How do I arrange train sets?

[bc6]

Im pretty sure there's a post in this topic but I'm not sure how to search for it 

 

How do I number train sets like the Kato Chuo-Sobu set 10-1912/13 in the correct order as the prototype. I know there are individual numbers that you can affix to the bottom of the car where can I find those.

 

I'm venturing to guess that the instruction manual has something to do with the prototypical car order. I have not had a chance to look at it yet that's why I'm asking.

 

Thanks 

[cteno4]

Yes instructions usually give you that info on car order. I use to cheat and then just put little round stickers on the bottoms of cars to indicate order and direction [if couplers didnt do that for you.]. You can indicate direction by the orientation of the number on the sticker [ie if you hold the car upside down in front of you then you always rotate the car down on the tracks in a single direction when putting them on the tracks like rotating the roof towards you.]

 

someone in our club put the numbers on the foam insert and was just careful to put them in and out of the case in order, but this was easy to screw up if you got distracted, but then you dint have a little sticker on the bottom of your cars.

 

jeff

[bc6]

Thanks, Jeff I'll be numbering that set tonight.

[cteno4]

I used those tiny dots like 3/8” diameter and just found a flat bit on the car to push it onto. Ive lost a few when they sometimes rub on the foam. Ive always meant to go back and figure out a better solution of where to put numbering but I've never gotten to it and im not all that concerned if i screw up now and then or order or orientation, but i do know it pains some a lot.

 

jeff

[bc6]

I use the dots to tell me which trains have decoders in them or not. I know what you mean when you lose a dot it drove me nuts not knowing what cars had a decoder or not. I'm going to give it a shot and see how it goes. I may take the numbering of trains cars to an extreme or not.

Edited Friday at 05:07 PM by bc6

[bill937ca]

Check the Hobby Search listing for that info. Probably as a image.  Or check the manufacturers site. Again probably as an image showing which car has the motor.

[bc6]

Thanks Bill I did exactly that and went to the Kato website and found the instruction manual for my set thanks.

Edited Friday at 07:14 PM by bc6

[200系]

If you take a closer look at your model, you'll find the car number annotation on the right side of the car, next to the 4th (aft, as seen from the 1st car), just above the priority seat/wheelchair access pictograms and below the upper yellow band. Connect them all from 1 to 10, just make sure to keep the car number annotations and pictograms on the right side of all the cars (as seen from car no.1), and you got the prototypical formation, easy peasy...

[bc6]

Thanks 200 I will whip out the magnifyer and take a closer look at the cars and number then according to the included instructions. I hope the set comes with the sticky numbers to put on the bottom of the cars lol. I appreciate you replying to my question.

[cteno4]

Yeah a lot of the time I’m putting trains out at shows and funky lighting, in a hurry, and my close eye site is not as good as it use to be so i went to the stickers to cheat. 

 

Jeff

[bc6]

Does anyone have a source for stickers that I can use on my commuter cars?

[Kingmeow]

You can use wire number labels.  Available from Amazon or at Home Depot for the same price.

 

Wire number labels

 

But if you have time to kill and have access to a Brother P-Touch machine you can make your own and cut them out into pieces.  I find the (genuine) P-Touch labels stick very well and does not leave behind any adhesive residue when removed even a long time later.  Another Japanese innovation.  😁

Edited 15 hours ago by Kingmeow

[bc6]

Those are exactly what I'm looking for thank you, I do have a P-Touch at work that I may run a test sample on and see how they come out. Using the P-Touch would never have crossed my mind to use for this application thanks again.

[Kingmeow]

12 minutes ago, bc6 said:

Those are exactly what I'm looking for thank you, I do have a P-Touch at work that I may run a test sample on and see how they come out. Using the P-Touch would never have crossed my mind to use for this application thanks again.

 

P-Touch 9mm or 3/8" works well with N-Scale.  Often I make a TON of my three letter name initials and stick it on the fuel tanks (US locomotives) as I run them at train shows.  Used more for identification mix-ups rather than theft deterrent as other modelers may have the same equipment.

 

Now that I'm starting to gather more Japanese equipment there's not much need for that as I'm the only guy running Japanese trains at shows.  🤣🤣🤣

 

Recently I added a "F" (using P-Touch) underneath the front truck of a newly acquired EF510 as the "1" and "2" to indicate which is forward on the shell is impossible to see with my naked eyes.  The "F" on US locomotives is easier to see and 98% of them have safety cabs so you know which is front.

Edited 15 hours ago by Kingmeow

[bc6]

When you say 9mm or 3/8 what are you referring to?

 

This makes want to invest in a P-Touch which one do you have?

 

That's a great use for the P-Touch I could use it for identifying which locomotives had decoders or not. Theft deterrent is a good use for the machine also. 

 

Since you're the only guy running Japanese trains there's no mix up lol untill others start liking Japanese trains also lol.

 

That's another great ideal for using the P-Touch, I never wanted to go back to work so quickly lol.

 

[cteno4]

Interesting i never thought of the Ptouch labels. But smaller font for just doing numbering like that would be easy and could use a hole punch to make a dot easily. They do stick better and are thinner than the usual Avery dot stickers and dont have to try to write cleanly tiny. Going to have to experiment with that.

 

could also do black with white letters to make the labels blend in a bit better on the usual black underbody stuff or black on gray.

 

do you just use a tip of an xacto to peel off the backing?

 

jeff

[bc6]

I would think the P-Touch labels would be thinner and tougher than Avery labels. That's a good alternative suggestion. After a lengthy search, I found numbers in circles in font form. So I could print those onto decal sheets and apply them to the train cars.

[cteno4]

Yes thats my hope as the Avery labels are quite tall.

 

I forgot to mention the other trick with orientation is to just place the labels on one end of the car so they are always facing the same direction. Only issue with this is finding appropriate spots to stick the stickers on one end or the other on some trains.

 

I guess i just got lazy as i stopped labeling trains many years back. Probably was i had labeled a lot of the longer trains when we had the larger club layout and with Ttrak usually smaller equipment now and easier to figure out car order. And maybe just lazier with age…

 

jeff

[Kingmeow]

6 hours ago, bc6 said:

When you say 9mm or 3/8 what are you referring to?

 

This makes want to invest in a P-Touch which one do you have?

 

9mm or 3/8" is the height size of the label.  I found that to be just right for N-Scale.  1/2" is a bit too big.

 

Unfortunately I bought my machine about 30 years ago!  But it can still use all the modern tapes.  If you are going to buy a machine today, make sure it can use the TZ or TZe tapes.  Those are laminated tapes.  Basically the printing is laminated over by a clear tough layer.  There are cheaper machines that uses M (I think) tape only and there's no lamination with those.  Rough handling over time will scratch off the print/toner.  You can not mix tape types with machine types.

 

DO NOT BUY imitation machines or tapes!  I told one friend that but he wanted to save a few bucks.  "Look!  I can buy 5 tapes (from China) for the prices of 1!"  He ended throwing the ENTIRE system and EVERY tape away due to frustration and lack of quality.  And who knows what residue the tapes will leave over time.  P-Touch tapes have been proven over time.

 

Here is a 9mm or 3/8" tape I used on the fuel tank of a Kato SD70MAC.  This is to prevent ownership mix ups at train shows.

 

 

4 hours ago, cteno4 said:

could also do black with white letters to make the labels blend in a bit better on the usual black underbody stuff or black on gray.

 

do you just use a tip of an xacto to peel off the backing?

 

jeff

 

Yes you can!  But I'm lazy with MRR equipment as the places I put them on normally no one can see.  I use the same methodology for all my camera equipment.  For that I use white print on black tapes as the tapes are visible.  Looks really professional.

 

I even use it to label Kato book cases.  I use white print on (neon) green.  It's not an exact match but "good enough" to blend into the Kato green.  I wish Brother would make a dark/forest green tape.  🙂

 

After printing out a long label (I do a few at a time as each print job wastes a little bit of label for the leader/header), I cut them on a paper cutter to be as square as possible and use a tweener or the tip of an X-Acto knife to apply them after peeling off the backing.

 

Here you can see the "F" on the front truck on an EF510.  Again, 9mm or 3/8" tape.  Now I don't have to use a magnifying glass to see where the "1" or "2" is!  😎

 

 

36 minutes ago, bc6 said:

I would think the P-Touch labels would be thinner and tougher than Avery labels. That's a good alternative suggestion. After a lengthy search, I found numbers in circles in font form. So I could print those onto decal sheets and apply them to the train cars.

 

Extremely tough.  I use them on my R/C airplanes and they go through much rougher conditions than my trains.  Again, be sure to use TZ or TZe laminated tapes - genuine ones!

 

As I mentioned my unit is 30 years ago and even with that vintage its has built-in fonts with circles, framing borders, special symbols like arrows, lightening bolts, stop signs, caution triangle, etc.

 

Edited 8 hours ago by Kingmeow

[Kingmeow]

BTW, in the first picture you see the "exposed" gears in the truck?  They are actually slightly recessed so you can stick a P-Touch label over them with no ill effects.  @cteno4 in case you can't locate space for your labels on your trains.

 

As a matter of fact, people use a piece of blue painters tape to purposely cover those gears to prevent dirt, small pieces of foam, etc. from being ingested.  Especially at a train show where the environment is not exactly the cleanest.

 

Having to get out an ingested piece of dirt/foam that's inside all those gears is a royal P-I-A!!!!  Often you have to take apart all the gears in the truck to find it!  🤬

[bc6]

@Kingmeow Thanks I will keep the tape size in mind when I order tapes. I'll also remember to get a TZ or TZe machine, I think the P-Touch will be the best solution to my labeling side quest. Your examples are great reference material and show a good usage for the P-Touch.

[cteno4]

Challenge is with regular cars there is the usual underside details that are usually small and stickers dont stick to as well and then most of the little bit of flat spot along the middle of the chassis usually has some raised lettering on it! Truck surfaces are recessed and can put them over the bogie pin areas. Just a bit of a hunt to find a good consistent place to put them on each train. Some are easy and some are harder.

 

Funny you should mention the exposed gears. Years ago we had a club member who kept having motor cars getting gummed up with smutz. He never felt he had the dexterity to open them up so i ended up out cleaning out a few dozen of them over a year or two. Really could not figure out where he was picking up all the crap as he ran on a layout base at table height I had made for him and he did a lot of perceived scenery so no ballast, just some ground foam around and usual household smutz. After the first dozen I went and put scotch tape over the gear slots on his trucks to see if that could maybe stop crap getting sucked up into the trucks, but a number of them came back mucked up! I was a bit mystified, but just had to assume it got sucked up around the wheels more. Maybe why they didnt bother to close the gears over! He did run his trains a lot and very hard so way more use than the usual train use. Over 25+ years ive only had maybe a dozen really badly mucked up power cars/locos of mine that have required extensive cleaning.

 

jeff

[Kamome]

On 5/17/2025 at 12:35 AM, bc6 said:

How do I number train sets like the Kato Chuo-Sobu set 10-1912/13 in the correct order as the prototype.

Labels are a great idea as the car numbers are small and the bookcase folders don’t always allow you to store your train in order. I once got picked up at a rental layout that one of my green cars was backwards in a 189 Asama formation. The shame!!

 

When I purchase the add-on set, I tend to reshuffle the coaches into their running order while being stored. Often Kato info gives info on the correct direction of travel. Expresses tend to have seating facing towards one direction (cab cars always face cab front) Some commuter trains have cellphone antenna on one end or position of toilet etc.. Sometimes though the shape of the foam doesn’t allow for correct order or orientation storage due to pantogtaph location or other features. In my experience this is an issue with Kato inserts. I’ve not experienced the same problems with Tomix or Microace bookcases as the spaces tend to be square. 

 

My Kato E5 as example is stored in correct direction although cars 2,4,6,8 are stored in the smaller 4 car box due to the pantograph spaces. My other Kato shinkansen like the 500 are stored 1-7 + 16 in one case and 8-15 in the other. The only issue is that the 2 pantograph cars have to be reversed from correct orientation. Some others like the 0 and E7 have to have coaches stored out of order. 
 

I assume some people keep their trains stored with complete base set, add on set as purchased, but this would be even more confusing for me. I feel my trains could be arranged back to factory positions should I wish to sell anything. 

[bc6]

I really don't think I imagined die cut labels for passenger cars on my trips through the internet but cant for the life of me find them anywhere. Oh the humanity of having your Green car the wrong direction lol.

 

In the past I haven't worried about the order that trains were arranged, but now with the E231-500 I've put a little more effort into the arrangement. Now I want to get fancy and do it the right way and make it easier for me to identify the cars also.

 

ive been thinking about getting a bigger bookcase to put a 10-unit train set in as well to make things easier.  

 

Now I'm thinking about getting a label maker so I can easily identify the correct order and direction my cars should be, lol.