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

[Suica]

Got my hands on a little rarity.

Hödl HO gauge Kumamoto Shiden Type 9700

Edited April 12, 2019 by Suica

[marknewton]

Tomix HOn30 Nekoya lime steam loco and freight car arrived yesterday. Haven’t had a chance to run it yet, but it certainly looks nice.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[GDorsett]

My KiHas are finally here! After the weekend when I needed them!

 

 

the underside detailing is nice

 

the reason these were so late was the backorder on these couplers

I actually have an interesting use for the C21 couplers. I'm going to put them onto a set of EMD F-Units. I'll use the MU style couplers when running the set as a set so that shoddy trackwork won't break them apart, and then swap to the normal knuckles when either adding in other locos or using the locos with other sets.

 

and if all else fails, there are other objects that make good box openers.

 

And these are, indeed, unpowered. Well bugger.

Edited April 17, 2019 by GDorsett

[Kamome]

Yes the Kiha 65s are an unpowered model. 

The only powered unit Kato produced was a Kiha 58, but there is also an unpowered version too. Make sure you order the correct one as it seems some websites info is somewhat misleading.

You need 1-601 Kiha 58(M)

 

Nice hotdog legs btw 😄

 

[GDorsett]

Before I get any more KiHas, I will be getting a pair of powered 58 models. After that, I can get more unpowereds.

[Kiha66]

Technically, the 58's are KIHAs....  Also you should be good with just one powered car for trains shorter than 8 cars, and probably over 10 cars if you don't have any major grades.

[GDorsett]

the goal right now is six cars. That said, aren't the powered 58s single truck driven? Or are both trucks driven? If both trucks are driven, then I only need one.

[Kiha66]

The model should have both trucks driven on the power car.  The prototype Kiha 28 units were the ones with single truck drive.

The pictures of the model show drive shafts going to each truck.
https://www.namelesscity.tokyo/2017/11/kato-1-601ho58-1-604ho28.html

Edited April 18, 2019 by Kiha66

[GDorsett]

alright, then I shouldn't need two powered models. Just need to find the powered one for a reasonable price.

[GDorsett]

Can I pull these two models with a locomotive untill I can get more? Either as a pushing service through mountains or as part of a train and use them like they're coaches?

[Kamome]

3 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

Technically, the 58's are KIHAs....  Also you should be good with just one powered car for trains shorter than 8 cars, and probably over 10 cars if you don't have any major grades.

That’s helpful to know. I was wondering whether to get a second motor if I run a 10 car Kiha 81 Kuroshio

[Kiha66]

I've had no problems with 6 cars so far, I can do some tests tomorrow and see where the line is for a second motor car. 

[Kamome]

2 hours ago, GDorsett said:

Can I pull these two models with a locomotive untill I can get more? Either as a pushing service through mountains or as part of a train and use them like they're coaches?

The only issue is marrying up the couplers. The coupler used on these Kihas is different from the standard knuckle couplers. Not sure how this works with the coupler supplied but definitely not compatible with Kadees. 

[Kamome]

3 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

I've had no problems with 6 cars so far, I can do some tests tomorrow and see where the line is for a second motor car. 

I know the Tomix HO diagrams always show a second motor on their EMU diagrams but these are usually protypical consists of about 10-15 cars.

 

Neither the Kiha 58 nor Kiha 80 have traction tyres, couplers have little to no slack so shouldn’t cause too much issue adding a second.

Edited April 18, 2019 by Kamome

[al camino]

On 4/10/2019 at 9:33 PM, GDorsett said:

  On 4/10/2019 at 9:31 PM, al camino said:

Black Wednesday for KIHA expectators ... ?

 

https://media.makeameme.org/created/SO-IT-WOULD.jpg

 

It's only been almost two weeks. My fault for not seeing the "backordered item" in the description, but still surprised at how long it takes for a set of couplers to be moulded.

 

Eventually I hold the items in my hand! - Today is the 25th of april - 15 days after postal tracking told: shipment delivered on April 10th.

The root cause was that the expernal attached bill did not cover the shipment. So customs at Frankfurt airport decided to make customs at the lokal customs. Nothing specific so far. I had this game quite often with shipments from USA since 1992. In this case you receive a letter telling your parcel will be at your customs office (address) not before (a few days later). Please bring ordering and billing documents to calculate the customs and pick up the shipment with (customs ID number, not the EMS parcel number). Please note the shipment will be returned after 14 days. With the 6th dayof storage you have to pay (Im not sure) 5€ per additional day.

But I did not get ANY letter. Even calling the postal service went to nothing. The parcel is at DHL local storage to be forwarded to the customs. Please wait for the letter. I asked several times but got neither a letter nor the customs office address were my parcel will be sent to. Great - 99800 Yen seems to go down the drain.

This week I got a e-mail by DHL telling the parcel is in Nürtingen-customs-office since April 10th. I should have picked it up with the document sent to me. Now the storage time is over and the shipment on its way back to Japan. (here some <beep> words are appropriate).

Next day I called the now known customs. A very friendly guy understood that I have no documents and checked for a shipment arrived April 10th. Found the parcel, told it will return the next day and I'm welcome to visit him and pick up the parcel. The customs staff quit beeing upset about postal service long ago.

Hey - and he did NOT charge me for long storage. This could have been 50 bucks or so. Great guy!!

 

Conclusion: I saved the shipment from another journey around half of the world. 5 days from Tokyo to Germany (9500km) with tracking - 15 days from Köngen to Nürtingen(11km) without tracking. I am not sure if I like to inform the postal team. Let them continue to search the parcel ...

 

Anyway - now I've to go to the attic to have some fun with the fish express train (7*RESA10000/1*REMUFU10000) and my KIHA82 (!!!).

Some pictures will follow later.

Edited April 25, 2019 by al camino
spend some letters and added the "great guy" line

[al camino]

The unpacking session was great.

KATO never disappointed me before. Neither today.

O.K. I do not judge the DCC capabilities. All my Tomix will provide quite some difficulties with DCC - so I am not sure if my JNR ever will see any DCC.

 

In regard to the fun with the shorties (I cannot imagine a "serious" modelrailroader in Germany to accept having fun with shorties) I decided to make a "full size shorty" of my helper-KIHA82 train. I tested the ED75 with a 3 car KIHA82 - and found it looks great. Not prototypical but resembles the idea of the helper service - and saves a KIHA80(M) invest.

The loco (Kadee) and KIHA coupler work well together.

 

Which locos powered teh RESA express trains?

I always come to the EF66 (my favorite) but my single EF66 should power nearly half of my different consists. TOMIX must make a re run of this cutie.

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by al camino
typo

[Kamome]

I think the EF66 was a staple of the fish train. 

[Kiha66]

Short helper + kiha 82 sets are actually prototypical.  I know 4 car sets with a helper loco were common, so i'm sure a 3 car set could have happened.

[al camino]

On 4/12/2019 at 1:55 AM, Kamome said:

The Kiha 58s use a similar/if not same part. The pegs looked fatter on the Kiha 82 ones so could be an older, degraded mold.

 

The 58s slid on without issue. These new ones needed persuading with a lot of foul language.

 

Ouhh - lot of foul words!

 

To me it seems that there are 2 different coupler loops.

First step was taking the inner e-2 (inner related to sprue) and attach to the coupler loop of a KIRO80.

It went onto perfectly. Then trying the (sprue) outer e-2 to slidw onto the other end of this KIRO80.

No way - foul words!

Taking a KIHA80, try to attach same e-2 did not work.

First idea: the inner and outer e-2s are different, mould worn out.

But neither the inner nor the outer e-2 went on neither the one end of KIRO nor this one end of KIHA.

So there might be 2 different coupler loops.

The non sliding e-2 went fine on the other KIHA end coupler loop.

By this observing I think the coupler loop might be the problem.

I'll take some mesurement in the next days.

Anyway I'll try to carve a little from the loop instead of the e-2 pegs.

 

And - yes - it is disappointing that the KATO perfectness we are used to seems to have reached the up to date standard.

[al camino]

I now had mounted some e-2 by just carving some material (deburring) from to loop.

Then the e-2 went on with a non destructive force that makes me believe these e-2 will not fall from the car.

But there is no way but to remove the coupler from the car.

[GDorsett]

Two Kato EF65-1000s. Will send pictures when they arrive.

[Kamome]

On 5/13/2019 at 1:05 PM, GDorsett said:

Two Kato EF65-1000s. Will send pictures when they arrive.

These are nice models with nice quiet smooth mechanisms. 

[GDorsett]

1 hour ago, Kamome said:

These are nice models with nice quiet smooth mechanisms. 

I was really hoping they'd sent them out soon after I ordered them so they'd be here for this weekend, but alas, it does not appear to be as such. Oh well. I'll have them for the next event.

[Martijn Meerts]

Received some H0-ish scale lumber to try and scratch build some structures using actual wood. I bought the blueprints and building instructions for a lumber mill and water tower a while ago, but wasn't able to find any wood to build them. Of course, I was looking at the wrong places and eventually ended up finding lots of nice wood at a store that sells materials for building doll houses. Of course it's not exactly H0 scale, but it's close enough.

 

 

From front to back:

3x3mm basswood beams to build the main supporting structure

0.6x4mm abachi strips to use as wall boards, possible also floor boards

0.6x3mm abachi strips, also for wall or floor boards (need to experiment with the size, 3mm is closer to scale, but I'm also going to try to cut the 4mm one in half)

0.6x3mm mahogany, also usable for walls and floors. I was thinking of using the mahogany to create a floor in the H0j steamer kit

 

The mahogany is 5 meters, the rest is 10 meters.

 

While buying these things, the pictures made it all look really large and out of scale, but seeing them up close and personal, they're very brittle, and I probably need to come up with a way to strengthen everything 🙂

[al camino]

On 5/10/2019 at 6:24 PM, al camino said:

While beeing anxious to have the April Hobby Search shipment lost I received something Italian stuff...

 

As written in KIHA81 annouced thread - the shipment arrived sound and safe.

Lucky me 🤩

 

Now going to check the detail part bags and instructions.

Lot of fun to come!

Edited May 16, 2019 by al camino
thead -> thread