The Introduction Thread...

[miyakoji]

Hi Thomas, welcome to the forum!

[cteno4]

Hi thomas,

 

glad you found us, lots of helpful folks here. Take a look at layout forum for some of others projects.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[sutenai]

Greetings!

Admitedly I'm more of a casual train fan myself, but I have a nephew who is simply obsessed with trains. I've been getting him Plarail trains whenever I'm in Japan, because honestly they're just head and shoulders above any toy you can get around here. The next logical step might be model trains, so I'm just hoovering up knowledge on here so I'm prepared for when he gets a bit older. Is there any consensus on how fiddly N-scale is compared to H0? I don't have any experience with the former with which to gauge when he's ready for it.

Cheers :)

[cteno4]

Sutenai,

 

welcome! Good on ya for encouraging your nephew, you are a very good uncle! Japanese ho is quite a bit more expensive and limited in models compared to n scale. The n scale is pretty robust and I have had my grand nephew starting at around age 5 be able to put cars on the track and couple and uncouple by himself. With practice, patience and oversight pretty young kids can play fine with it. Super wide range of trains available and great bang for the buck with decent prices and great quality. On your trips to japan you can try some of the hobby shops that have a lot of used stuff at good prices for maybe starter pieces that can get trashed with early learning and then move into nicer stuff as he gets better at it. Sure some here can point you to some good shops for used deal.
 

You are a good uncle, he will remember your doing this for him the rest of his life. I recently thanked the old friend fo the family again that bought be a big box of used n scale at a garage sale when I was about 8 or 9. He had a small setup I use to play with and him getting me that box launched me into doing model trains for the past 5 decades...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[miyakoji]

Hi Sutenai, welcome to the forum!

[railsquid]

On 3/2/2020 at 11:40 PM, sutenai said:

Greetings!

Admitedly I'm more of a casual train fan myself, but I have a nephew who is simply obsessed with trains. I've been getting him Plarail trains whenever I'm in Japan, because honestly they're just head and shoulders above any toy you can get around here. The next logical step might be model trains, so I'm just hoovering up knowledge on here so I'm prepared for when he gets a bit older. Is there any consensus on how fiddly N-scale is compared to H0? I don't have any experience with the former with which to gauge when he's ready for it.

 

In Japan it's seen as the logical next step from Plarail (somewhere I have a picture of a small N gauge display in a Yodobashi Camera store with a sign bearing words to the effect "Outgrowing Plarail? Try N gauge!").

 

My son (aged about 2 years and 8 months at the time) playing with some push-along N gauge:

 

 

[sutenai]

7 minutes ago, railsquid said:

My son (aged about 2 years and 8 months at the time) playing with some push-along N gauge:

 

 

Awesome! My nephew is about the same age, and looking at that clip I either need to get him some N-gauge or one of those re-railing pieces, but for Plarail 😄
My planned Japan trip is looking increasingly unlikely... but luckily playing with the "shikka" (Shinkansen) on the computer seems to be a viable substitute for now (although it also made him discover the Big Boy, so maybe he'll convert to American trains before long).

[Cat]

Welcome Sutenai!

When our nephews and nieces were young, we regularly bought them Brio trains for presents, and I painted for each of them their own loco in liveries of their favourite colours and their initials +RR or +Ry for the logo.

[railsquid]

10 minutes ago, sutenai said:

Awesome! My nephew is about the same age, and looking at that clip I either need to get him some N-gauge or one of those re-railing pieces, but for Plarail 😄
My planned Japan trip is looking increasingly unlikely... but luckily playing with the "shikka" (Shinkansen) on the computer seems to be a viable substitute for now (although it also made him discover the Big Boy, so maybe he'll convert to American trains before long).

 

I heard Kato are bringing out a "Big Boy" in N scale, but you might not want to risk that just yet...

 

The Tomix tram track (just to the right of the rerailer) is also very practical for small hands to put stock on the rails.

[Sascha]

Welcome to the forum!!

[Yavaris Forge]

Hello everyone,

 

since I have been into japanese railway models and n gauge in general for about two years now, I thought it was long overdue to create an account in this forum.

 

It all started with a Tomix railway collection 205 two-car set to put on my desk at home. I didn't want a layout at first because we always had an large H0 gauge model railway at home but at some point just looking at trains that don't move became boring. As I don't have a lot of money to spend because I'm studying at a university, most of my models were bought second hand from ebay or YAH, or in some cases at train fairs around my hometown in Germany. My fleet consists of 50/50 japanese and german models.

I would love to go on vacation to Japan in the future.

 

[RogerK]

Welcome Sutenai

 

The Marklin My World trains for ages 3 and up are pretty nice. Basically battery powered HO scale with a simple infrared remote. Can run on any HO track/layout, including the plastic tracks that come with the sets. Got the ICE for my grandson when he was 3 and have the same set at my house that the 3 yo granddaughter plays with.

 

Roger

[cteno4]

Welcome Yavaris! 
 

Glad you joined up. That’s the allure of Japanese trains, you start with one as a desk toy and then bam you have a fleet! I started like 25 years ago whe I got an old used 100 series as a shelf model as I was doing us trains. Then wishing a few years all the us stuff was boxed up and it’s been japanese all the way.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Clayton]

Hello all!

 My name is Clayton, I've been into N scale since the early nineties. Though I am currently in France until my wife and I can fly to the USA. I have designed my future N scale door layout using Tomix track. I will post my design once I can find the right thread.

Edited April 30, 2020 by MoPac

[c56]

Hello everyone,

 

My name is Leo. I live in Austria. I joined this group, as my travels in South-East-Asia awakened my interest in the Thailand-Burma-Railway that operated in WWII. The railway was operated by the Japanese Army with Japanese steam-engines that had been modified to run on the metre-gauche of Thailand. Several of these are still around there, mainly just as displays at railway stations, but 2 are still being used during the "River Kwai Festivals". I am also a member of a model train club (no Japanese connection with this, though).

[miyakoji]

Hi Leo, welcome to the forum!

[lex veenstra]

Hi , 
My name is Alex Veenstra.
I live in the north of the Netherlands and i use trainz 2012 
I like the most Asien and Russian trains .
Regards Lex 

 

[cteno4]

Hi Alex, Welcome!

 

glad you found us, primarily japanese trains here but a smattering of Asian and European train interests as well. Many simulator fans here as well.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[Yavianice]

Hi @lex veenstra, quite a few Dutchies are in this forum, including the creator. Welcome and have fun! The chat is also quite active!

[Martijn Meerts]

If you mean me, I'm not the creator. Darren started the forum, I just joined fairly early on, and joined the admin team for some designing stuff, before eventually also taking over the server administration etc 😄

 

 

[Yavianice]

Ha, didn't know! Learned something new today then. Current admin then 😉

[JR 500系]

Welcome new members! Glad you found us! Do share some pictures of your train collections/ layout with us! Have fun here!  🙂

[ED75-775]

Hi everyone!

 

After having looked at the forum for some time I've finally decided to take the plunge and join up...

I originally started out with model trains at age 10, my grandfather gave me his Marklin 2983 starter set as a birthday present. Since then I've developed a 4'x8' European H0-scale layout in my parents' garage, which was my main focus until I went to Japan on holiday last year. My new N scale collection started with a secondhand Kato ED75 from Popondetta Kyoto, and from there it just grew... now I have two ED75s, a C11 and a Hokutosei DD51 (all Kato) and a mixture of Tomix, Kato and Popondetta rolling stock. Eventually I hope to build a layout to run my N scale trains on.

I'm planning on going back next year since a certain virus wrecked this year's travel plans and that means more rolling stock - and maybe one or two locomotives - plus spare parts since I need to fix two of my locomotives and keep the others maintained. Note to self: locos and rolling stock do NOT bounce when you (accidentally) drop them!

[cteno4]

Welcome ED75!

 

sounds like you caught the bug of Japanese trains and sorry for your wallet, there is no cure...

 

trips to japan just totally cement the bug.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[ED75-775]

43 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

Welcome ED75!

 

sounds like you caught the bug of Japanese trains and sorry for your wallet, there is no cure...

 

trips to japan just totally cement the bug.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

 

Thanks Jeff! Yep, serious case of bug bite here!

Thoroughly enjoyed my first trip and already planning a hit list of items to bring back... if my wallet didn't enjoy my H0 scale obsession, it's going to hate the N scale even more!