The Introduction Thread...

[scott]

Hello everyone--

 

I'm 41, and have been wanting to get back into n-scale modeling for years. Now that my son is six and is very interested in trains, we're finally going to build a layout in our basement, using Kato Unitrack:

 

 

I'm mostly interested in passenger trains (fortunately, the kid seems to agree), and I've had the chance to travel by train a couple of times in Europe (NL, BE, CH, IT mostly), including some amazing trips on the RhB in Switzerland. And of course I've gotten interested in the variety of passenger rail in Japan. So we'll probably have a mix of equipment from various places, rather than trying to model a particular line. (We'll save that until the kid is older.) The plan is for almost everything to be "electrified" rather than diesel. I'll have a lot of little poles to buy....

 

My son likes Amtrak, so we'll have quite a bit of that, and he wants "an express train"--he has no idea that there's a 7-car 500 Series Shinkansen set waiting for him.  :)  (I got it "used" but basically untouched off of eBay.) I especially like railcars, EMUs,  etc., so there will be some of those, too, and I'm guessing most of them will be Japanese--we have a Microace 2-car EMU to use on the point-to-point "local" line. It'd be fun to have some European trains, but most seem to be too expensive.

 

Anyway, I was glad to find this forum, and I'm looking forward to learning from everybody here. I'll post photos once we finally get started on the layout.

[CaptOblivious]

Hello everyone--

 

I'm 41, and have been wanting to get back into n-scale modeling for years. Now that my son is six and is very interested in trains, we're finally going to build a layout in our basement, using Kato Unitrack:

 

I'm mostly interested in passenger trains (fortunately, the kid seems to agree), and I've had the chance to travel by train a couple of times in Europe (NL, BE, CH, IT mostly), including some amazing trips on the RhB in Switzerland. And of course I've gotten interested in the variety of passenger rail in Japan. So we'll probably have a mix of equipment from various places, rather than trying to model a particular line. (We'll save that until the kid is older.) The plan is for almost everything to be "electrified" rather than diesel. I'll have a lot of little poles to buy....

 

My son likes Amtrak, so we'll have quite a bit of that, and he wants "an express train"--he has no idea that there's a 7-car 500 Series Shinkansen set waiting for him.  :)  (I got it "used" but basically untouched off of eBay.) I especially like railcars, EMUs,  etc., so there will be some of those, too, and I'm guessing most of them will be Japanese--we have a Microace 2-car EMU to use on the point-to-point "local" line. It'd be fun to have some European trains, but most seem to be too expensive.

 

Anyway, I was glad to find this forum, and I'm looking forward to learning from everybody here. I'll post photos once we finally get started on the layout.

 

Welcome! Sounds like a great project to share with your son :D

[Bernard]

Pilotfish - Welcome to the JNS forum. This is a great project for you and your son. As a kid I had some of my most memorable times with my Dad running our American Flyer trains.

Wait till he sees that 500 Bullet train, it's a beauty!

What program did you use to draw up your layout plan and what are the proposed dimensions of the area of the layout?

 

I hope you to start a thread on this layout under "Personal Projects" and we'll get to see the development of it.

I do have a couple of questions and suggestions. Does the Yellow line interconnect with the Blue line or is it a point to point line?

One suggestion I have, how about adding a yard. It seems like you can do in in the middle area where the Red line is on the Left (West). It's always impressive to see your roster on the layout, lined up and ready to go.

Another question, are you planning on running the trains DC or DCC?

 

Again welcome to the forum.

[scott]

Thanks, guys...

 

Bernard--I used "RailModeller" on my Mac; it's a great program. I'm sure the $29 shareware fee saved me much more than that in mistakes avoided. Plus it's very easy to sketch out different designs.

 

The yellow line (actually orange, fwiw--the lighter portions are there to show me where the grades are) crosses the blue with a 15-degree crossing. I'd like to connect them, but since we're going to stick with DC for various reasons, the three lines will be wired separately. But at least they'll all go through the main station. My original plan was for an entirely point-to-point layout, but that wasn't too kid-friendly.

 

I like the idea of adding a yard, although any more track is going to have to wait for the bank account to recover from the first bunch.  :)  Maybe I'll leave the terrain flat near that other station, to make room for more tracks later. I was hoping to use ridges to visually separate the right and left sides from the middle section, but there may be room to do both.

 

Oh, and cross your fingers for me--I'm bidding on a Tomix 3-car interurban set that's ending soon on eBay...

 

[EDIT: You can uncross now. I got it for the minimum bid. :-) There's a picture of a similar set here:

http://page8.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h126669251#enlargeimg 

 

I guess it's time to stop buying trains for a while. <crosses fingers behind back>  ]

 

scott

[Bernard]

Scott - I can't tell you how many times I've said to myself, okay enough trains I got to stop spending and then I see a train for sale at a great price and say, "But how can I pass this up, I regret not buying it at that price." And guess who owns another train. The one bad thing about a yard is now your spouse gets to see exactly how many trains you really do own. This photo was a shock to my wife:

[scott]

That's a really impressive yard--there's a lot packed in there! You must have quite a control panel for all those switches.

 

I definitely would have regretted not getting the Tomix 3-car set, given that it went for $60 in the end, and is apparently new (or close to it). But since I'm about to buy a whole mess of Unitrack, I may scare myself out of further purchases for a while....  :)

[Bernard]

Wow, that was fast Jules...and welcome to the forum. I'm positive your questions about decoders for your 500 Nozomi will be answered.

[julesmazur]

Wow, you guys really seem nice! This forum has so much information, it'll really be helpful!

[julesmazur]

[shadow=red,left]Hi! I've had a model railroad in N scale for three years, so you could say that i'm new to the hobby. I've recently ordered my first Japanese locomotive, a Kato Shinkansen series 500 Nozomi. My layout is complete dreelanced, with old and modern locomotives/cars from the US (East and West), Europe and very soon Japan (doesn't get much more freelanced than that!). Everyone here seems very nice and I think that I'll enjoy being part of this forum!

[CaptOblivious]

[shadow=red,left]Hi! I've had a model railroad in N scale for three years, so you could say that i'm new to the hobby. I've recently ordered my first Japanese locomotive, a Kato Shinkansen series 500 Nozomi. My layout is complete dreelanced, with old and modern locomotives/cars from the US (East and West), Europe and very soon Japan (doesn't get much more freelanced than that!). Everyone here seems very nice and I think that I'll enjoy being part of this forum!

 

Welcome Jules! We try very hard to maintain a friendly atmosphere here. You're going to really love that 500系. Is everything on your layout DCC?

[disturbman]

I'm myself a quite nice people, or that's what I think.

 

I'll check the "Introduction Thread" a bit later. Stay tuned, if not you are going to miss some great unveiling.  :P

 

Anyhow, thanks for letting me stay.

[disturbman]

Hello everyone,

 

My name is Vincent (to be pronounced in a way I'm not capable to convey in some writen phonetic transcription) and I'm French (now you know why) but I've decided 18 months ago that I should flee Paris if I was ever going to survive. I just ended up here, in a cold and very friendly part of Germany called Berlin. Problem is, I just came without speaking a word of german. Was I brave, courageous or plain stupid? You'll never know. Anyhow it's been now a year I'm learning this beautiful language. That's not easy every day but I manage. Going every day to school for 4 hours of intensive teutonic torture, my inner strenght being sucked out of me by perverse poets and writers. But, when I'm not to down I'm writing - I'm a writer and journalist specialized in music, modern art and transport system - or just thinking about model railroad.

 

Why trains? I don't know. Maybe because they just look cute to me. Maybe because my parents kept offering me some when I was young. I had during the years a set in a scale bigger than HO, I had also a Jouef PSE TGV and N german model trains when I was in my teens. it was at that the time that I also got my first Kato set. It was an Eurostar. I still have it stored somewhere in Paris with my other N trains. I don't used them. I had until recently just forgot about them. Never had the chance to try to make a layout. I was allways changing places, living in small apartments. And I should say, Paris is not a great place to be a model railroader. During the 90s allmost all the shops I used to know closed and there is not so much of them left. But then, I came here and I rediscovered my hobby. I found shops everywhere and good deals. So, I started to get some new equipment. I was happy but not totally thrilled. I like german trains but they are for me kind of a bore, not so romantic. Not so much to my taste.  :-[

 

At one point I thought about going French or American but in the end, I got a cheap ticket to Tokyo. It was a dream come true I had allways wanted to go to japan. See things. Meet people. Speak Japanese. Eat Japanese. It was really a great experience and I will go back there to see more at the first opportunity.  8)

 

Anyway, it was nice. My girlfriendwas very excited, very pleased and was buying lot of souvenirs.Me I wasn't able to find a thing. Nothing was great enough to convey the feeling and the memories of this trip. I thought I will never find anything to bring back with me... until our last day and my last visit to the Geek's and Nerd's Mecca, Akihabara. Magic moment. Found a shop selling trains, buyed two Kato freight cars set (the Taki 1900 Mitsubishi-Kyogo Cement set and the Wamu 90000 set) and then went back to the hostel we where staying where I realised I was an idiot and that I should go back there and found a loc.  ;D

 

Fortunately our plane was taking of very late (around 10PM) so I had the time to went back to the shop and buy an EF63 (2nd type). A loc that by the time I finished detailing, I had decided that I will make a layout using only Japanese rolling stock and that's why I'm here today introducing myself.

 

It's been two weeks now that I've made this decision and I just received today my first parcel from Hobby Search containing two Tomix Kiha 40-2000 (one with a motor and the other one without). I wanted to show you some pics but unfortunately my camera doesn't do macro very well and the images are all blured. In anycase I think I will need some help to understand the notice who came with my two Kihas.

 

I'm also planing my next move train wise, the one for april, and I'm thinking of buying a Tomix DMU 183-0 or 183-100 set or the MicroAce Hakodate Express since my layout will feature somekind of North Japanese non-electrified railway line.  :)

[CaptOblivious]

Welcome, Vincent! It's great to have another professional writer here (there're a few of us already).

 

It has been several years now since my trip to Tokyo; I still have frequent and rather convincing dreams that I have returned to that great city. Waking is often quite a disappointment. I expect that you too will know this feeling soon enough.

 

The EF63 is a fascinating prototype with an interesting history, if you aren't yet aware of it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JNR_Class_EF63

[disturbman]

Thanks for welcoming me here.

 

Now that you told me I'm wondering if writing is one of the way that leads to geekdom. Hell, I anycase that doesn't bothers me at all. I lovemyslef the way I am. I would be interested to readmore about the forum's writers. Who they are, what they are writing about. :)

 

Speaking of dream about Tokyo, I just got one tonight. Nice but I'm more interested in the parcell I received yesterday.  ;D

 

Anyway, thanks for the link about the EF63. I had known a bit of the history of this prototype but until you gave it to me I hadn't read it carefully. I really like the look of the loc, with her big louvres. I think that I will use her for some freight parade. As they say here, "mal sehen".

[Mudkip Orange]

sUP... name is Mudkip... I use the sensitive radar receptors on my head to look for awesome trains... in a pinch I can crush rocks... blah blah blah

[Sushi Train]

sUP... name is Mudkip... I use the sensitive radar receptors on my head to look for awesome trains... in a pinch I can crush rocks... blah blah blah

 

But I will beat you with my thunder shock attack! Pika pika pi!  ;D

[scott]

I use the sensitive radar receptors on my head to look for awesome trains...

 

Yeah, but how are you *different* from the rest of the people on this forum?  ;) :)

[Sushi Train]

I use the sensitive radar receptors on my head to look for awesome trains...

 

Yeah, but how are you *different* from the rest of the people on this forum?  ;) :)

 

yeah, I keep my receptor in my nether regions but you don't hear me bragging!  :P

[scott]

that was way more than i needed to know

[Tenorikuma]

There's not much to say, but I'm interested in dioramas (currently working on an N-gauge river diorama) and I live in Japan, so I could probably answer questions anyone has about Japanese stuff in general.

[Bernard]

YES! Someone who lives in Japan! Oh, and welcome to the JNS forum. I know there are other member who are also modeling dioramas, would you mind starting a new thread and showing/describing your work on the River diorama? I for one have been experimenting with water effects on my own layout and would appreciate any tips.

[Martijn Meerts]

There's not much to say, but I'm interested in dioramas (currently working on an N-gauge river diorama) and I live in Japan, so I could probably answer questions anyone has about Japanese stuff in general.

 

Oooh.. Do you live near Tokyo or do you get to Tokyo Station now and then? I guess you can read Japanese too? =)

[Tenorikuma]

Oooh.. Do you live near Tokyo or do you get to Tokyo Station now and then? I guess you can read Japanese too? =)

 

Yes, I read and speak Japanese, but I live in Nagoya rather than Tokyo. It's not quite the same mecca for rail fans perhaps, although Nagoya Station (which is not far from my house) does happen to be the world's largest train station by physical volume. The main railways that operate here are JR (including the Shinkansen), Meitetsu, and Kintetsu, as well the municipal subway system. We also have the Linimo, the world's first commercial mag-lev train (which I have yet to ride).

[Martijn Meerts]

Oooh.. Do you live near Tokyo or do you get to Tokyo Station now and then? I guess you can read Japanese too? =)

 

Yes, I read and speak Japanese, but I live in Nagoya rather than Tokyo. It's not quite the same mecca for rail fans perhaps, although Nagoya Station (which is not far from my house) does happen to be the world's largest train station by physical volume. The main railways that operate here are JR (including the Shinkansen), Meitetsu, and Kintetsu, as well the municipal subway system. We also have the Linimo, the world's first commercial mag-lev train (which I have yet to ride).

 

The reason I'm asking about Tokyo specifically is because I'm planning on building a model of Tokyo Station (I love the architecture of the main building on the Marunouchi side, even though it's not very Japanese ;)). I'm not enough of a rail fan to visit places only because of the trains, and in fact, when I finally do get to Japan (for the first time ...) I'll be traveling to many places and only stop by Tokyo to see Tokyo Station and the Ghibli Museum =)

 

As for the reading Japanese, I have this little project in the back of my mind to help all non-Japanese reading people who are into Japanese model trains, by making english instructions available. Obviously, those would need translating by someone with the appropriate knowledge ;) I've looked at, and thought about contacting a professional translation company, but other than the fact that they are horribly expensive, few of them will have knowledge about model trains, so I'm afraid the translations wouldn't be the best.

[Tenorikuma]

As for the reading Japanese, I have this little project in the back of my mind to help all non-Japanese reading people who are into Japanese model trains, by making english instructions available. Obviously, those would need translating by someone with the appropriate knowledge ;) I've looked at, and thought about contacting a professional translation company, but other than the fact that they are horribly expensive, few of them will have knowledge about model trains, so I'm afraid the translations wouldn't be the best.

 

Translation is actually my job. It can be fairly time-consuming; technical Japanese uses a dense writing style and has numerous terms that don't correspond one-to-one to English terms. However, if you had anything you were particularly interested in having translated, I'd certainly have a look at it. I can also shine light on mysterious signboards, place names, etc.