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

[Claude_Dreyfus]

It has been a while since I relented and bought an H0 loco (Japanese at any rate). I saw this cutie available, and could not resist...

 

 

A Micro Ace 'Project 80' ED62. I like ED62s...

 

Here he is with a little brother (Tomix).

 

 

I have him sat on my desk at home, just as a bit of eye candy at present!

Edited March 5, 2021 by Claude_Dreyfus

[GDorsett]

Sometimes that's the best thing to do with HO if you don't have a layout for them, show em off and revel in their glory.

 

And then cry in the corner about your now empty wallet

Edited March 5, 2021 by GDorsett

[Kamome]

5 hours ago, Claude_Dreyfus said:

It has been a while since I relented and bought an H0 loco (Japanese at any rate). I saw this cutie available, and could not resist...

 

 

A Micro Ace 'Project 80' ED62. I like ED62s...

 

Here he is with a little brother (Tomix).

 

 

I have him sat on my desk at home, just as a bit of eye candy at present!

Rails ebay site have some Tomix Hoki 5700 kits which would be good to throw behind this.

[GDorsett]

Just now, Kamome said:

Rails ebay site have some Tomix Hoki 5700 kits which would be good to throw behind this.

 

Do link

[Claude_Dreyfus]

8 minutes ago, Kamome said:

Rails ebay site have some Tomix Hoki 5700 kits which would be good to throw behind this.

I do have a pair of those waiting to be built. 

 

I seem to have the classic case of lots of locos, but only a handful of wagons to haul (no carriages)

 

54 minutes ago, GDorsett said:

Sometimes that's the best thing to do with HO if you don't have a layout for them, show em off and revel in their glory.

 

And then cry in the corner about your now empty wallet

It is my eventual plan for something small and H0 to utilise my rather eclectic fleet. But in the meantime, hauling a loco out for an occasional perve does the trick. When our club meets again, they'll get some exercise on our 00 layout.

[GDorsett]

I need a home layout of some sort. I have to rely on visits to my father's house, events, or invitations to private layouts to run.

[Glad Pingvin]

Not had much time on my hands of late but ordered a load of Rokuhan Z shorty stuff with my birthday money from Amazon Japan. Really pleased with it and am probably going to have to build myself a dedicated layout. 

[cteno4]

oh those always look so tempting, but i keep saying no more scales, no more scales!

 

jeff

[GDorsett]

I have the potential for a new problem...

Kato announcing that they're doing another run of wamu 380000...

There's a darn good chance that I'm going to be spending a great deal of money on little boxcars...

[al camino]

Oh yes. I already opted for 2 sets of the nice blue box car.

[GDorsett]

11 hours ago, al camino said:

Oh yes. I already opted for 2 sets of the nice blue box car.

 

I'm looking for a few more than two sets...

[Kiha66]

I already have 6 of them, but a prototypical formation can be over 20 so maybe I should get a few more...

[GDorsett]

1 minute ago, Kiha66 said:

I already have 6 of them, but a prototypical formation can be over 20 so maybe I should get a few more...

 

I have 14, but I want a full train, so I am seriously considering preordering something like 15 sets...

for a grand total of 44 cars, or the equivalent of either one really long (but not unrealistic) train or two shorter trains.

[Kiha66]

Don't go giving me ideas!  I'm also planning on getting some of the black cars as well which'll double the order.

[Kamome]

I want some black and brown Wamus but i’ll try not to fall down the rabbit hole of blue as well. Especially as i like to add scale head Kadees to my wagons. 

 

Kyushu Railway shop have a consist of 21 Wamus, predominantly blue which looks awesome snaking around their layout.

[Kiha66]

Is it very hard to add kadee's to kato HO gauge stuff?  I hadn't thought about upgrading mine but I may do that in the future.

[gavino200]

13 minutes ago, Kamome said:

I want some black and brown Wamus but i’ll try not to fall down the rabbit hole of blue as well. Especially as i like to add scale head Kadees to my wagons. 

 

Kyushu Railway shop have a consist of 21 Wamus, predominantly blue which looks awesome snaking around their layout.

 

Wow! That looks like a prototype photograph. Amazing scenery!

[Kamome]

38 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

Wow! That looks like a prototype photograph. Amazing scenery!

It’s a very nice layout, uses Shinohara track and points. I think it’s loosely based on the old Nogata station which was a hub for coal mining during the Meiji restoration in particular. Northern Kyushu was also renowned for its steel production.

Small trains would bring the coal up from areas  Iizuka and Tagawa and then form a larger train at Nogata. 

The layout takes up 80% of the shop space. It has a large round house, 6 track station, with a number of circuits around the layout, some going up and down elevation. The shot of the DD51 is at the far back corner. The majority was made by the owners father who used to be a driver. He was on the footplate of the last JNR steam service and the 9600 he drove is a beautiful static model in the accompanying shed. 

 

They have a huge collection of rolling stock on the layout and in the surrounding cabinets. It’s rarely moving which seems a shame, although you might find once the shops closed, they have a lot of fun on it. 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Kamome

[serotta1972]

3 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Wow! That looks like a prototype photograph. Amazing scenery!

Yeah, that looks amazing.  If I ever build a layout, it will be mostly well ballasted track and beautifully greenery. 

[Kamome]

On 3/22/2021 at 8:41 AM, Kiha66 said:

Is it very hard to add kadee's to kato HO gauge stuff?  I hadn't thought about upgrading mine but I may do that in the future.

It's very straightforward on the Kato Locomotives and wagons as the coupler gearbox is designed around Kadee dimensions.  It's as easy as taking one out and putting another in, in most cases. I have needed to shim the coupler level with Kadee washers on a couple of occasions but generally they sit at the right level. They have all been fitted with medium centre-set shank couplers. I prefer the scale-head couplers rather than the number 5s. The #5s are far more robust at staying coupled on uneven track but I have not had any issues with the scale heads. (#158) The biggest advantage is obviously the ability to couple and uncouple but I also like the more prototypical looking size and space between wagons.

 

Wamus and Toras have needed the plastic base of the gearbox gluing into place as the extra weight from the Kadees can make it work its way out and drop the coupler. I am not planning to change them and I don't think I will have any issue as long as I check them from time to time and lubricate when needed. 

 

I have not converted other Kato rolling stock, namely 24 series blue train coaches other than the loco ends of the leading Kani and Suhanefu. The intermediate coaches have close connecting plastic couplers and you cannot recreate the close connection easily with Kadees. This is also the case with the Kiha 80 and 58 as well as the 12 series coaches. With the blue trains, I have used short shank, centre set couplers as the medium shank still look a little long for my liking. I have had some uncoupling issues with the plastic Kato couplers found on the 24 series or Kiha 80 coaches. I think this has been due to tight radius curves and the coach ends have collided when using a rental layout.

 

Ohafu 13 with a short shank Kadee couple. #153 Remove coupler housing (2 clips) and replace with Kadee coupler.

 

Yo 5000, remove plastic base plate and replace coupler. Base plate has been glued back on once coupler height set. (#153)

 

EF65-1000 Remove snowplough then coupler housing. These needed to be shimmed with Kadee washers as they drooped a little in the gearbox. #158. (Gearbox a little oversized for the kadee)

Need to be careful as the vacuum pipes can foul the coupler bar. 

 

I paint most of my couplers with thinned brown enamel, making sure i don’t go too close to any moving parts. Koki and Takis have grey painted Kadees. It can be time consuming but does make the difference. Kokis especially couple much closer together. 

 

None of the Kato coupler conversions seen needed any further modification to the rolling stock. 

Edited July 16, 2021 by Kamome
Photos added

[Jaco3011]

What about IMON 1/87 couplers?

[Kiha66]

Thanks Kamome, I may try the short shank's on my passenger end cars and the end of my yo5000s.  The rest I'll keep it in mind and upgrade them if any kato couplers prove troublesome. 

[GDorsett]

23 hours ago, Kamome said:

I want some black and brown Wamus but i’ll try not to fall down the rabbit hole of blue as well. Especially as i like to add scale head Kadees to my wagons. 

 

Kyushu Railway shop have a consist of 21 Wamus, predominantly blue which looks awesome snaking around their layout.

 

I've got four brown 80000s as well to mix into the train for some variety.

 

22 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

Is it very hard to add kadee's to kato HO gauge stuff?  I hadn't thought about upgrading mine but I may do that in the future.

 

As for the freight cars, if you can change out the draft gear on other stock, then it's no different for Kato's HO stuff. Only thing to note is that some things are kinda sloppy. I started to add Kadees to my KoKi fleet, but they were kinda saggy and loose fitting, which didn't go well with needing an extended shank for it to clear the catwalk end, so I've only got them on the ends of the train.

[Kamome]

1 hour ago, GDorsett said:

 

I've got four brown 80000s as well to mix into the train for some variety.

 

 

As for the freight cars, if you can change out the draft gear on other stock, then it's no different for Kato's HO stuff. Only thing to note is that some things are kinda sloppy. I started to add Kadees to my KoKi fleet, but they were kinda saggy and loose fitting, which didn't go well with needing an extended shank for it to clear the catwalk end, so I've only got them on the ends of the train.

Interesting. I didn’t get any issue with the medium shank length on Kato Koki 104s (#58) but IIRC i may have had to add a washer and possibly put the spring under the coupler rather than on top to get the coupler to the correct height. If you unscrew the coupler housing, Kato Kokis have 2 securing holes so you can move the coupler backwards or forwards.

 

Tomix Kokis require underset shank couplers to have the coupler head and the correct height. I used the whisker couplers, although at the time, whisker, medium,  underset shank were not available with a “scale head.” This may be the case now.

 

As the whisker centres the coupler i had to modify the coupler housing, essentially reverse mounting it so the whisker had something to spring against. This requires you to shave off a little plastic so that it will sit in the recesses. 

The coupler would then be positioned at the opposite end of the picture shown. 

[Martijn Meerts]

Just ordered an IMON C55-57 kit, really is no turning back on the H0 project anymore now 😄