go down that road. Meantime I'll continue enjoying researching the Japanese rail scene and country.

To say it's taken over is no exaggeration.Ive had a rough time over the years and earlier this year I had cataract surgery on both eyes -- N gauge while 75% blind!!

The Kato catalogues are in front of me most of the time and the Tablet is well used looking up things likeOchamon izu and EH 200 electrics!

Many thanks

Alex(Scotspensioner)

[raganim]

Hi everyone!  I'm a Z Scaler who has become very much interested Japanese rail.  I live in the United States.  I discovered the Rokuhan brand a few years ago when I was looking for reliable, well-running Z Scale locomotives.  Pretty much all of the Rokuhan locomotive prototypes are Japanese, so my "hand was forced."  I have since discovered that I prefer Japanese trains, and I have shifted toward wanting to only model Japanese stuff.  Thanks, Rokuhan!

 

Anyway, I see that N Scale is the big thing on this web site, but perhaps I could find some community / information / tips for the Z Scale things I do.  Being interested in something so specific as Z Scale Japanese model railroading means it's hard to find folks who even know what I'm talking about.  And when I have a question, it gets harder!

Edited January 29, 2017 by raganim

[ToniBabelony]

Hello and welcome! From all of the forum members, I think I'm the only one who comes close to doing Japanese Z-scale, as I have a thing going for N-scale narrow gauge (6.5mm). It involves Rokuhan tracks, Z-scale wheels and power units, but that's about it. The Z-scale community in Japan itself is smaller than the HO community, whereas the N-scale community takes up about the gross part (+85% IIRC) of the market.

 

However, Rokuhan isn't the only manufacturer, as Sankei also produces building kits and details. Next to that, Tenshodo (originally a watch and jewlerymaker, so you can already guess the level of quality), also makes a small range of Z-scale rolling stock: http://www.tenshodo.co.jp/models/product/z/tabid/125/Default.aspx surprisingly, these are priced quite well!

[mry1210]

Hello everyone,

Brian here from Pittsburgh. I have been a traditional US n-scaler and was looking to bring a different look to a module for our N-Trak club.

It started with a DE-10, an Aurora Bullet train, and a 313 set.

The plan, or something like that, is to use a Tomix bus set and tram track for a module with all Japanese buildings.

I found this forum and there looks to be plenty of info to help.

 

Regards,

Brian

[miyakoji]

Hi Brian, welcome to the forum.