And so it begins...

[railsquid]

Some gradual evolution towards the envisaged final layout; here an experimental aerial shot:

 

A view from one end of the layout, showing the general path of the intended high-level Shinkansen line:

 

I'll be adding a couple of sidings in the central area, still undecided. The settlement continues to grow, and is now augmented by a bank.

 

Local line meets Shinkansen:

 

Meanwhile, bizarre happenings: giant Caucasian attacks bus with hammer:

 

It's an invasion from the Mysterious Land of Oo:

[Irish Padre]

Is that an old Mainline Standard Class 4?

[kvp]

This layout starts to look very much like a typical oo gauge British prototype one. But that's ok, since in the early days, Japanese used British practice and equipment to build real life railway lines around Tokyo.

[railsquid]

Is that an old Mainline Standard Class 4?

 

Bingo, well spotted :)

[railsquid]

This layout starts to look very much like a typical oo gauge British prototype one. But that's ok, since in the early days, Japanese used British practice and equipment to build real life railway lines around Tokyo.

 

It's a good thing Japan wasn't using British practice and equipment from the time period visible here.

 

But seriously, if you go to the Foreigners' Cemetery in Yokohama, it's full of the graves of British engineers brought over in the 19th century to build railways.

[Irish Padre]

Bingo, well spotted :)

Takes me back 35 years - my brother and I divided up our Palitoy/Mainline fleet. In terms of big locos, he had that and I had the black LMS rebuilt Scot! Edited September 13, 2014 by Irish Padre

[railsquid]

Yes, 35 years would be about right - Christmas 1979 IIRC. Had a nice set of blood'n'custard Mark 1 coaches with it, which I stupidly tried to repaint.

 

Now Palitoy, that's a name I really haven't heard for years.

[E6系]

I must confess, kiddo is on the way (gender as yet unknown), it's the quiet period so I have a few months to go ever so slightly crazy before things get really crazy...

 

Hello Mr railsquid,

 

Please don't go overthinking the situation.  "If you can handle your wife, you can handle anything!", I say.  Kids are easy in comparison!

[railsquid]

Kids are easy in comparison with my wife? Or in comparison with a model railway layout? :confused2:

[E6系]

Kids are easy in comparison with my wife? ...

Hello Mr railsquid,

 

So sorry, but yes, I'm pleased to say that the worst you will get from your kids is poo, vomit, and toast jammed into the DVD player.

 

You will learn that sleep deprivation is an excellent form of torture ... but that only goes on until they are 2.

[railsquid]

Not sure what to say there... apart from DVD players being so last decade... no complaints about my wife (except that she wants both catenary and a fully-automated level crossing on my layout. And lights and people inside the trains).

 

Meanwhile, back to the important stuff...

[E6系]

Hello Mr railsquid,

 

You're lucky!  Mine wants a handbag!

[railsquid]

Well, I got tired of messing around with all this track and scenery and troublesome couplings etc. and have gone the minimalist route:

 

 

New layout title: "Very Short Line in the Desert"

 

Just joking, finally got the layout into its final position, although I still need to build a "proper" frame to put it on (at the moment it's balanced on an old desk which kind-of-works but not satisfactorily.

[katoftw]

I sure you could've fitted in a S29 if you tried. :laughing3:

[railsquid]

Don't have any S29s, I'm afraid. But today I've been experimenting with these so-called "curves", and look - I've built a scale model of the entire Yamanote line. OK, it's missing a few details but I hope these can be overlooked.

 

Edited September 17, 2014 by railsquid

[railsquid]

But what would Tokyo be without the Chuo line? Sparing no expense, I've added this to the layout too:

 

[miyakoji]

But what would Tokyo be without the Chuo line? Sparing no expense, I've added this to the layout too:

 

yamanote-chuo.jpg

I think I can see Iidabashi... :)

[katoftw]

Is that Shinjuku on the left?

[railsquid]

Of course! I've left out a couple of the platforms though.

[ToniBabelony]

Minimalist model railroading at its finest.

[railsquid]

Why thankyou :)

 

But no Shinkansen at Tokyo station - how can that be? Rectified:

 

[railsquid]

Anyway, minimal it might look but if you zoom in on the section of track south of Tokyo Station you can see scenes like this:

 

 

 

(note: the orange 103 is doing a trial run on the Keihin-Tohoku line).

[Martijn Meerts]

Somehow that 3-part shinkansen looks really cute like that...

[railsquid]

Damn, I should have pushed it to one side to give the impression it's longer.

 

Meanwhile, having removed one bookshelf, it occurs to me that there's no compelling reason to have the other either, as the books just sit there not doing much and I could get some low-level shelves to store them under the layout, and easily increase the layout area by another 60%. But that will have to wait until Version 2 otherwise I'll never get anything done.

[railsquid]

Meanwhile... spent way too long last night making a "fresh start" on the track plan, which got me to a variant of the original which I'm reasonably happy with and which fits in the available space. The high-level Shinkansen station hanging over the void will eventually site on a small extension to the board.

 

 

Need to de-shine that platform surface...