My Japanese N Scale Diorama - NEW Dinning Table Layout

[Ochanomizu]

Hello Mr Spiff,

 

Yes.  So good.  Especially the first pic.  I will do same when the time comes.

[JR 500系]

Finally had some time to play some trains, especially alot of trains came in recently...

 

Tried my 700-7000 Railstar... It's a beauty!

 

Next tried out the Zipangu.. Amazingly smooth motor, much MUCH smoother than the Tomix and i can even run it at minimal slow speed without the train stopping! Now that's cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I then tried to fit interior lightings into the Zipangu. The middle car and motor car is really easy to install, but the front and end cars require some works to snip off some interior details like the walls and such to allow the interior lighting tube to sit in nicely.. Beautiful effect after it was fitted in!

 

* And yes, the Isprophyll alcohol is prefect! After cleaning the tracks, the light flickers MUCH lesser ~~

 

That made me wanna go grab ALL the salon trains! Haha ~~

Edited September 28, 2013 by JR500 のぞみ

[Densha]

Ohhh good filming and pics! Your layout is really looking great now!

Also, Railstar video where?

[KenS]

Very nice. Although the clips would probably be better as one video rather than separate, if you have editing software to join them.

 

The station lighting and detail look very good. I think you've captured the feel of a real station there.

[JR 500系]

Ohhh good filming and pics! Your layout is really looking great now!

Also, Railstar video where?

Thank you Densha! HHhmm the Railstar doesn't seem to like to move as well as the Zipangu. I'll probably look into why it is this way, but i'll be taking the video very soon together with the 700 series for a group shot of both 700 series, and then it's Sayonara 700 series as i'll be welcoming the N700A very soon!

 

 

Very nice. Although the clips would probably be better as one video rather than separate, if you have editing software to join them.

 

The station lighting and detail look very good. I think you've captured the feel of a real station there.

Thanks KenS! I just tried taking some videos as i really loved how the Zipangu moves and the bright interior lights~ Would like to experiment how to make videos right, like how some videos on youtube look, with inserted actual train sounds and station melodies... The station is actually the shinkansen station, i still have a ground level station to light up, but hopefully that should be easier as i need not worry about structures below it... 

[Densha]

If you have windows you can always try Movie Maker. It's no advanced software but for very basic things it does the trick.

[JR 500系]

Ohhh good filming and pics! Your layout is really looking great now!

Also, Railstar video where?

Hihi~

 

Got some time off yesterday after my endless work and got to do a video shoot of the Hikari Rail Star ~

 

Had some fun in editing the video to include 'Actual' sounds into it, and it sure is fun to watch now ~

 

 

A nice shot with the 700 series from Kato ~ Also a good bye shot for the series 700 since the shinkansen factory has just released the N700A and scheduled time of arrival to port of Takahashi is about 2-3 days ~ A pity to let go, but had to just to make space for the newer N700A.

 

Do check out the Sales Thread for the 700 series ~

 

Hope you'll enjoy the video and pictures! Appreciate comments as that will help me to improve ~

 

Thanks and Cheers!

Edited October 21, 2013 by JR500 のぞみ

[JR 500系]

Hi Guys...

 

Guilty of being lazy and not updating Takahashi for almost 5 months now, today I took sometime to finally do something for my layout.

 

Added in the extension cables and finally contacted all the ground turnouts for the ground lines and yard area. Buried them well and added some Yard lights and small yard buildings in the process.

 

Had great fun, but was really hard to keep digging and digging haha ¬¬

 

Had to wait for the moving bus junctions (which I believed just got delayed to June) to finalise the roads and buildings...

[macdon]

Looking good Sammy!

 

Mardon

[IST]

I do not see any digging machine on your layout, maybe this is why it is so hard to keep digging. :)

Good work, I hope we do not have to wait another 5 months until the next update.

[JR 500系]

Thanks guys!

 

Yap I hope so too IST. Need to seriously catch up on some layout work. Hopefully the moving bus junction can be released earlier since it will be the decider how the road will go. With that, the buildings can then fall into place and only then can the lighting work begin. After all that only comes the fun part, the landscaping and finishing works (i.e. placing in details like people, cars, buses, trucks etc.)  

[cteno4]

Station looks nice! Very classic. Keep the Picts coming!

 

Thanks

 

Jeff

[kvp]

Looks good. One question though: Two tracks are really close to each other. In the curve after the platform some car ends can hang out and that might hit whatever is parked on the other track. So a little bit (=lot's of) of testing with various cars with large overhang might be good before fixing the track. The typical car that can have problems in this situation has it's bogies relatively far from the car's end and its ends are not tapered, but square. (they usually have bogie mounted couplers too) On the straight storage track, you should park something with a large loading gauge, like a steam locomotive or a full width car, like a typical kiha.

[JR 500系]

While not really an update to Takahashi town, was installing my illumi interior lights into all my trains. Good fun!

 

Now my roster has about 80-85% of them interior lighted. It looks really good when running, especially when I switch off my lights¬¬ Most of the un-interior-lighted ones are those made by Kato, as illumi is not compatible with Kato. I have major problems with my Kato E4 too, having problems lighting up both stories nicely...  Most of the Kato models I had came already installed with interior lights so that's good. It's also why i'm particularly interested to get sets on Yahoo Auctions especially for those already fitted with interior lights.

 

There's a problem though, my tracks are dirty very easily and have to be clean each time before I run my trains....

 

*Been posting pictures of my progress on my facebook page so now I have a portal to keep track of my progress ¬¬ *

[JR 500系]

Some videos taken yesterday and sometime back.. Trying to compile and make 1 nice video like those we see often on youtube:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wxz9T5BPUyU&feature=youtu.be

200 Series Renewal Colour

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7D47VnX3Wg&feature=youtu.be

N700A in the dark

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY4MlfpRW9M&feature=youtu.be

E4 and E3 Komachi

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev02z9dtAnE&feature=youtu.be

E3 and E4 across the bridge

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxtvxID7JDw&feature=youtu.be

E2 Hayate coming into the station

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY73515355E&feature=youtu.be

E2 Hayate coupling to E3 Komachi *Darn it's hard to take coupling videos...*

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_xZO2eas4&feature=youtu.be

Let's go together!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t_zON_YbKc&feature=youtu.be

E351 Super Azusa tilting mechanism

 

Hope you enjoy the videos!

 

* Side note: It's really strange. Although I can use the method which E6 san taught me to paste the video links, I can't get the youtube video to show directly on the forum... It becomes a link which one must click on to view the video... Strange...*

[macdon]

Great stuff as usual Sammy!

 

I, too ordered Illumi lights from Motoko Ahn/FModels for my Tomix 800 Tsubame shinkansen. Hopefully its enroute. 

Too bad, Illumi doesnt cater to Kato stuff.

 

Mardon

[Densha]

You need to extend your platform! The (N)700 series doesn't fit!

[JR 500系]

Great stuff as usual Sammy!

 

I, too ordered Illumi lights from Motoko Ahn/FModels for my Tomix 800 Tsubame shinkansen. Hopefully its enroute. 

Too bad, Illumi doesnt cater to Kato stuff.

 

Mardon

 

Thanks Mardon!

 

Yap I was asking Motoko Ahn san about illumi being compatible with Kato, but she told me they're still in the works for this. It will be fantastic news if illumi was made available for Kato, as it is really easy to install. Somehow, I find Kato's interior lights difficult to install, since there are more steps like pasting the light tube, installing the light onto the bracket (which tends to easily run), ensuring the metal strips contact correctly, installing orange filter (which I kinda hard to) for orange interior lights etc. as compared to the easily drop in illumi / Tomix interior light tubes come ready made. I think illumi lights are really bright too, and you can check with Motoko Ahn san who will advise you which light to use (there are 4 types, white narrow, white wide, orange narrow, orange wide) for your models.

 

 

You need to extend your platform! The (N)700 series doesn't fit!

 

Yap... The nose is so long it extends over the platform, and it cannot stop in the inner track if not the nose will hit into the trains running on the outer tracks... Sometimes I feel like re-arranging the whole thing, cause in actual fact shinkansen stations should be side platform types instead of island type right?

[Densha]

I think island platforms are used on Shinkansen stations where all trains stop, but I don't have time to look that up now.

[kvp]

I don't know the rule, but the Shin Yokohama shinkansen station is island platforms only. The side platforms might have something to do with space and station usage. If a station is getting bypassed by some trains then it's better to build it with 2 bypass tracks and 2 thinner side platforms. Also the switches at there stations look like they are high speed only in straight through direction and are much shorter than full high speed switches.

[cteno4]

as kvp noted many shinkansen stations are just two side platforms with two thru tracks going straight down the middle and passing siding down each side. this lets more the more local trains stop while allowing express trains to barrel on thru the middle at the same time (cant do that with island platforms or the train would be going at speed right next to a platform).

 

Very fun to be in a station like this when an express shinkansen barrels thru the station, talk about cleaning the platforms of litter! Im sure they slow some but still amazingly fast and very close! great experience!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

C60-7 with Suha-43 coach makes its special guest appearance on a special run in Takahashi town!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_DEB1Ei90c

 

All through the night!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJBKDf2fzW4

 

Steam locomotives are beautiful! But I think one is enough for me ¬¬ Way too many trains to get...

 

*Apologizes. Forget to set to Public. Thanks kvp!*

Edited April 10, 2014 by JR500 のぞみ

[kvp]

Unfortunately the video is set to be private, so we can't see it...

[JR 500系]

Unfortunately the video is set to be private, so we can't see it...

 

Thanks! Sorry forgot the setting. It should work now..

[kvp]

This is one good looking (and very fast) stream train!

 

Just one thing: Each car blinks at the join of the viaduct track and the station just after the last turnout. On the first video, there is also a loud click when the first car hits the join and then it blinks. On the night video, each car blinks at the exact same spot.