First Japan Rail Layout

[yakumo381]

Access to the station from Niihama town is implied by a underground entrance by the police box that I have never really liked so time to fix that given that the new buildings have created an alley that should be going somewhere...

 

...so Niihama station is now in the process of getting a new foot bridge. I had some parts over from the Greenmax kits that I had cannibalised to make the existing footbridge plus a stack of styrene sections and off cuts from a diorama I am putting together so I have started a custom build to fit the restricted space available.

[westfalen]

That is typical of Japan, squeezing things into what ever space is available.

 

A lot of station entrances are hidden between buildings or down narrow alley ways.

[cteno4]

wheres the cranes and construction crew?

 

looks like a great addition.

 

jeff

[yakumo381]

Update on the Niihama Station new footbridge building progress: main structures now completed ready for painting.

 

Didn't feel up to accurately cutting a row of small windows in the bridge so decided to leave the sides plain (my excuse is that all of my modelling and cutting is done with an ancient machinists steel rule that wore off its markings years ago and an equally ancient stanley knife whilst sitting cross legged at a Japanese table only 12 inches off the floor ...).

 

Had to put a slight angle in plan in the alignment of the stairs on the far side so that they sit mid-alley rather than too close to either building. Only a few degrees but made constructing the interface of the stairs to the actual bridge part interesting.

 

In the fourth image, having now freed up parking space in front of the Police Box (by getting rid of the fake underground entrance to the station), can anyone tell me if there are any special roadmarkings or signs used outside of kōban? Thinking of the equivalent of "reserved for police" or "police only" or similar. Have not really paid that much attention to kōban during my visits to Japan so have a bit of blank spot in my memory of them (does however give me the opportunity to acquire some more Tomytec police vehicles next time I visit Japan, to park up in front...).

[JR 500系]

Oh wow! What a nice looking layout and that bridge! Great idea to span that bridge across for easy access to the town, but be sure to place turnstile at the entrance of the bridge!  :)

[railsquid]

3 hours ago, yakumo381 said:

 

In the fourth image, having now freed up parking space in front of the Police Box (by getting rid of the fake underground entrance to the station), can anyone tell me if there are any special roadmarkings or signs used outside of kōban? Thinking of the equivalent of "reserved for police" or "police only" or similar. Have not really paid that much attention to kōban during my visits to Japan so have a bit of blank spot in my memory of them (does however give me the opportunity to acquire some more Tomytec police vehicles next time I visit Japan, to park up in front...).

 

 

I'm not aware of anything in particular; it would take a special kind of idiot to park in front of a Koban. If the police wanted to park there, they probably just would, if they wanted to keep the space empty for some reason they'd put cones out.

[yakumo381]

Virtually completed, just needs some minor detailing for which I don't currently have the materials to hand. Surprising what you can get done in three spare afternoons... ;-)

[cteno4]

Very nice job!

 

jeff

[Pashina12]

That looks fantastic!!

[Kiha66]

Looks great yakumo!  One trick to simulating windows without having to cut the plastic is to paint black/dark grey squares where the windows would be.  I learned it from ship modeling, as cutting hundreds of portholes would be very difficult to line up, while this method only takes a few minutes of taping to do.

[serotta1972]

Wow, that looks very cool! And you put that together really fast.

[yakumo381]

Was given a Tomix track cleaning car as an Xmas present so Niihama tracks are now the cleanest they've been for some time. 

 

Found clearance problems through the station platforms, presume the car must be out of gauge as the platforms were set relative to the track using the Kato gauge, and a few instances of vertically misaligned track ends where the higher rail catches the rotating circular pad and derails the cleaning car.

 

The misalignments are probably caused by warpage in the baseboard over the years so will need to get my needle files out to correct as it is not practical to relay the offending track sections.

[kvp]

4 hours ago, yakumo381 said:

Was given a Tomix track cleaning car as an Xmas present so Niihama tracks are now the cleanest they've been for some time. 

Found clearance problems through the station platforms, presume the car must be out of gauge as the platforms were set relative to the track using the Kato gauge, and a few instances of vertically misaligned track ends where the higher rail catches the rotating circular pad and derails the cleaning car.

The car has a slightly overgauge overhang on its corners below platform level. A similar problem causes some of the MAX shinkansens to hit the #4 platform ends some of the time.

[yakumo381]

Niihama has had its annual strip down, spring clean and is now back up and running well again.

 

 

[yakumo381]

At the end of last year, JR Freight put out a press release about changing the branding on all of their freight depots.

 

In line with this, the JRF workers in Niihama have been hard at work and have now updated all of their signage...

[yakumo381]

[yakumo381]

Had household management permission for a new layout....thinking of something like a compressed "inglenook" sidings only layout based on one of these plans at "https://huntervalleylines.wordpress.com/layout-designs/small-layouts/" suitably adjusted for Japanese railway practice.

 

Not to be as a replacement for Niihama but to complement it as it will be in the same room, using a long, narrow outline (approx 15 cm by 150 cm) positioned at right angles to one end of Niihama and set up at a lower level so that the incoming line is hidden under the Niihama baseboard.

 

Currently working on the plan and then will be starting the woodwork to support a traditional sundeala top surface that allows easy pinning down of the track. The new layout will be bracketed off the wall so no legs underneath to get in the way of accessing under either the new layout or Niihama.

 

Will be using PECO track with electrofrog turnouts, laid on cork and with woodland scenics ballast, to give an overall different look compared to the Kato track of Niihama so as to bring out the difference in time periods.

 

Period will be c. 1987 right at the end of JNR and to feature a rusting DE10 and numerous WAMU, and, most importantly, I will need to come up with a suitable name and a location in Japan to base it on. Any suggestions would be welcome...

 

Will document the build as I get into it so please watch this space....

[splifdfx]

Looking forward to your Inglenook as I'm thinking about doing one too someday.
My biggest problem for now is how to manage the remote decoupling.
I've made tests with some magnetic couplers but was not very satisfied with the results. I'm now thinking of hacking Peco manual decouplers or build something with microservos to simply continue to use the default Rapido couplers.
What kind of system do you plan to use ?

Edited May 8, 2018 by splifdfx

[yakumo381]

Construction  started.

 

Pictures 1 & 2: Baseboard temporarily in position running under Niihama - basically a section of seasoned pine with an added stiffening rib, to counteract any potential for warpage, set into it longitudinally in a machined slot then glued and screwed. An additional rib down the wall side to position it off the mounting attached to the wall above the radiator.  A series of vertical screws will then hold the baseboard on to the wall mounting.

 

I have left a gap to enable a back scene mounted on picture framing card to be slotted in behind the baseboard against the wall.

 

Third picture is the baseboard on the floor of my work room where I have glued cork sheet over the whole baseboard and then set out the turnout positions around a key scenic feature of a land drain as a common sight in Japan. Decided against using sundeala as it would take away too much vertical height that I may want to use for scenery, the Peco N gauge track pins easily go into the pine through the cork as long as struck cleanly.

 

The land drain was created by chiseling a slot across at an angle then lining it with mylar strip, 90 deg angle strips down the sides and a flat textured strip down the middle. Painted with acrylic and later will have water and weeds added using varnish, foam clumps and possibly suitable, dried bits of plant from the garden.

 

Track crossing the land drain will be supported on girders (more mylar sections) dropped into the slots routed into either bank.

 

Layout uses Peco flexi-track and 4 turnouts (2 LH and 2 RH), however already spotted that adding an extra LH turnout would add some extra operational interest by creating a short holding track for Brake Vans.

 

I've decided against any form of remote decoupling, as this reduces flexibility, and will just use a manual probe as on Niihama.

[yakumo381]

[yakumo381]

[yakumo381]

Track laid and basic wiring installed to prove all connections, board mounted in place and I'm starting to look at how to scenically disguise the incoming track. Probably going to be a tunnel entrance with a "concrete hill" - the type of construction used in Japan on a steep hill prone to slipping or slides. Trick will be to get a neat interface with the underside of the Niihama baseboard.

[yakumo381]

Jobs for next week will be track painting and ballasting (the things in building a layout I find the most tedious... ) before I can get into the overall scenic development (the part I find most interesting...).

[Kiha66]

Great progress shots!  I also hate ballasting and painting, so be sure to share some pics so I can see how you go about it.

[Khaul]

Those are tedious tasks, but there are ways to be efficient and go on mass production. For instance, you can just spray paint the whole track and clean up the top of the rails. If you use Unitrack or Finetrack you are done. I find this video, and everything done by Cygnus485, very instructive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBYJc5UphoA