miyakoji Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Hi @doodlebugdepot welcome to the forum! Link to comment
rice fried shrimp Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 Greetings everyone, Just joined this nice forum. I'm a pretty new and casual railfan, and I can't claim to know a lot, so I'll probably be lurking a fair bit to learn more. My greatest interest is in the Shinkansen as well as JR East in general, though I also like some European trains and rail lines, especially SBB and RhB. As far as models go, I've got more of Kato than anything, even though my wallet hates how much I've been spending recently. Cheers, RFS 4 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 Welcome rice fried shrimp, glad you found us. Lots of info on the forums here and lots of folks to ask questions of. We have a few real masters of Japanese railfanning here! At least with the low yen your wallet is not screaming as much as it could! Even without the low yen Japanese trains are quality and bang for the buck. cheers jeff 1 Link to comment
miyakoji Posted July 14 Share Posted July 14 hi @rice fried shrimp welcome to the forum! 1 Link to comment
RS18U Posted July 15 Share Posted July 15 Welcome @rice fried shrimp. This is a great place, with lots of good advice. Feel free to ask away! 1 Link to comment
Damo Jr. Posted July 26 Share Posted July 26 Greetings All, My name is Damien, I'm in Australia and have modeled trains on and off since teens and mostly collect these days. When I experienced the Japanese rail system in 2019 and saw what rail did for Japan, I understood the local fascination and started collecting. Totally fascinated by the home-grown tourist trains and wrappings of 3rd-sector lines I'm here because the lack of DCC in Tomix is bugging me and I want to do something about it! If you guys are ok with it, I'll be posting threads in different forums and seeking to pick your brains about stuff I can't seem to get answers on. Warm Regards, Damo. 6 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted July 26 Share Posted July 26 Welcome Damien, glad you found us. we have a DCC forum specifically for what you want! Lots of it is about non drop in installs. Root around in there and then start asking questions, there is an active dcc crowd here. cheers jeff 1 Link to comment
Jetty_Jags Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 Hi I'm Jetty_Jags, looking to get into hobby model railroads. I'm only focused on the T scale, but luckily, they have a heavy focus on Japanese trainlines even if their catalogue is somewhat limited. 4 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 Hi Jetty, glad you found us! A number of folks on the forum are into T scale. I played with it a lot in the early days, very fun. Someday I’ll get back at it. The bad reaction Eishindo got in Japan when they moved from japan to Hong Kong I think put them off doing a lot more Japanese trains. Really sad. Also the US distributor that was doing a lot tragically passed away. The store in the UK seems to have become the driving force in T now. keep us posted on what you do! cheers, jeff Link to comment
miyakoji Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 Hi @Jetty_Jags welcome to the forum! Link to comment
Wolf Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 On 8/26/2024 at 4:08 AM, cteno4 said: The store in the UK seems to have become the driving force in T now. I met the T Scale guys at JAM this year, they alive and kicking, but my honest opionion is, they choose the wrong distributors. They even have a german one I never even heard about that always tells them "there is no demand". Even tho, I get asked about T-Scale like once a month. Them not having a decent web presense sure adds to the issue. (Sorry for OT) Link to comment
cteno4 Posted August 29 Share Posted August 29 That’s unfortunate to hear. Ardesh did a good job when he had the uUS distribution, but sadly he passed and no one seemed to pick up any elements of his business. He was even selling to Japan when most of the distribution abruptly stopped in Japan with the company move. It is very hard to start a whole new scale like that and also at such a tiny size that is always challenging design wise. They spent years trying to perfect the tiny can motors to have just the right attributes for use in the tiny trains. Our club has a small loop layout in a brief case that has a clear side so you can even run it under glass. But the biggest issue is the track can oxidize fast so requires more cleaning (but I need to see how the newer method of using lower dielectric contact cleaner on it) and after 2-3 hrs running the mechanisms tended to get clogged with puzz and start to stutter some and required 10 minutes of cleanout. Got tedious. Folks were always amazed at shows, but felt like I needed to have a swing arm magnifier on top to help folks see things. Pointing out the 1/450th etched metal kid, dog and tricycle were always fun! I was always amazed how well kids could actually use it. I stopped by a friends house for dinner after a train show in Baltimore and her 8 year old was curious about T scale when I told her about it (she had been raised coming to see our layouts and my trains) so I went out the car and brought in a box of track (Ardesh was very generous to our club giving us samples and any loose bits of product he ended up with) and a few trains and showed her how to pop the track together and put the trains on and in like 3 minutes she was up and gone and spent a couple of hours making different loops and putting out buildings! She had a grand time. jeff Link to comment
meaty Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 (edited) Hi all, First time visiting Japan back in May this year, reinvigorated my childhood memory of n scale trains we had (American). After visiting the Kato headquarters in Tokyo and some of the Popondetta shops in other cities blew my mind in terms of what is available! And so I've decided to take up the hobby again, and build a Japanese theme layout inspired by our journey up the Hida River valley between Nagoya and Takayama. We travelled on the JR HC85 series train (green car). At the time, none of the model companies had been producing this train. Shortly after we got back I found that Tomix had it available as a pre-release (available end Aug), so I put an order in. Three months later, and it arrived today. Edited September 2 by meaty 5 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 Meaty, glad you found us and japan reactivated your n scale model train love! Great hobby and Japan is the best to model as so many different scenes you can do, trains run everywhere! start a top on your layout plans and such! cheers jeff Link to comment
SL-san Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 1 hour ago, meaty said: our journey up the Hida River valley between Nagoya and Takayama Our first trip to Japan in 2005 included a visually spectacular trip up the Hida Valley (in a Hida Wideview) to Takayama where we were enchanted by the town and blown away by the Festival where shrines were brought out from their keeping places and paraded around the darkened old town at night, lit only by paper lanterns and accompanied by spine tingling flutes and drums. We were hooked...and have returned to Japan to see Matsuri (festivals) and ride the trains all over Japan six more times. If you aren't careful Meaty you may catch the bug and NEED to back and back again (and to collect more trains of course). Graeme Link to comment
meaty Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 1 hour ago, cteno4 said: Meaty, glad you found us and japan reactivated your n scale model train love! Great hobby and Japan is the best to model as so many different scenes you can do, trains run everywhere! start a top on your layout plans and such! cheers jeff Thanks Jeff. Already made the timber base with foam top. Will add to the topic 1 Link to comment
meaty Posted September 2 Share Posted September 2 11 minutes ago, SL-san said: Our first trip to Japan in 2005 included a visually spectacular trip up the Hida Valley (in a Hida Wideview) to Takayama where we were enchanted by the town and blown away by the Festival where shrines were brought out from their keeping places and paraded around the darkened old town at night, lit only by paper lanterns and accompanied by spine tingling flutes and drums. We were hooked...and have returned to Japan to see Matsuri (festivals) and ride the trains all over Japan six more times. If you aren't careful Meaty you may catch the bug and NEED to back and back again (and to collect more trains of course). Graeme Too late. Already making plans to go back next year! 2 Link to comment
rc_dude Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 (edited) Hello everyone, After a short trip to Japan last July, and riding the Shikansen twice, the Nozomi 700S, I wanted to have some sort of remembrance and decided to buy a basic Kato set of the N700S. Little did I know that it would lead to this rabbit hole of a hobby. I'm glad to have found this forum. Edited September 3 by rc_dude 5 Link to comment
cteno4 Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 @rc_dude glad you found us! That’s the slippery slope most all of us have slid down into the rabbit hole! There is no cure, but more trains. Lots of interesting folks here and great place to ask questions if you have any. Keep us posted on what you do with your trains! cheers, jeff 1 Link to comment
Kingmeow Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 8 hours ago, rc_dude said: Hello everyone, After a short trip to Japan last July, and riding the Shikansen twice, the Nozomi 700S, I wanted to have some sort of remembrance and decided to buy a basic Kato set of the N700S. Little did I know that it would lead to this rabbit hole of a hobby. I'm glad to have found this forum. You do know that Kato makes a 4-car add on set and then an 8-car completion set to turn your Basic N700S set into a full 16-car train? You end up with two nice bookcases. Don't ask me how I know!!!! 🙄 🤣🤣🤣 😎 1 1 Link to comment
rc_dude Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 (edited) 10 hours ago, Kingmeow said: You do know that Kato makes a 4-car add on set and then an 8-car completion set to turn your Basic N700S set into a full 16-car train? You end up with two nice bookcases. Don't ask me how I know!!!! 🙄 🤣🤣🤣 😎 Too late. I already have the 16-car set. 🙂 😁Currently working on adding the LED lights in each car. Just can figure out how to open the front and end cars. 🤔 Edited September 3 by rc_dude 1 Link to comment
miyakoji Posted September 4 Share Posted September 4 hi @rc_dude welcome to the forum! 1 Link to comment
MeTheSwede Posted September 5 Share Posted September 5 On 9/4/2024 at 1:48 AM, rc_dude said: Too late. I already have the 16-car set. 🙂 😁Currently working on adding the LED lights in each car. Just can figure out how to open the front and end cars. 🤔 Welcome to the forum! Maybe this is what you are looking for? 2 1 Link to comment
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