Toni's Model Train Adventures

[cteno4]

Wonder how much money marriage councilors make from model railroaders suing the house blenders and coffe grinders to make homemade ground foam?! I've heard the same fear many times that Toni expresses!

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

Wonder how much money marriage councilors make from model railroaders suing the house blenders and coffe grinders to make homemade ground foam?! I've heard the same fear many times that Toni expresses!

Also don't tell her I burnt out the old blender, which made us buy the new, more powerful and versatile blender... SHHH!

 

I recreated the layout to assess the parts I need for this project and concluded I need all three curved points (1x right, 2x left) and a few standard points (I know the ones I have are slightly broken, due to being very cheap 2nd hand crap), plus some R541-15 curves. Not too big of a thing, as these can be found everywhere.

 

 

In the meantime, I'm doing a little testing on a display plate I retrieved from the depths of box-hell:

 

 

Just a little ±300mm long baseplate with a staging track and a through line to display two trains, a few buildings, and some scenery. Good for skill testing, trying techniques and creating a little display to look at. :)

Edited October 17, 2016 by Kabutoni

[Das Steinkopf]

 Don't tell the wife I used the new blender for shredding wet kitchen sponges for hobby purposes... At least I used a bag for the painting process

I once used the wash tank of a washing machine fitted with a heater element to dye surgical lint using Dylon Emerald Green fabric dye, god it made some awesome grass for my OO Gauge layouts but it didn't do the tank in the washing machine any good.

[HantuBlauLOL]

On second thought, It'd have been better to use acrylic paint, but meh. Let's see how it works out when it all dries up.

 

 

water based paint works better for this job imho.

[ToniBabelony]

Aah grass. I don't think that's a good idea to even try making it myself. Too tiny particles that can go anywhere. Japan doesn't even do grass all that much anyway, so foliage is luckily the way to go.

[ToniBabelony]

water based paint works better for this job imho.

Thanks! That puts me at ease a bit more.

[Drunkenclam]

My wife wants me to import an expensive Japanese rice cooker. Any tips how I can use the old one for modelling purposes. :D

[cteno4]

Also don't tell her I burnt out the old blender, which made us buy the new, more powerful and versatile blender... SHHH!

Toni, Toni, Toni, you are leaving yourself open for some big time blackmail here!

 

Honest hon, I was making you a green Daiquiri and the blender burned out!

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

I like to live life on the edge. Even as a responsible adult. I think that's why I still try to break out my back wheel at every corner trying to get that sweet sweet drift going on the bicycle (no breaks, 'cause that's making it easy and for kids frankly).

 

I need to buy ballast...

[ToniBabelony]

Didn't buy ballast today but did some detailing instead. This was maybe a better idea, since I need to define spaces for lineside details, like signals, fences, paths, ditches, etc.

 

The white foam stripes are only temporary placements for ballasting purposes.

[splifdfx]

Nice to witness the progress on your little diorama.
Don't hesitate to post "step-by-step" pictures and explanations.

[JR 500系]

It's a nice idea to do small dioramas inside Daiso cases... Very nice! I might want to try my hand on this too, and hopefully fit it in my car!  :)

[ToniBabelony]

Thanks. I hope to continue next week with this diorama, as I need to get the ballast first. This week I'm afraid I don't have time to get any. In the meantime, I've set up the base of the layout I'd like to make some time in the future with the newly acquired curved points:

 

 

The size is about 950 x 630 mm (including some margins for the base board) and doesn't allow much possibillities for expansion. However, I do would like to have two (hidden) staging tracks and a terminal station somewhere, increasing the size to 1000 x 750 mm, still well within reasonable size,  

 

 

It does mean a little extra investment in tracks, but most of it can be found for scraps in 2nd hand stores (about ¥100 per piece, with around ¥1500 for points). The type and colour doesn't really matter, as most is going to be repainted anyway.

[ToniBabelony]

Got some pillars at the BookOff the other day as well and quickly created a C177 radius helix... 4-car trains navigate it easily, at least with Arnold couplers... This is makes my gears turn. I need to work damnit!

 

 

Yes, it's 18m stock (MicroAce A-0071) as this was just the one that was closest by, but I'm very sure 20m stock will navigate this peril very well likewise. Grade is about 4.8%, so not too bad. The main thing is, it saves space and opens up a lot of options for a very small layout! At least, providing this helix is hidden, as it's ugly, ugly, ugly to see.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Kabutoni

[JR 500系]

The curve turnouts are great for saving space that are otherwise used for slidings, and make it look 'mysterious' as to how the train tracks are divided into 2... I came across curved layouts during my planning and what a great idea to save space and eventually make enough space for a 10 car station! But I do seem to have a problem which I do not know if others would also... Is that whenever shinkansens travel across these curve turnouts, they tend to derail so often, like almost 80% of the time... perhaps it's due to the sheer distance of one bogie from the other?

 

I love that Helix ~ It surely brings up interesting plans for a small compact layout! 

[ToniBabelony]

(...)  Is that whenever shinkansens travel across these curve turnouts, they tend to derail so often, like almost 80% of the time... perhaps it's due to the sheer distance of one bogie from the other?

 

I have no clue, as I own no Shinkansen trains and plan not on owning any. If ever, probably only a Mini-Shinkansen which would probably do fine over curved points.

 

I love that Helix ~ It surely brings up interesting plans for a small compact layout! 

 

Yes, but I have yet a place to implement it on my tiny layout. Maybe I'll keep it as a backup for an extension later on. You never know if I need an elevated station somewhere anyway xD

 

P.s. I think this will be the final design:

 

 

Not too much space in use, 1000 x 750 mm, no elevations, so plenty of room for error on that behalf. Plenty of space for scenery and an extension via the (now) terminal station. Operationally-wise also very interesting to run IMHO. I just need a few more points and curves, and it's all good. I also kept the number of R177 curves down, as the Yukemuri (ex-Odakyu HiSE) I have derails on R-177-30 curves, but does not on R177-15 ones. 4-car trains on the staging tracks are a bit of a tight fit, but it will have to make do.

 

As for the scenery, I'm thinking of making a (partial) division with a backdrop panel, no to have two visible stations there at once. This also provides possibilities for two totally different settings, like a bustling and dense city scene and a more laid-back commuter town scene with temple/shrine scene.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Kabutoni

[Das Steinkopf]

Got some pillars at the BookOff the other day as well and quickly created a C177 radius helix... 4-car trains navigate it easily, at least with Arnold couplers... This is makes my gears turn. I need to work damnit!

 

 

Yes, it's 18m stock (MicroAce A-0071) as this was just the one that was closest by, but I'm very sure 20m stock will navigate this peril very well likewise. Grade is about 4.8%, so not too bad. The main thing is, it saves space and opens up a lot of options for a very small layout! At least, providing this helix is hidden, as it's ugly, ugly, ugly to see.

 

Reminds me of the Brusio Viaduct on the Bernina Line of the RhB, all you need is a Kato Allegra to run the line.

Edited October 20, 2016 by Das Steinkopf

[Densha]

The layout at the beginning of this video shows a station similar to your latest plan, but then with platforms able to serve up to six 20m cars:

 

[ToniBabelony]

Reminds me of the Brusio Viaduct on the Bernina Line of the RhB, all you need is a Kato Allegra to run the line.

 

It's one of the most canonical examples of a spiral bridge indeed, but I'd like to hide my version from view. The childish and tortuous gap between the cars is just not good to look at. It's purely a functional thing for me :P

 

The layout at the beginning of this video shows a station similar to your latest plan, but then with platforms able to serve up to six 20m cars:

 

Hah! Just today I was looking at that layout as well! Here is the blog of the owner: http://bosio.blog.fc2.com/ The downside of the layout is that the abandoned track behind the station can't directly be accessed by trains, so it's basically just a simple circle with a passing station. The creator was more ambitious when he made the layout, planning more tracks, but finally graded down in favour of the scenery for photography.

 

It's inspirational nonetheless and gives lots of ideas for the scenery. It also frankly looks a lot like the areas on the other side of the Sagami river, bordering on Yamanashi-ken and Atsugi. Very steep mountains and winding roads. :)

[cteno4]

Toni,

 

Might look at just a short bit showing between two portals, that can look cool even if a torture curve. Might mock it up with some cardboard to see if it's in your taste!

 

Jeff

[ToniBabelony]

There is one big problem with the C177 helix and that's that my HiSE Romance Car (despite it being a 4-car Nagaden Yukemuri), can't navigate anything under a C177-15 curve, it simply derails. A C177-15 can be navigated, but only for that short bit, as the car bodies don't have a chance of touching each other in that situation. I'd really love to implement this helix, but that would mean I'd have to sacrifice that train not being able to run on that section. Sacrificing that would then mean not being able to run my son's favourite train from my collection... Maybe I can compromise on a helix with R243 curves instead or use the helix for a branch line where the HiSE shouldn't run (which is kind of a demotivator).

[Densha]

What about trying a 243-177-243 curve? I have no idea whether this easing will work for preventing the derailment, but who knows... at least it should look better because of visual distortion. Not that that matters if it's covered by a mountain.

[katoftw]

The layout at the beginning of this video shows a station similar to your latest plan, but then with platforms able to serve up to six 20m cars:

 

A little write up from a recent mag:-

 

 

I like what the builder did with the third line.  Just made it look like an unused track like like many you see nowadays.

Edited October 21, 2016 by katoftw

[railsquid]

I like the Seibu trains :P

[Densha]

I like the Seibu trains :P

Me too, railsquid, me too. At first I wasn't very interested in Seibu, but considering that I used the Ikebukuro Line daily during my stay in Tokyo and that I rode most of that line, but also because Seibu is sneakily following me around in Japan with their subsidiaries with old Seibu trains that seem to pop up everywhere, I'm slowly getting interested in Seibu as well. I even saw the first 40000 series sitting at Kotesashi depot on 21 September!