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

[marknewton]

John, I envy you growing up in a city with tramway as good as Rotterdam's. 

 

Over the years I've had a few models that were made by Roco, they always impressed me with their quality. So I'm really looking forward to them arriving. I see that they are still producing the Duewag cars, in Albtalbahn livery:

 

http://www.eurorailhobbies.com/erh_detail.asp?erh_find=tram&mn=4&stock=R-63095

 

In the meantime, the Lima Duewags arrived, and I was very pleased to see just how nice a model they are. (I may have to re-think letting my son play with them!) They have Buhler can motors, and run very nicely. I was curious to see how sharp a curve they would run around, since the maximum width of Harry's layout will be 610mm/2'. So I set up a very crude test track, with a minimum radius of 266mm/10.5". All of our single-truck cars run through that quite happily, and luckily so do the Lima Duewags. To my great surprise, so do my Tomix Meitetsu and Kotoden interurbans! I'll be interested to see how the Roco Duewags go, as I've also picked up another one:

 

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/290670927716?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_605wt_1251

 

Couldn't resist it - I like "bendy" trams as much as my boy does! 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Kamiyacho]

The Bandai Series 0 Shinkansen arrived this week.  Really nice weight to it and beautiful detail.

[KenS]

That's a really beautiful model.

[cteno4]

Oooooh can't wait to come over to see this beauty! You are lucky it's too big to sneak out under my jacket!

 

Jeff

[John P Boogerd]

JR class 110 railcar by Endo - this is a dream come true for me - one of the members here told me that Endo made the class 110 - my favorite railcar - in HO and I found it through Rakuten for 250 dollars - the model was shipped from a train shop in Nagano.  This is the first time I have ordered through Rakuten and I am delighted with their service.

[bikkuri bahn]

Ordered a Tomix 113 series 1500 subclass (4 car base set) in Yokosuka colors.  It's actually outside of the era or region that I intend to model, but the prototype has sentimental value to me, and the 113 series in general is one of my favorite types. My most expensive purchase other than steam locomotives.

 

http://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/ho/images/ho069_l.jpg

 

http://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/ho/ho069.htm

[Densha]

JR class 110 railcar by Endo - this is a dream come true for me - one of the members here told me that Endo made the class 110 - my favorite railcar - in HO and I found it through Rakuten for 250 dollars - the model was shipped from a train shop in Nagano.  This is the first time I have ordered through Rakuten and I am delighted with their service.

Do you have a bigger picture of that? (if you can't find one I'm expecting one once you got it ;) )

[Nick_Burman]

Purchased a package of Kato Unitrack 2-180 369mm straight track, for use as a test track for my HO and On30 trains. Really seduced by the looks of the track - by far the best looking pre-ballasted track system available in the market AFAIK (pity the poor choice of track pieces). Would consider doing a layout using HO Unitrack. This leads to a question...what brand of track would you HO folks use for a J layout, Unitrack, Shinohara, Peco, Atlas?

 

 

Cheers NB

[marknewton]

Nick, I'm using Peco code 75 track. Painted and ballasted it looks good, when properly laid the perfomance is usually trouble-free, its not too expensive and its readily available. In the past I have handlaid track - I won't be doing THAT again! - and experimented with MicroEngineering code 55 flex-track. It looked great, but was very fiddly to lay properly, and was rather fragile. So I'm sticking with Peco.

 

(Although, I saw some Tillig track recently, and its very impressive.)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[John P Boogerd]

I just received my two Kato EF-510 electrics from Hobby Search - those are massive and beautiful engines and the price was very reasonable - I paid about $150 American each plus the EMS postage.

[John P Boogerd]

JR class 110 railcar by Endo - this is a dream come true for me - one of the members here told me that Endo made the class 110 - my favorite railcar - in HO and I found it through Rakuten for 250 dollars - the model was shipped from a train shop in Nagano.  This is the first time I have ordered through Rakuten and I am delighted with their service.

Do you have a bigger picture of that? (if you can't find one I'm expecting one once you got it ;) )

 

I'm sorry I didn't see this request before - I hope to learn how to take good pics soon and then I'll post better pictures of this 110 railcar - as well as my collection of older Japanese brass from Tenshodo and Endo.

[marknewton]

I had a lot of overtime in the month leading up to Christmas, so I had a bit of extra "pocket money" to spend on a present for myself. So I ordered another loco. Got the email informing me it's being shipped this morning!  :grin

 

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10106376

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[bikkuri bahn]

Envy :happy7:

 

*noticed the lead driving wheel is off the track in that pic.

[keitaro]

nice Mark.

 

I'm yet to see a HO japanese steamer in action besides in videos.

 

it certainly looks sexy.

 

I think i have mentioned to Bikkuri previously i'm a little interested in buying a few HO's just for show or maybe that was some one else.

 

Nguage is just to small to show off on a shelf in the house, can't see how great it looks till up close.

[marknewton]

noticed the lead driving wheel is off the track in that pic.

 

I hadn't noticed until you pointed it out - I hope the 1/80th scale crew didn't get into too much trouble over getting off the road! 

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

nice Mark.nI'm yet to see a HO japanese steamer in action besides in videos.

 

They run as nicely as they look. You should make the pilgrimage down my way one day, and come to a club running night and see them in action.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Here's a curly one - I bid on this model without any real expectation of success, but to my surprise I won the auction. I know what it is, but does anybody have any suggestions as to the manufacturer?

 

 

 

Looks like I'll have a bit of repair work to do...

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[keitaro]

nice Mark.nI'm yet to see a HO japanese steamer in action besides in videos.

 

They run as nicely as they look. You should make the pilgrimage down my way one day, and come to a club running night and see them in action.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

would love to Mark but i'm about to move to japan myself. I'm afraid i have no time right now.

[marknewton]

would love to Mark but i'm about to move to japan myself. I'm afraid i have no time right now.

 

Half your luck! When are you leaving?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[bikkuri bahn]

I know what it is, but does anybody have any suggestions as to the manufacturer?

Toby?

http://tetumo16.sub.jp/toby-6760/6760.htm

[marknewton]

Could be. The thing will be here in a few days, I'll post some photos when it arrives. Thanks for that link bb, I'd never heard of that manufacturer.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

The 6760 class 4-4-0 arrived, and I've done a bit of work on it already. The poor old thing has had a hard life! You were spot-on in identifying it, bikkuri bahn, it was made by Toby, their name is cast into the gearbox. The loco appears to be a more recent example than the one you posted the link for, as the can motor is factory fitted.

 

None of the tender wheels were in gauge, so that was the first thing to fix. Also the top edges of the tender were bent and wavy, so they had to be repaired.

 

I've straightened out all the details and parts that were bent, except for the dent in the cab roof. I'm undecided whether to attempt to fix it in-situ, or remove the cab and replace the damaged parts. I think I might take it apart, and add some detail while I'm at it.

 

Panelbeating done, I had a good look at the mechanism. It has no flywheel, and a rubber tube connection between the motor shaft and the gearbox.  It runs reasonably well, but there is nothing to stop the gearbox and motor shafts from becoming misaligned, which causes a lot of noise and vibration. If I can replace this arrangement with a universal joint and torque arm I will keep the existing mech, otherwise I might repower the thing with a Bullant Major in the tender - I'm undecided on that too.

 

The first photo shows the split leading truck arrangement, which is very clever.

 

All things considered, it's a nice little model for what I paid, and I'm very happy with it.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

[marknewton]

The postie called this morning with a big box from HobbySearch, containing a Kato Kiha82 4-car set and some Kato coaches. I bought the Kiha82 on a whim, simply because it looked like a nice model and the price was right. The thing is, I know next to nothing about the prototype...hint, hint! :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[bikkuri bahn]

Mark, the kiha 82 is one of my favorites (actually almost anything JNR before 1980 or so is my favorite :icon_biggrin: ).  It was a revised, more reliable version of the kiha 80 limited express trainset, and introduced limited express services on many of  non-electrified routes of the JNR network back in the early 1960's. It's one of the iconic trains of the post-war era modernized railway scene, along with the the 151 series Kodama trainsets, the 0 series shinkansen, the 20 series blue train, and the 101/103 series commuter trains.  In fact, it was the 82 series that introduced limited express services to Hokkaido, on the Oozora service from Hakodate to Asahikawa- previous to that, the fastest services were express trains. 

 

When they were introduced, they were considered quite the "bees knees"- airconditioning, sealed windows, disc brakes, modern seating, etc.  One problem however, was that they were underpowered, with each railcar powered by two normally aspirated 8 cylinder DMH17H engines  of 180hp each.  So they were unsuitable for routes with considerable grades- indeed, there were instances of overheating when performance didn't match the line profile. This was later remedied with the introduction of the 181 series dmu with their turbocharged 500hp flat-12 power.

 

An excellent 30 min. professionally produced video from 1990 of the last 82 series service, the JR Tokai Nanki Ltd. Express on the Nagoya-Ise Peninsula route (Kansai Main Line, Kisei Main Line). In addition to the start-up scene at the beginning, make sure to see the scenes later on at the Nagoya depot, a good example of how a typical crew starts their work day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orZMTEvOn-U

Edited February 1, 2013 by bikkuri bahn

[ianlaw]

Great video.

I also like all DMUs and EMUs  with a similar shape. Does anyone know why the DMUs like Kiha40, 181 etc have the headlights above the cab windows while the EMUs with a similar cab shape like the Kuha 165 and 113 all have the headlights below the cab windows?