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Hello from Singapore!


choco.miruku

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any good place to buy japanese HO or N scale trains in singapore?

can try katong shopping center. there seems to be 1, 2 hobby shops selling trains. not sure what brands they stock though cause both were closed when i went there once.

 

there's also a singapore based online shop selling trains. they have no physical shop; should be able to google their website easily.

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can try katong shopping center. there seems to be 1, 2 hobby shops selling trains. not sure what brands they stock though cause both were closed when i went there once.

 

there's also a singapore based online shop selling trains. they have no physical shop; should be able to google their website easily.

 

HHmmm ok thanks. I think worth checking out Katong Shopping centre, though won't be getting the hopes too high...

 

Regarding the Singapore Website, I think you're referring to something called Akihabara online or something? I tried to find the website now but couldn't. I recall seeing some N scale Japanese stuff on sale, although not cheap, but available locally. I did dropped them an email but they never reply...

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This is the website i am referring to http://www.singrails.com/index.htm

 

Oh this one... Saw this one quite sometime ago, but I think they don't carry N scale Japanese...

 

 

Shinkasen exhibition this week at MBS. Some Plarail on display too.

 

http://www.jetro.go.jp/singapore/events/HighSpeedTrain/

 

Oh nice! Thank you! Didn't know about this! Will be sure to be there on Friday to flaunt some Japanese and train knowledge!

 

 

Plarail is pretty much the only thing I've ever seen while in Singapore.

 

Yap that's pretty much it here in terms of Railroad modelling... I think there might be some others with 'O' or other scales....

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That exhibition looks like it will be great fun. I'm a little jealous that I can't go... :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

Yes i'm excited too! But you know Mark, I think you probably wouldn't be missing much. The train fans here are like so few so... Seriously I doubt it will be anything close to JR exhibition's in Japan or even the recent exhibition by Jeff in US.... There's no N scale, just Plarail, and a tiny miny nanoblock layout with E5 running around, by which they are promoting to sell the Nanoblock...

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And so I went, with some insider news from my friend that they will have N scale...

 

And boy they did!

 

But a simple oval double track, with an E5 3-car consists and an E3-1000 Tsubasa 3-car consists. Boring... Besides, there were no scenery or whatsoever.... And the 'power' pack was replaced by a hand-held one, which you have to screw as hard as you can to generate electricity to move the train... Kids had fun I guess...

 

There was 2 HO Scale E5 though, and all models were made from Kato. It wasn't moving though, and it derails so often the staff were kinda hopeless and desperate as they try again and again to put in back to running. The cotton bud which he had on his hand to clean the track as so dirty, it's trademark they're in Singapore with this amount of dust even in an air-conditioning environment. The staff was saying over and over again: "Please no touch, please no touch" but being the singaporeans kiddies who cant take instructions and Singaporean parents over-protective of their kids, there really wasn't much the staff could do when the kid touch and derail a moving HO scale train. All in all I guess it's really tough for the poor staff at the Kato booth...

 

Nothing very spectacular at the Plarail corner so...

 

There was a quiz and 2 Japanese including a really cute Mama-tetsu (or train fan mama) on stage, but that was for the kids so ...

 

The highlight has to be the simulator. Which was.... fully booked. Do not know how to book them, but did get to see some people driving them. Kinda cool as they feature the E5 running from Shin-Shirakawa station to Koriyama station, under the guidance of a bullet train driver.

 

All in all, a nice experience at the first ever shinkansen exhibition. Managed to talk to some Japanese and they were surprised to know there are train fans here in Singapore that knows so much about their trains! They even said they were trying hard to contact someone here with train knowledge or modelling, but I guess it's all too late now for name card exchange. They wanted to know if there was any train forum or club here in Singapore, but the fan base is too small here and I said we have a larger, international forum here...

 

It's fun to talk to them and their plan to bid for the High Speed Rail travel from Malaysia KL to Singapore, but we all know mutually in our hearts that it probably wouldn't happen as Singapore will most probably be like India, go for the cheaper option of China HSR....

 

Also got tons of materials from JR East which is really nice for me to read, probably the best thing to get back from this exhibition apart from the conversation with the Japanese!

 

End of Report and enjoy the photos!

 

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Nice! Finally something Japan-rail related in Singapore now as well!

 

All in all, a nice experience at the first ever shinkansen exhibition. Managed to talk to some Japanese and they were surprised to know there are train fans here in Singapore that knows so much about their trains! They even said they were trying hard to contact someone here with train knowledge or modelling, but I guess it's all too late now for name card exchange. They wanted to know if there was any train forum or club here in Singapore, but the fan base is too small here and I said we have a larger, international forum here...

Ah that's a pity. You'd better had exchanged name cards... who knows what would have come out of it? Were those people asking about a forum/club from a company or...?

Edited by Densha
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Nice! Finally something Japan-rail related in Singapore now as well!

 

Ah that's a pity. You'd better had exchanged name cards... who knows what would have come out of it? Were those people asking about a forum/club from a company or...?

 

Yap! I did! Always nice to know new friends, especially those from Japan External Trade Organization. They actually asked if I knew the president of the train forum I was on, but quite frankly, I couldn't answer..... 

 

Perhaps they would hopefully approach Singapore again, then perhaps we can get a chance to showcase my models ~~ :)

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Jr,

 

Great, sounds like you had fun and made some good connections! JR east was super nice with us at the nyc show and here at the cherry blossom festival, so hopefully they realize how much train layouts can get them good public exposure!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

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Went to 2015 All Japan Model & Hobby Show last month at Big Sight.

Took many brochures and catalogues for trains and also drones, air guns, RC models, etc.

If there is enough interest level, I can post in this forum.

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Perhaps you could open a new topic under the sub-topic 'Off-Topic' since I reckon the hobby show would include non-railway models too ~  

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