JRM at 2013 Cherry Blossom Sakura Matsuri

[cteno4]

we just got news that we have been accepted for the fifth year in a row to participate in the Washington DC National Cherry Blossom Sakura Matsuri on Saturday April 13, 2013. This is a great event with over 150,000 attending so a BIG event for us. So if you are around DC that day, come on by and run some trains with us!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Very tempting ...  :D

[cteno4]

would you do the full armor this time? that would be a hit. stand there like a mannequin then move and scare folks!

 

jeff

[Ochanomizu]

Mr cteno4,

 

Will you share some photograph of the event please?

[cteno4]

Yep will do some from other years

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/_sakura/index.html

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/2010sakuramatsuri/index.html

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/2011SakuraMatsuri/index.html

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/2012SakuraMatsuri/index.html

 

Fun event

 

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

would you do the full armor this time? that would be a hit. stand there like a mannequin then move and scare folks!

 

jeff

 

I would, if it weren't so hideously expensive to ship the thing over, and I'm fairly certain I wouldn't get in the plane while wearing it =)

[cteno4]

but think what it would look like on the body scanner!

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Would be fun if they'd wanted to search me.. It takes a while getting it on and off =)

[Ochanomizu]

Thank you Mr cteno4,

 

The photographs look very interesting.  Is the B-Train shorty product popular?  It is popular in Japan, but not for the likes of me.

 

My friend like it because it is short.  I tell them "go and buy Kiha-40.  It is a short train.  Not shinkansen."

[Martijn Meerts]

Just in case people are interested in the armour being talked about.. http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/661-economic-depression-i-havent-noticed/?do=findComment&comment=8818

 

I really need to take some better pictures of the whole set, as well as the katana, wakizashi, bow and arrows. I just need to set up the armour, it's stored in it's box at the moment (I know, having a suite of armour and not having it on display is a bit of a waste ;))

[Densha]

My friend like it because it is short.  I tell them "go and buy Kiha-40.  It is a short train.  Not shinkansen."

So true... and there are many short trains in Japan too. B-Train Shorty's are about half the size of a normal model I think. So instead of a 16-car B-Train Shorty you can still have an 8-car normal N gauge Shinkansen, etc.

[cteno4]

Ochanomizu,

 

its a subset of folks here that do btrains of mainly the japanese train fans. there are a few non japanese train folks that have gotten a few. Nothing like their appeal in japan though. I still find it funny that the btrain shorty adult collector/modeler market totally blind sided Bandai in the early days! Its been a very good business for them!

 

I have a few, was tempted to do a micro layout with them for fun, but have not gotten around to it. the 16 car 700 was matthew's. he lived in japan for a couple of years and was a member of the iwate rail circle model train club there. when they were leaving japan this set was presented to him as a gift. quite a gift as collecting the full train was tougher then as they didnt have the larger sets out then! its quite fun to put on the layout with a regular 700 and watch folks reactions to it! it is a bit tough though as all the rapido couplers with springs will at time set up an oscillation with a slinky like effect that can derail the train if it gets into the right harmonics!

 

jeff

[Ochanomizu]

The space between the B-Train car is too large for my liking.

[cteno4]

The space between the B-Train car is too large for my liking.

 

The spacing is the same as other regular n scale trains that use rapido couplers generally. Its more noticable due to the short car legnths call more attention to the fap. This can be fixed by using othe close couplers other than the default rapidos. Also on the longer trains the springs in the rapidos can cause oscillations so using other couplers gets rid of this.

 

Jeff

[Guest ___]

Hard to beelive ti has been five years already.

[Minelayer]

Looks like a blast. Please take some pics and be sure to post them please.

[Mudkip Orange]

Is the B-Train shorty product popular?  It is popular in Japan, but not for the likes of me.

 

You're basically trading one realism for another. Regular N gauge trains are realistic when you hold them in your hand, but then we run them around corners that are so tight that the real trains would derail. B-trains aren't realistic in your hand, but the way they snake around a broad-radius corner is much more akin to what you'd actually see on a mainline railroad.

 

The other side of this is that if you ditch the "realism" of snaky trains on broad curves and use mini-rail, you can actually have a layout that's almost all track. It's very much like O tinplate, but miniaturized.

 

[Densha]

Or normal scale trams or something around

....

[Mudkip Orange]

Or normal scale trams or something around

....

 

Actually, Bandai just released a B-train version of the Keihan 800 series a couple weeks ago.

[Densha]

Well, apart from that, I was more implying the type of railway and infrastructure rather than the train. Tomytec will release the Keihan 350 and 600 series soon, they are normal sized 1/150 trains and in prototype take the same type of curves as shown in the video. Either way, people will have to decide for themselves what they want and like. It's just that 1/150 layouts with narrow curves can be prototypical.