The Introduction Thread...

[twistrackson5]

Hello all!

Long time lurker.  Finally have some time to enjoy trains (and some buses too).  Been fascinated with urban transit for many moons.  Although never visited Japan yet, have found their variety in rail transit to be stunning.  A bit of background:  Introduced to buses and trains since age 3ish.  San Francisco, Bay Area, and beyond rich in transit history.  Focus on n-scale due to size and increasing degrees of variety, quality, and systems represented.  Current goals to enjoy as a static display with some occasional 9 volt battery powered test track.  Fantasy/Freelance holding company with focus on California and on selected Japanese equipment which piqued my interests. That's all for now.  Thanks for reading.

[disturbman]

@twistrackson5 feeling of déjà-vu. Did you fall into a time loop or had an open tab with the copy of your original post?

 

Double welcome aboard for a double arrival!

Edited January 8, 2022 by disturbman

[twistrackson5]

Sorry.  Getting hang of posting.  Thought I was adding pic to original post.

[cteno4]

Thanks, that picture brings back childhood memories! In those days you could jump on and off and the cable cars were not huge tourist magnets.

 

i use to stay with family friends in Berkeley Saturday nights when my folks went to parties that were a bit away and they would be late getting home. The chap was an amazing Chinese cook (and just about everything else to boot) and would make huge sunday dinners. So Sunday morning we would go over to Chinatown to shop for dinner and have dim sum and usually while he was shopping he would let me just hop on the California st cable car and I’d ride out 7 or 8 blocks hanging off the side and then grab one back down the hill to meet up with Fred. Then back to Berkeley for all day ear,drink, man, woman style kitchen and cooking! I need to go thru the boxes of my folks photos, there’s a great one of me from the back on the side board going up California he snapped once.

 

jeff 

[disturbman]

On 1/8/2022 at 5:26 PM, twistrackson5 said:

Sorry.  Getting hang of posting.  Thought I was adding pic to original post.

No worries, I was just joking around 🙂

[Wolf]

Hello!

Late Reply as I already registered last year, but here I am. Name is Stephan from Berlin, Germany. 41 of age, father of one, and still in planning stage of an N Scale layout (wich probably might take a while as the room formerly planned to house a layout suddenly got occupied by offspring XD )

Otherwise struggling to learn soldering to convert most of my trains to DCC, wich works more or less so far.

Outside of Trains my interest is more with the liquid joys of life, aka whisky.

Cheers!

[cteno4]

Welcome Wolf, glad you found us!

 

just make the offspring sleep live under the layout! Small price for them to pay and they can work on all the wiring.

 

soldering is like 97% practice. Just strip a bunch of junk wires and practice a lot, it really helps. Good rosin core solder helps a lot, cheap solders can be very funky. Non lead solders also do not work as well and are cranky at times. Wire soldering is a place where using some lead is not an issue as it’s always sealed up well and not in a place where children will be sucking on it (err well maybe nix my idea above). I’ve solder untold number of connections but if I haven't soldered for a few weeks I will usually do a practice one just to get all the neurons in alignment, it’s that much of a practice thing. If you are having troubles with soldering blobbing up try a little good quality gel or liquid flux (non acidic kind) on the joint. Variable temp iron also helps, doesn’t have to be a fancy one, to find the Goldie locks zone for your solder and connections.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Trains and whisk(e)y, excellent combo 🙂

 

[Wolf]

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

Welcome Wolf, glad you found us!

 

just make the offspring sleep live under the layout! Small price for them to pay and they can work on all the wiring.

 

soldering is like 97% practice. Just strip a bunch of junk wires and practice a lot, it really helps. Good rosin core solder helps a lot, cheap solders can be very funky. Non lead solders also do not work as well and are cranky at times. Wire soldering is a place where using some lead is not an issue as it’s always sealed up well and not in a place where children will be sucking on it (err well maybe nix my idea above). I’ve solder untold number of connections but if I haven't soldered for a few weeks I will usually do a practice one just to get all the neurons in alignment, it’s that much of a practice thing. If you are having troubles with soldering blobbing up try a little good quality gel or liquid flux (non acidic kind) on the joint. Variable temp iron also helps, doesn’t have to be a fancy one, to find the Goldie locks zone for your solder and connections.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Thanks for the welcome! I think atm my issue is the solder, and determining what materials I can solder on. Last thing I teied was soldering the metal block in my DE10s onto the inserted board because of constant electroc cutouts... In vain, obviously. Learned about silver-conductive-paint in the process tho, worked like a charm. I will keep learning!

 

1 hour ago, Martijn Meerts said:

Trains and whisk(e)y, excellent combo 🙂

 

 

Thanks! Nothing than a (japanese) whisky when tinkering with a model.

[cteno4]

Ahh yes soldering to a metal block is tough. Usually need to clean the surface really well and use some flux as well as more heat as the block will quickly suck the heat out of the solder spot, so need to heat the solder area fast. Best to pre tin the block and wire and then just fuse them.

 

silver conductive paint works pretty well, but is not super durable with time with any stresses.

 

jeff

[disturbman]

Another Berliner, loose one, gain one. Welcome aboard, Stephan!

[Wolf]

1 minute ago, disturbman said:

Another Berliner, loose one, gain one. Welcome aboard, Stephan!

 

Thanks! Although sad you seem to have lost one.

[disturbman]

You know, people come and go. As long as they are okay, nothing to be sad about 🙂

Edited February 9, 2022 by disturbman

[railsquid]

Greetings from an ex-Berliner 😄

[JR East]

Welcome !

[miyakoji]

Hi Wolf welcome to the forum!

[IsaacK]

Hi all, long time Rail enthusiast based in Australia,both model and real rail, have Visited Japan once in 2017, came home with a KATO M2 set.

 

Am eventually looking to expand to something other than the Dining room table, to run trains! Have always had US model rail but since the visit To Japan I am hooked on wanting to model it!

 

attached are a couple of PhotosI took on my travels!

[Wolf]

Welcome Isaack ^^

[cteno4]

Welcome Isaack,

 

looks like you’ve caught the bug—sorry no known cure. Glad you found us.

 

Cheers,

 

jeff

[JR East]

welcome @IsaacK

 

JM

[miyakoji]

Hi IsaacK, welcome to the forum!

[IsaacK]

Thanks guys, looking forward to being part of the forum, the Sumida Crossing brought me here, as it has many others I’m sure, haha, 

Edited March 24, 2022 by IsaacK

[Giugiaro]

Good afternoon everyone!

 

I work as a designer for the Portuguese National Railway Company, and I am somewhat of a catastrophic mod creator for train simulators and transport games.

I started my N Scale adventure in November 2021, after I gave up and bought an Arnold RENFE 141F-2315 "Mikado" and four Costa coaches during my visit to Badajoz.

 

Since then, I have invested far more money in N Scale than I ever did in HO.

I went with KATO Unitrack because of the canted curves and how easy it is to assemble and disassemble.

 

I decided to join the forum because I have plenty of Japanese trains and accessories on my wishlist. I also have a broad interest in Japan.

I came across this forum several times while searching for answers to my doubts. I guess it wouldn't hurt to join the club!

 

Thanks for having me, and I hope I don't become a nuisance 😅

[JR East]

Welcome @Giugiaro, happy to see you there. 

 

 

[cteno4]

Welcome @Giugiaro, glad you found the funny farm here! it’s a great place for your interests and a welcoming gang. I think you will find a huge variety of Japanese trains to keep your interest up and wallet hurting.
 

Very cool job you have!

 

cheers

 

jeff