And so it begins...

[railsquid]

Hi squid,

Looking really nice mate.

Will you use the back and forth control for the tram or just control it manually?

Paul

 

Manual control for now; the tram line is a loop with a spur to the local station, so I have somewhere to store a tram or two.

Edited September 20, 2016 by railsquid

[Pauljag900]

Hi squid,

Ah,got it now,mine is slightly diferent,I could nt bridge the train track so had to do it on a back and forth from station to station,it was slowing a bit towards the opposite end so I put some extra power feeds in last week,works ok now,

Paul

[railsquid]

I'm kind of cheating with the loop because it's actually a diversion off the main ground-level loop, which "short-cuts" it with ground level crossings (visible in one of the previous photos), so I can either run trams or "mainline" trains on the ground level, but not both at the same time.

 

I could maybe do something clever with a tram shuttle which runs on the tram-only sections, but that will be for much later.

[Pauljag900]

Well that s not a bad idea mate to be able to run either,most of the time it s not noticeable to others.

But it's kinda the same problem I had which is why I fitted a back and forth board,I may add ,after I spoke to Jeff about what I could do to get around it and he to.d me about the control board,I got it from America for about £30,it was the only one I could find at the time but now they re on eBay for half that.I ve got two on mine,one goes around the village and shrine area in a loop and the back and forth from station to station.I do like the trams,they just add something extra I think

[JR 500系]

It looks great squid! May I ask what material you use for the road? It seem almost level with the tram tracks...

[railsquid]

It looks great squid! May I ask what material you use for the road? It seem almost level with the tram tracks...

 

That's two layers of 3mm Tamiya foamboard, which pretty much exactly matches the tram track height.

[railsquid]

Just some light traffic during construction work:

 

main-station-road-4 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[cteno4]

Where are the road cones!

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

No cones at the moment, but there is this cute decorative frog which came with one of the Diocolle kits:

 

Machinami Collection Pharmacy Frog by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[cteno4]

Ohh very cool! These are the bits I really want, all the sidewalk figures like These! Pink elephants and the like, maneki neko etc.

 

Perfect for 3D printing! Bit tiny to carve, but at some point I was going to try. This one looks great. Which kit was it from?

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Ohh very cool! These are the bits I really want, all the sidewalk figures like These! Pink elephants and the like, maneki neko etc.

 

Perfect for 3D printing! Bit tiny to carve, but at some point I was going to try. This one looks great. Which kit was it from?

 

This one: http://www.tomytec.co.jp/diocolle/lineup/tatemono/tate048.html

 

Meanwhile, more ice has formed:

 

main-street-crossing-1 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

It's damn fiddly cutting this stuff into shape and getting the surface levels right, but the main street is basically laid out, just needs fixing and painting and lines and pavement and other bits...

Edited September 28, 2016 by railsquid

[railsquid]

And a quick look back down the road, where it's starting to come together.

main-station-road-5 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[cteno4]

This one: http://www.tomytec.co.jp/diocolle/lineup/tatemono/tate048.html

 .

Hugh in the original town collection release it didn't include the Frog! Always wondered if they changed some things other than colors in the single/pair releases.

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

The one I have seems to be the original collection release (第一弾), not the pair pack linked... It must be a few years old because the consumption tax displayed is at 5%, not the current 8%.

[cteno4]

Hmmm that's odd I don't remeber it being in the town collection set. I'll look back wonder if they did it in the re-release collection, mine are all original town collections from wayyy back. I think I would have remembered that Detail! But getting old and it was probabayl 8 years back...

 

Thanks

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Local line next to the main road feeling.

 

local-station by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

Some local colour (with an imposter sneaking in)

 

local-station-2 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[utrainia]

Nice looking flower garden! I really like the local line next to the road, very evocative.

[keiichi77]

Some local colour (with an imposter sneaking in)

 

Alco/MLW units are my favorite locomotives, they will definitely make appearances on my Japanese layout as well. ;)

[railsquid]

Flowers (or better: flowering plant) looked a bit plasticky so sprinkled some scatter over it and sprayed with matte varnish.

 

local-station-4 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

local-station-3 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Meanwhile a quick test of the covered shopping street:

arcade-test by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[railsquid]

A bit more detailing.

local-station-street-footbridge by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

local-station-road by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

The mdoern blue Tomytec footbridge, btw, is supposed to clip together but falls apart very easily so I've ended up gluing most of the pieces in place.

[Kabutoni]

That's all coming together nicely and realistically, especially with the guardrails and the little construction fencing :)

[railsquid]

Yeah, I bought the fencing (as with many things) with no clear plan, but the "dead" space under the steps looked like just the place for it. (The other option would be to pile up abandoned mamacharis there but I don't have enough of those ;) )

[cteno4]

Those bridges are handy, looks good!

 

Btw squid if you want to glue up those walkways but not commit forever with plastic glue, try white PVA glue, it will hold plastic until pushed some anf then just pop off or soak it with water to release it.

 

Jeff

[JR 500系]

Yeah I think squid is one of the most hardworking dude working on their layout, along with Eurostar and Paul ~ Looking great now!