Kanjiyama - An N gauge Japanese Terminus Layout

[Sir Madog]

I can only add words of caution about the use of Styrofoam. Just yesterday, I was working on the scenery on my bridge module, using a hot wire cutter to cut the Styrofoam. Despite working in a well ventilated area and wearing a mask, it took only minutes to get a big headache. The fumes are really toxic!

[David]

This is what Woodland Scenics is selling. Their foam pieces (while I'm sure they'll still burn plenty) are non-toxic, so you can cut them with an electric wire without worrying about ventilation.

[rankodd]

This is what Woodland Scenics is selling. Their foam pieces (while I'm sure they'll still burn plenty) are non-toxic, so you can cut them with an electric wire without worrying about ventilation.

 

That's a very interesting point in their favour - thanks!

 

How did insulation foam get approved for home use if it's so toxic when I burns?

[KenS]

It's inside the wall, so you need a pretty strong fire to get to the styrene and burn it. By then you've got other problems to worry about.

 

I generally cut foam with a knife and hacksaw, then shape it with a rasp, rather than using a hot-wire cutter.  This avoids the ventilation problem, but you need to wear a breathing mask due to the dust (and have a good shop-vac to get all the dust off you before you track it into the rest of the house).

[Mudkip Orange]

How did insulation foam get approved for home use if it's so toxic when I burns?

 

'cuz it's still waaaaaaaay safer than asbestos?

[Claude_Dreyfus]

A little more work today with the form work...this time to the front of the layout.

 

I do seem to be obsessed with making a layout seem as hemmed in and compact as possible...Yamanouchi Oshika is starting to look that way, and now here. I am trying to create a scenic bottle-neck where the tracks meet at the end of the platforms, as well as an operational one. To be honest, I have started putting together a few sequences, and am confident that there is sufficient scope for some interesting exhibition running, as well as personal amusement...

 

To start with, and overall view...

 

The form work here is still in the early stages, and nothing has been stuck down as yet. Here we are looking towards the fiddle yard; the town will be on the right - although this will be graded, whilst the opposite side will have part of an orchard, with a couple of small buildings as well as some steeper rocky ground. This is to give the impression that the railway has been blasted through the landscape.

 

 

Next we have a couple of pictures giving some indication of the height of the landscape. The area behind the KiHa 48 may be just a little higher, but not by much - if at all. The edge of the town will be on this section. Immedately in front of the KiHa 53 will be the orchard area. Beyond that the landscape will climb quite steeply, partially hiding the trains from the viewers...something which I quite like from a scenic point of view.

 

 

The orchard, with associated buildings will be located roughly where the little yellow pick-up is in this view.

 

 

The view above will not be possible once the landscape over the fiddle yard is complete. It's a little too pink at the moment, however it won't be for a good few weeks yet before I can starting with the paint and flock powders!

 

 

Finally we pull back to see the start of the fiddle yard to the left. The gap on the far left is intentional, as it is useful for storing spare stock securely. The trees are just temporary in this location, however they are rather nice and will be used on this layout when the time comes...they are Graham Avis silver birch trees with a couple of pines thrown in.

[rpierce000]

Is it the picture or is the red train in the second picture in the last post leaning to the left?  If so, you will want to fiddle with the tracks to get it level before you go much farther. Messing with the track later is a PITA. Trust me.

[disturbman]

Might be the picture (or the photographer) because in that shot both trains are leaning to the left. And in the 5th picture the train is also leaning to the left, left that is the right of the 2nd picture.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

It's been a while since I have been able to catch up here...I've been on my holidays!

 

The photo is a little deceptive...although the unit appears to be leaning, all the track is completely level with extremely wide radius curves. Perhaps my limitations as a photographer!

 

As I have been away, there is nothing much to report in terms of progress except for a coupel of imminent arrivals. A selection of Kato buildings - wooden rural types from Gaugemaster, and a coupel of Tomytec structures from Hobby Search. There is also a KiHa E131 set winging its way over to me to bring us right up to date. 

[Bernard]

Claude - I really like your track work....nice and straight, it should be smooth running over the switches!

[keitaro]

I can only add words of caution about the use of Styrofoam. Just yesterday, I was working on the scenery on my bridge module, using a hot wire cutter to cut the Styrofoam. Despite working in a well ventilated area and wearing a mask, it took only minutes to get a big headache. The fumes are really toxic!

 

Haha i just last night accidentally spilt super glue on the wall of my mountain right where the tunnell portal is. (actually i was placing a spot of supa to hold some shrubbery on and it pored out.... musta been  bad batch as it never runs out like this one did)

 

it got down the crack of the tunnell portal. minutes later i discovered it got behind the plastic portal and the plaster and started eating my foam. Alarge amount so i have now filled this inside the mountain with more filler to give etra support behind the plaster layer...

 

Anyway in minutes the room (very unventilated) was tripping me out had to evacfor a while.

 

 

 

 

Back on topic.

 

Looks like you have some room cleaning to do to get that other board in the background up as well. haha.

 

Does look nice and smooth too. unlike mine which ended up a bit uneven at joints where i changed the track design after gluing it down...

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Work has been slowly progressing; mainly around the station area. A few coats of paint on the platforms have still not completely eradicated the section joins, however at least the plastic sheen has gone. Looking a little mean and moody in the afternoon sun is the station, along with partially ballasted track. I need to replace the island platform canopies once the various little details have been added...

 

[disturbman]

Nice to see you are still working on this. I was starting to wonder what was happening to this project. :)

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Still plugging away...a lack of computer has led to me being unable to upload photos for the last couple of months.

 

More progress today, including more or less completing the station - there are still a couple of bits to do regarding the platform canopies, such as adding transfers, seats and other paraphernalia. More work has also gone on the ballasting, with a little extra 'greenery' (actually more 'yellowery', as the layout is set in summer and most of the grass has dried out).

 

I have also made a start on the superstructure of the scenery behind the station. Originally this was to be entirely of foam construction, however it is a bugger to sculpt, and makes quite a mess, so the more fiddly areas will be foamboard construction, with the insulation foam being used for the chunkier sections. I have a number of buildings, however as a starter we can see a few Tomytec offerings in more or less their situations.

 

 

 

The Kato station building does benefit from a little attention from a paintbrush and some scatter...

 

The station area is a little more advanced from the previous picture...but not much!

 

[disturbman]

Oh the actual city is going to be a tad higher than the train station. Interesting. That's strange to see those barriers on the platform there like that when the ground boarding the platforms is several millimeters higher. I guess you are planing a smoother transition than the one presented here.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Oh the actual city is going to be a tad higher than the train station. Interesting. That's strange to see those barriers on the platform there like that when the ground boarding the platforms is several millimeters higher. I guess you are planing a smoother transition than the one presented here.

 

The fences along the back of the platform are there mainly for visual purposes. The landscape behind the platforms at this point will be pretty steep, however they mark a useful point of delineation between railway and non-railway land.

[Mudkip Orange]

Residential street on a hill. That's going to be AWESOME.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Work is still progressing slowly but surely here, with the addition of a couple more buildings for the town centre. So far I have painted roofs, as well as add some details to gardens. A Kato Toyota Crown saw a lick of paint, and is now fixed to the back yard of one of the buildings. Mainly this area will be commercial, with a few shops, restaurants and a building doubling up as a small Ryokan (the one immediately to the right of the station building, on ground level). I have also given some of the buildings a coat of 'matt-cote' to take away the glossy shine of some of the plastic.

 

 

 

 

I really have to tidy that shed!

[scott]

What's the two-story beige building next to the station?

[bill937ca]

 

What's the two-story beige building next to the station?

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10141268

[The_Ghan]

 

What's the two-story beige building next to the station?

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10141268

 

I used to live in a house just like that ... my family ran an apartment house ... the tenants shared a common bathroom and ate in the household dining room.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Finally now winter is at an end, I have had the chance to check out the layout and make sure all is okay electrically. All seems to be fine, with a couple of sticky points attended to, and a thorough clean has taken place.

 

First things first, they layout now has a name...Kanjiyama. This is meant to be a small town somewhere in the JR Eastern region, up in the Japanese Alps. It is a junction station between a diesel operated branch line and the Kanjiyama line, a small third-sector branch heading off into the mountains.

 

The scenery has changed a little. Carving the foam would have been a real hassle, to the point where this has been dropped, and a more solid base of hardboard has been adopted. The foam will be used for filling in gaps. The hillside will slowly climb behind the station, eventually swallowing both lines via a pair of Greenmax tunnels mouths, currently en route from Plaza Japan, along with a small selection of Sankei buildings to fill in some gaps.

 

Towards the top of the hill will be a small farm, which will have some open ground around it, before the landscape gets covered by trees. My first set of cheepo trees from China arrived the other week. Ideal for using in a forest, but probably not up to scratch for individual trees. Tomytec have provided a couple of bamboo trees, along with a couple of cherry blossoms, however the rest will come from Graham Avis, which is a UK manufacturer mainly providing architectural model supplies, but get used frequently for modelling purposes. Some of these trees feature in pictures earlier in in this thread.

 

 

I have finally managed to fit the platform canopies, following the addition of signage. I'm not too sure what other platform details will be added...perhaps some of the plant areas provided in the Kato station accessory pack may add an extra splash of colour.

 

 

Kanjiyama sees a little freight traffic. This will eventually be in the form of an occasional fuel-oil train to the stabling point, as well as a more regular sand train, which uses the third-sector line. JRF traction will almost invariably be the DE10, although an occasional DD51 will crop up. The Kanjiyama line has a DD16, which is mainly used for engineering trains, as well as a couple of DE10s from the Tarumi line, bought when the cement operations ceased a few years ago. These are very recent additions, and are not, as yet, being used on the sand trains, which remains in the hands of the line's two DF50 locos...one of which has been fitted with headboards by the loco staff; delusions of grandeur setting in!

 

 

 

The sand trains will not properly start operations until I finally get round to obtaining a set of the Kato sand hoppers!

 

Operation is quite simple. The train arrives from the JR line and pulls into platform 3. The Kanjiyama line loco then runs out of the stabling sidings, hooks onto the end of the train and takes it up the branch. The JRF loco then runs to the stabling point to await the train's return. When it does return the whole process is reversed.

 

 

Neither lines are really heavily used, so the bulk of the traffic is handled by single-car units - KiHa110s for the JRE line, and either a KiHa40 or KiHa53 on the Kanjiyama line. Two-car sets do operate, and the Kanjiyama line has recently obtained a second-hand two-car KiHa58 from another forum. Two-car KiHa110s and a recently delivered KiHa130 also show up on the JRE line.

 

Rush hour at Kanjiyama can get a little hectic!

 

 

In the main, platform 1 is used by the JR Eastern services, whilst platform 3 is used by the Kanjiyama line. Platform 2 is used occasionally, and is only accessible to the JRE line.

 

Just occasionally invisible catenary appears, allowing me to exercise some of the electric fleet. The local railfans got really excited with a couple of visitors from the Iida line turned up...

 

 

Now I am awaiting the arrival of the remaining buildings and the tunnel mouths before pressing on with the scenery behind the town. I also need to pay more attention to the stabling sidings and work out what buildings are going there...so far I have one portacabin.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

More work has been taking place on Kanjiyama...this time on the Sankei buildings I received last week. I have three; two apartment blocks and a factory. They are really nice models, and quite enjoyable to build. They also make up really good models, which do not look like card buildings when you view them, even closely.

 

Having built some British card structures a few years ago, these Sankei models are streets ahead...even beating many UK plastic kits.

 

The factory was the first building constructed. This will be at the back of the layout between the road and the back scene.

 

Following on from that, the first of the apartment blocks was put together. This will be more or less in front of the factory, between the road and the railway. A lovely model, but much finer than the Tomytec apartments that share that plot. Perhaps a few trees between the buildings may disguise the difference a little.

 

In both cases, the buildings need a little touching up with a paint brush to eliminate the white edges of the card... which is from the coloured roof sections as opposed to the main sections, which are in fully coloured card.

 

Also with the Sankei kits came a pair of Greenmax tunnel mouths.

 

Disaster upon disaster here when I discovered they were too wide for the area designed to take them. There really is nothing suitable size-wise without resorting to major surgery, so I decided to build the tunnel mouths myself from card - or in my case mountboard.

 

I liked the design of the Greenmax kits, so wanted to mirror them fairly closely. The first tunnel mouth has been more or less completed now, all it needs is some paint, a bit of weathering and the protective fence which runs along the top. My version, on the right of the compare and contrast shot with the Greenmax example, shows that I needed to make my tunnel mouth considerably narrower that the kit version.

 

The third-sector line tunnel is even narrower, and is still in a very basic form. Hopefully more on that over the next couple of weeks, along with the final Sankei apartment block.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I am trying to get the Japanese characters for Kanjiyama, although this is not proving very straight forward. The best I can do is the following:

 

漢字閻魔

 

This is probably completely senseless, and I was wondering if any Japanese speakers could (a) tell me if this indeed more or less correct – or at least acceptable – or (b) let me know if there is something more appropriate?

 

Thanks

 

***********

Correct typo that lead to spelling query!

[Densha]

I'm not a Japanese speaker, nor I probably know sufficient Japanese to help you, but what would the meaning of the name be? Or did you just make a random name out of it? Also you've written it like Kanjiyama en Kajiyama, which one is right? I know 'yama' means mountain, and in that case I would use 山 of course, but as I said I'm not sure if it's right since there's the possibility that there exist multiple ways of writing it.