What did you order or the post deliver? (HO and other scales)

[kusojiji]

Yeah, N would be worse with 1/148, 1/150, 1/160 and am not sure who is who. I guess since I 3d print a lot of my stuff nowadays, they're all skewed anyway.

 

Ah, nice about the HOx-Trak - maybe it'll take off! 🙂 Yeah, took a look at the Kato offerings and they are based on their track sizes as you state. When I saw that the S248 track is what one side's length is, I realized the scale of this and they are too tiny. This would require very precise alignment methods to prevent wonky track joints and a good method of jointing power.

 

Was watching thiswayworks videos on his build, but he seems to have fallen off. Hope he's ok. His repair/mod videos were pretty good.

[kusojiji]

BTW, nice Tomix coaches! I just did a search and see that Tomix offers quite a bit of HO stuff, more than Kato I believe. I haven't bought much Tomix stuff as my buddy gave me one of his N scale  locos and that thing won't couple up to anything I have, which are a mix of Kato and micro-trains (which work fine together). 

 

How are the HO couplers for Tomix? Work fine with other species?

[cteno4]

1/148 is UK and 1/160 is US and Europe. Japan is all 1/150 except for shinkansens are 1/160 and many steam are a bit under 1/150.

 

jeff

[Kamome]

  On 4/1/2025 at 6:46 AM, kusojiji said:

Ordered a Kato Degoichi. Been waiting since Oct. Got a notification that they are delayed.

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I too expected to be running mine the by end of March/early April. Now being pitched for late April so hopefully no further issues to change the release date further.

 

As for Tomix coaches, they are most often fitted with Kadee #5 couplers from the factory. This is not the case with good wagons. Koki, Taki and Kumu come with plastic couplers, similar to Kato. The plastics are pretty standard using Kadee as a comparative size guide which they also couple with. The shank on the plastic freight (Koki type) couplers are way too long however.

 

Personally details on Tomix coaches are pretty good, let down only be the very simplistic one colour plastic interiors. They can obviously be improved with some painting and detailing. The wheels do have a tendency to be shiny silver and I'm also not a big fan of the current collector parts for internal lighting which can easily be seen through the windows. Kato are definitely better in terms of value, Tomix can seem a little over-priced by comparison in certain areas. It really depends on what outline you want as Kato and Tomix don't produce the same coach types as each other and other than price and the addition of factory fitted Kadees, they are very similar in terms of quality.

Edited April 3 by Kamome

[kusojiji]

Thanks for the info! I may be looking that way now. I like the older, cha colored cars. Luv my suha44 set in N-scale.

 

Also good to know they are set up for lighting like the Katos. I do my own lighting system with rectifier, 5v led strip, resister and cap. I am going to be changing my DC lighting to DCC soon in my oha 35s, so all that will change.

[EB421]

  On 4/3/2025 at 2:31 AM, cteno4 said:

1/148 is UK and 1/160 is US and Europe. Japan is all 1/150 except for shinkansens are 1/160 and many steam are a bit under 1/150.

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Thanks - and this is why I settled on 1/87 - I can get models from every single one of those countries in the same scale. In Japan it's only Shinkansen (since I can't afford any of the 12mm kits!). In the UK it's only USATC, Sheds, Gronks, Scottie and a handful of specific vintage models.

 

But at least I can do it!

[EB421]

Oh mirror on the bathroom wall, whose is the fairest bullet train of all?

 

 

What do you mean "not yours"!?

 

Edit: In light of @cteno4's post reaction - some clarification. After Lima's original release of the Tokaido Shinkansen, the tooling was used for Model Power and Playart branded Shinkansen - some with fictional liveries. This one was the worst!

 

Anyway - since my plan has always been to "upcycle" these with a different livery like Doctor Yellow - it didn't really matter what the original livery was. So; my rake contains both Lima Tokaido, and Model Power AMTRAK 0-series cars. All in it cost me about 82 pounds, which is half the going rate for a complete set.

 

And that's why my Shinkansen is one of the ugliest! For Now.

Edited Saturday at 11:22 AM by EB421

[cteno4]

I had a vague memory of the Amtrak series 0. Wishful thinking for Amtrak.

 

jeff

[EB421]

  On 4/5/2025 at 5:00 PM, cteno4 said:

I had a vague memory of the Amtrak series 0. Wishful thinking for Amtrak.

 

jeff

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Quite recent wishful thinking!

 

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-s1-5146508/amtrak-japan-texas-bullet-train-plan

[cteno4]

Its sad the npr piece didn't get into the big history and issues of the texas project.

 

Amtrak is only doing the search and selection of the “delivery partner” to get the project completed. Most all the work for getting it to this point was by Texas Central Railway and Amtrak stepping in after they were exhausted from legal battles over takings and delays from that. It will be interesting to see how this progresses in the current political climate as its chaos on what projects are going to be kept on the front burner. Also big question if the push to privatize Amtrak will happen which would be another huge chaos.

 

This will be a way for Amtrak to have claim on having true high speed rail, but they really didn't make it happen.

 

jeff

[kusojiji]

And, a big part of the shinkansen story is the need to keep schedule and big push for safety. One coupler failure and the entire system is stopped. A little tree shaking in the breeze and they stop the entire line thinking it is an earthquake. Gotta give it to them, though, no accidents yet.

 

Amtrak on time? Are they going to keep up with the maintenance of the infrastructure?

[cteno4]

Well japanese system isnt that fragile, but it’s tuned to know when you need to react before there is a big problem. They have contingencies ready that take into account both safety and efficiency of the whole system and how one train can effect more than just that train.

 

Before things got stalled on the Texas line it was to use an N700 variant [amtrak still seems to be talking japanese trains] and Renfe was going to be contracted to oversee the train operation and maintenance [and i assume at least oversee track as well]. Recently the japanese financial backers were bought out by a texas business man, but now the project is still hitting issues in texas politics of it being wasteful spending and maybe blocking any texas state money to go into it [the state was going to do the road and infrastructure movement for the line]. Im sure its also problematic to get state support right now for the remainder of the land takings that would need to be done by eminent domain. Some county chafing at paying for some of the infrastructure parts as well when property gotten from eminent domain is not taxed and the counties may not see direct benefits from the lines. Tariff issues as well now im sure in the mix of headaches for them.

 

jeff

[marknewton]

  On 4/1/2025 at 6:46 AM, kusojiji said:

Ordered a Kato Degoichi. Been waiting since Oct. Got a notification that they are delayed. I'm guessing not DCC friendly so will have to figure that out when she finally shows up.

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The original release of the D51s had an 8-pin receptacle in the tender, see the attached photo. All of mine have decoders added, and run beautifully. I’d be surprised if the new versions aren’t DCC ready. I don’t need any more D51s, but I’ve ordered one anyway, because I’m curious to see how the new version differs from the originals.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[kusojiji]

  On 4/6/2025 at 11:13 AM, marknewton said:

The original release of the D51s had an 8-pin receptacle

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Ah nice! That'll make life a whole lot easier. I hope they continued this. Thanks for the picture!

 

And if I wasn't so brain damaged, I would have noticed it in Shigemon's review as well. Completely glossed over it. Time mark 1:58.

 

 

 

[kusojiji]

Oh wow, Tomix seems to be about twice the price of Kato. They have a lot more selection though...

[Kamome]

  14 hours ago, kusojiji said:

Oh wow, Tomix seems to be about twice the price of Kato. They have a lot more selection though...

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Yes, although the majority is not in stock, but Tomix has produced a lot of different options. 

 

The majority is manufactured in S. Korea which probably drives up the price a little although I wouldn’t say the quality is any better. Both Kato and Tomix have some interesting features. Kato’s range is limited although expanding. They have produced an E5 in the past as well as a Kintetsu 21000 but these have not been repeated. 

 

Tomix locos have better parts with things like metal etched although the plastic parts are flimsier compared to Kato ones. Kato’s range use metal pantographs whereas Tomix use plastic and metal unless you purchase the Prestige version which use metal parts. 

 

The majority of Tomix stock also come with Kadee #5 couplers with exception of freight cars and their kits. I tend to change these out anyway but all Kato come with plastic couplers in the box. 

 

Kato’s range use does have some DCC functionality be it a bit old fashioned with 8 pin sockets in some of their stock. Tomix don’t do anything DCC related so would need to be hardwired. 

 

For coaches also look at Tenshodo. Their plastic coaches are a similar price to Tomix.