H0e forest railways with H0 branch line

[mags_minibuilds]

I'm a huge advocate of these brushes, it's saved me so many times on the fine details. I use my DIY ones and the upside of that is that I have several brushes so if one gets dull/frayed I can immediately swap out to another one (I'm convincing myself that I don't "need" the expensive one, it's more of a "want" at this point). I'm curious, do the brushes come with instructions? The brushes do get frayed and I found this article a while back:

http://takatetsu0930.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-332.html?sp

[Martijn Meerts]

DIY ones work as well, there's nothing really that special about these brushes. I guess maybe they're smaller than what you can generally DIY.

 

There are instructions, but of course they're in Japanese, and I haven't ran them through a translator yet. There are a few pictures as well though, and it looks like when they get frayed, you can actually cut them down a little bit. I don't know how often you can do that / how long the wires themselves are though. I'll run the instructions through Google translate / lens sometime soon to see what it says.

 

[Martijn Meerts]

C11 is not just a handful of parts away from being finished. There's really only some grab bars left, as well as some minor detail bits no one will probably ever notice. Of course, I also need to do the drive rods, but I'll only fully install those after the frame is painted, since some parts are pretty much pressed on, and I don't want to add and remove those too often.

 

 

 

Side view, obvious that the handles for the water tank hatches are missing. There's also a small detail bit missing just below the cab 🙂

 

 

 

Front view, added headlight and front door detail (still missing a grab bar), as well as the coupler.

 

 

 

Not much changed in the back, but I did add the coupler.

 

 

I really need to start using my DSLR again to take these pictures, and get a NAS or something to store the pictures on. These phone images aren't great 🙂

 

[mags_minibuilds]

Congrats, it looks great Martijn. Are these photos from the phone cause they look way better than the ones that I take on my phone!

[Martijn Meerts]

There are still some things to solve, for example, there's quite a gap between the boiler and cab. A little bit of putty should take care of most of those things though.

 

And yes, the pictures are taken using my phone.

[Martijn Meerts]

So, for the EF66 I've more or less translated the instructions and parts list. I'm still going through the various parts to see if the kit is complete, but I should probably start building it soon. I know there's a few other kits which I've had for much longer, and which I should probably build first, but on the other hand, having the EF66 in a running state would mean I could test run various types of locomotives. The C11 can run, the Kiwa90 can run, so the EF66 seems like a good addition. After that I probably should at least build the 9600 chassis so I can run that as well.

 

For the EF66, I was actually thinking of recording me building it, and then posting a series of videos on YouTube. This won't be a tutorial or detailed how-to or anything, and definitely won't get any professional editing, but some people have shown interest in it. So I did a quick test just using my phone's camera and a Joby GorillaPod to check camera placement. Below is the first camera placement test to see what's a good position. 

 

 

 

I want to also try moving the camera a bit so the 'build surface' is more central, and also place the camera a bit higher to get more of a top-down view. What do people here prefer for camera placement on these kinda videos? (keeping in mind I have no professional setup, nor intend to buy anything either any time soon :))

 

[cteno4]

Martijn, 

 

looks good, nice and bright on the lighting so crisp details but no bad glare.

 

careful your fly was open!

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Did an alternative position test, personally I think I prefer the first one.

 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Yes I think first looks better too. 
 

now you have to go to hand model school!

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, work on the EF66, as well of the filming of said work, has started. I'm not sure how much of the video I shot is going to be useful, but guess I'll learn as I go. I need to remember to keep whatever I'm working on visible for the camera, but for now filing smooth brass castings and such, most of the time I lean back a bit, and either nothing shows on video, or it's out of focus 🙂

 

I've not progressed all that much so far, so there's nothing to show yet. It'll probably also be a while before I have anything to show. I will at least cut the whole process up in several parts so I can post several 'episodes'.

 

Also, I got an email from RG-Rokko, saying that IMON had notified them that the screws to fasten the body on the chassis were missing from the kit. A set of them is already on the way. Gotta love RG-Rokko's and IMON's service.

 

 

Oh, and I've also had the AC installed on the train room, so I should be able to actually comfortably work on things throughout the year. Might actually be able to get some things done now.

 

[cteno4]

Doing these sorts of videos seems easy, but is really hard to do well. I’m amazed by some the Japanese scratch builders that do make-it videos where the video may have taken more work and time than the model!

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Yep, definitely looks a lot more easy than it is. But, I'll just keep recording from approximately the same position and see what it looks like in the end. It's really very much an experiment, and it's unlikely the video(s) will get a lot of views anyway, so not that many people to complain about terrible recording and editing 😄

 

[Martijn Meerts]

With this first image, building of the EF66 has officially begun 🙂

 

So far I've only soldered the 7 air vent louvers on 1 side of the body. These are, for now anyway, only soldered along the bottom edge. I'll solder at least the sides as well, but for the top I need to check how that works with the windows that go above the louvers.

 

 

I've also got a little over an hour worth of video by now, it's going rather fast o.O

 

 

Here's a quick screenshot of me soldering the first louver in place. 

 

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

In between the cleaning of the attic after the AC installation causing a bit of a mess and a lot of dust, I've been working on the EF66.

 

 

 

All the air vents are soldering in place, and the doors on 1 end of the loco are also in place. The doors are actually the door itself, as well as the recessed bit to the left of the door. Eventually some grab bars will be installed here. I've also temporarily installed the cab roof and nose, so it already looks a little like an EF66 🙂

 

Filming is also continuing. I'm probably close to 3 hours of video already. Video could be better, but I'll leave the camera in the position where it's out, so at least for 'part 1' the camera angle will be the same throughout. I did come across a major annoyance with using the phone as camera. I back up all my photos to my Google drive, but the Photos app also backs up all video. This takes up a rather large amount of space, and takes a long time to sync. There is also no way of telling the app to only do photos and skip videos. On top of that, the phone's USB connection to transfer files is rather slow.

 

I might have a look at something like a GoPro at some point, maybe when there's a sale on them. Would probably make things a bit easier.

 

[Martijn Meerts]

So, while working on the EF66, the C11 has been staring at me, waiting to be finished. I then remembered that I already ordered the materials and tools to fill up a gap between the boiler and front cab wall. I initially wanted to use something like Tamiya or Vallejo putty, but I read it's not great to sand, and doesn't stick all that well to metal. So I ended up picking up some Milliput, which is a 2 component putty. After some testing I found it dries rock hard, can be sanded, drilled and even tapped when fully cured, and it sticks well to metal. After some initial struggles, it was actually quite easy to work with, and once cured I was able to sand it down nicely. I then proceeded to totally forget to take pictures of it 😄

 

 

 

I did do a dry fit of all the drive rods. The small top one (valve gear I believe) is a press fit on the middle axle, so I won't add that until after the frame is painted.

 

 

 

A not so great picture of the side with everything but the valve gear installed. 

 

 

Next steps for C11 is adding 1 more rod from the roof to a little part on top of the boiler, and then go over it to make sure everything is installed (of course, minus valve gear and number plates etc), and probably some test running. After that it will get a thorough clean in the ultrasonic cleaner, if I can get it to fit. And then it should be ready for paint 🙂

 

I may also look into upgrading interior details a bit, and I also need to figure out whether I want to add some additional lights apart from the front and read lights. Maybe a cab light or something like running gear lights, but no idea if these ever had that.

 

 

As for EF66, I will continue with that sometime in the upcoming weekend, work has been a bit too busy to be able to sit down for a couple of hours and work on it. Next step will also need some time and extra care, since I need to solder on the cab roof and the fronts on both sides. These need to line up perfectly.

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

C11 is now fully assembled, minus a few bits I will only add once it's painted. Hooked up some plastic IMON cars and the brass World Kougei WaFu to give a bit of an idea of what it could look like. C11 runs rather well, it's pretty smooth. It does still make the same noise and when I tested it earlier, but it's still not lubricated at all. I will do that also after painting.

 

 

Before painting though, I need to clean up some solder here and there, and possibly use some putty to fix some issues here and there. I don't actually think it's really needed, as pretty much all the issues are on the bottom, which you'll likely never see during regular running. I will likely prepare and paint the frame first, so I can completely assemble that and then do all the lubrication. Before painting the shell, I do need to figure what, if anything, I want to do with additional detailing and lighting, so that will likely take a while longer.

 

With the C11 being assembled though, I can now clean up the workbench, and then continue on EF66 without getting distracted by other loco parts floating about 😄

 

 

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Workbench is ready for EF66 assembly again 😄

 

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

With the C11 now fully built, and in the process of preparing for priming, I started thinking about a layout. I initially thought about doing a full oval around the room, but for the IMON locos I probably need quite a big radius, which means going around the room isn't doable.

 

With that in mind, I'm looking at a bit of a different idea. Where I initially wanted to go with a single track JNR branch through station which was in the process of getting (partially) double tracked and electrified, I'm now looking at a single track JNR terminus station with runaround track, that is getting connected to a faster route that's under construction.

 

 

The green track is the original terminus station. This was a small station that really only existed as a transloading stop for logs brought down by the forest line (the grey line in the track, obviously nowhere near final). Due to the high quality wood, some local businesses have started up, such as a sawmill and some wood working shops. This is causing the town to grow. There's probably also some other things I have yet to come up with that is causing the town to grow.

 

Due to the growth, JNR has decided to move a line that's under construction to pass by the original station and create a stop for local trains. This line (in orange) has been built up to the station on the east side. On the west side construction is continuing. The original station platform is under regular service, where the new platform is available for special trains and track construction deliveries. The original platform also services a passenger train on the forest line which brings workers from the town to the various logging sites.

 

The brown line is going to the lumber yard / transloading station. The radius here could probably be smaller, since only shunting trains will be running here. The forest line will of course also go there, including various sidings, as well as a line that loops around and then continues in the front of the layout, through the town, towards the sawmill. The forest line will also get a loco service building here.

 

In the current plans, the JNR tracks can hold around 5 20m coaches. However, after doing a runaround, the loco would need to push the coaches back in order for the loco to not block the turnout. So, either I need to increase the length, or go for max 4 coaches. Still plenty decisions to make.

 

Also, the green boxes are basically the sections I was building for the N scale layout. The big one on the left is the helix which is still in place and will probably remain in place (as I'm still planning on building something at some point 🙂 ). The other sections are 90cm deep, which is of course too much considering the H0 layout will essentially be on the height of the upper deck of a multideck layout. The sections will be a bit shallower, and probably also shorter so they're easy to handle.