What did you order or the post deliver? (Japanese N Gauge)

[macdon]

I was looking around for the Kato series 813-200 commuter train but was out of stock in the usual suspects, so I took a chance in ebay and found "grhobby007" selling a set from Hyogo, Japan.

 

Its a good thing I asked about the shipping as they only do EMS, but he told me he was willing to send me a lowered invoice to ship it via epacket/airmail if I prefer.

 

I couldnt believe it, but it just took 8 days to arrive here in Manila!  :)

 

Mardon

 

 

[NuclearErick]

FINALLY after 9 months since my Pre-Order arrive the JR East-i E926系 Micro Ace

[lurkingknight]

can't have a japanese train without japanese conbini. There's a lawson on the way too.... it's too bad the 3 are exactly the same building with different paint skews.. maybe a bit of custom work later on can fix that... we'll see how adventurous I feel when I start getting into things.

 

The plan was to put it on a straight track, and put it in a display case... but a case long enough to display the whole train costs as much as a huge double track loop and layout... so we know where that is going. :x You don't buy a sports car to park it in a driveway to admire.

[bill937ca]

Greenmax 4392  Tokyu Series 1000 Ikegami/Tamagawa Line Three Car  Set

Kato 23-210 Station Entrance

23-110 platform

23-113 one side platform

Train magazine #461

 

plus Tomix New Models 2013, Kato N-Gauge Railroad Model Collection and Tomytec Quarterly New Products Information. 

[Densha]

If it's really the Dr. Yellow version but with Rapido couplers, someone's gone and modified it. As far as I know, that specific version was never released without the hook and loop couplers :)

I went to my grandparents' place and took some photos of it last week. As I suspected it's really the 6493, but with Rapido couplers. Apparently it was bought some years back at a local model train shop, I have no idea how it ended up over there.

I'm curious about the weird plastic thing that you can see on the second photo.

[the_weird_one]

That plastic thing looks like the tool used to remove the vacuum part from the truck o allow you to use the polishing or grinding discs.

[cteno4]

Yep that's it

 

Jeff

[JR 500系]

@ Mardon - Nice score on the 813-200! It's a nice express train. I wanted to get it initially, but the red version instead of this. However, i stopped as this is a Kyushu train and it really doesn't go well with my roster of Central/ East trains...

 

@ Erick - The JR East-i E926系 ! 9 months! Wow! Almost a year of waiting! I remembered seeing this train on pre-order... Then a long wait... Then silence.. Good to see that someone actually got hold of it! It's a sweet train and i love it as it's based on one of my favourite shinkansens, the E3 Komachi! Great buy!

 

@ Densha - Nice Doctor Yellow track cleaner! You know, till now, although i have the track cleaner (normal blue verison), i tried using it to, well, clean my tracks, but just didnt get the desired results... I tried all three methods according to the instructions - The Wet method with sponge and water, the vacumm and brush method and the hard sponge cleaning method. Although after cleaning i saw that the sponge is indeed dirty, but i anticipated it to be even more dirty as i know my tracks are rather dirty, being sitting there for a year now... Perhaps i'm not doing something right... Anyhow, this guy is a giant and takes quite a strong loco to pull along. I used my yellow DE-10 from my Nostalgic train set to pull it along, and i can see the loco isn't happy...

 

Guess what popped in the mail today:

 

A parcel from Bigman Izu! That was lightning fast! I saw Izu san mailed it out via EMS on Sat 18th May 2013 and i receive it this afternoon. Its a Sunday, and it only took 2 days exactly! NOW THAT's FAST! Best of all.... IT'S FREE!!!!!

 

 

[beakaboy]

JR500. I use a blue track cleaner on my city layout. I use a Tomix EF 63 from memory to pull it and i fill the reservoir  with isopropyl alcohol. works great . I have noticed that the paint is fading a little from spilling of the alcohol.need to be more careful with syringe when filling. I also use vacuum which is good on DC and seems to pick up stray ballast,etc. I have used Peco code 80 flex track with N scale sand for ballast. My points are Peco as well and track cleaner has no problem with them. I usually let alcohol dry for about 20mins and then go over track with a peco track rubber only where there is muck that was not removed. I have never used the abrasive pads as it seems a bit like sandpaper and i think there will be more problems with the track from dirt,etc getting into pitting in the rails. I also sometimes use a very fine oil for shavers applied to  a cloth and then to rail where the trains are not performing well. Its a tiny amount on the cloth and after i have wiped the track with it , i wipe the track with a clean cloth. seems to help with track current and also helpful on point blades where they contact the rail. I also use isopropyl on a cloth sitting over a test track to clean loco wheels. place one set of bogies on cloth and other set/sets on rail. turn up throttle left or right and lift bogies on cloth slightly, so the wheels spin, but also contact the cloth and alcohol. reverse loco to do other bogie. either reverse or forward power will scrunch up cloth.usually trial and error.I hold one hand on the cloth to prevent this.hard to explain with words. If freight or passenger wagons/coaches have light gunk on wheels , you can push them firmly on alcohol cloth over the rail back and forth several times and the gunk is removed .need to shift the cloth slightly for each one to avoid spreading gunk and also need to reapply alcohol to cloth from time to time as it evaporates. Not perfect, but its what i do!  John

[Densha]

@JR500,

 

Wow! I had no idea those destination sign thingies were lightened. Cool! :)

Why you got five derailing tracks? There's much better looking and cheaper road crossings available if you were intending to reproduce one with them.

 

The Tomix track cleaner is indeed a very heavy car to pull when it's in use. I don't recommend using your good locos but try to get a powerful but cheap second hand loco, although that may be a difficult find.

[Minelayer]

Nice haul JR500! I'm supposed to get my package from Bigman today as well. Yahoo!!!!

[John k]

@JR500,

 

Wow! I had no idea those destination sign thingies were lightened. Cool! :)

Why you got five derailing tracks? There's much better looking and cheaper road crossings available if you were intending to reproduce one with them.

 

The Tomix track cleaner is indeed a very heavy car to pull when it's in use. I don't recommend using your good locos but try to get a powerful but cheap second hand loco, although that may be a difficult find.

If you want a powerful but cheap secondhand loco for that task, try one of the old ConCor PA-1s (with the KATO powerplant, not the newer Chinese-made ones).....sturdy, reliable and its heft allows it to haul everything including the yard office....

[JR 500系]

@ John - Thanks for the inofrmation! I think i need to get some cleaning alcohol to try it out ~

 

@ Densha - Thanks! I think there are a total of 3 types of these roll signs:

 

One of them is the most expensive electric rolling LED lighted roll sign http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10166838. You need a controller for this baby to actually work to control the rolling and the backlit LED lights.

 

The other is the LED backlit light version which i got, that does not come with the rolling effect: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10134274 It runs on 3 AA size batteries, and has a switch on the top for lighting up the backlit LED. Also available are a couple of various destinations sign plates for you to change easily. How i wished the one which i linked - the Shinkansen type - is still available....

 

The last one is the manual roll sign type, that does not have lights at all: http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10160545 This one does not have any lights, but does have a winch to pluck into the roll sign to manually turn the destination plate. Quite fun, but without the lights it doesn't look nice....

 

Well, the Kato crossings indeed does not look very good, but it's really easy (and cheap) to apply to my ground level Kato double track. I need some crossings around so that i can plan the roads nicely to 'enter' and 'exit' the diorama...

 

@ Minelayer - Please share some pictures when your haul arrives!

[Minelayer]

Well my stuff from Bigman did not come in today but I got two new MA trains in the mail....

Edited May 21, 2013 by Minelayer

[beakaboy]

JR500- I really like those lighted destination boards. I intend making some for display on my city layout using thin plywood painted for the box and thin plastic sheet  for the destination boards or something like that. LED strip lighting or similar for back lighting. I know another project to add to the list. Won't happen at moment as its too cold in my shed.

[Martijn Meerts]

I went to my grandparents' place and took some photos of it last week. As I suspected it's really the 6493, but with Rapido couplers. Apparently it was bought some years back at a local model train shop, I have no idea how it ended up over there.

I'm curious about the weird plastic thing that you can see on the second photo.

 

That does look like the Dr. Yellow version, except someone replaced the Dr. Yellow couplers/bogies with regular ones, which probably decreased the possible resale value quite a bit :) The plastic thing in the 2nd picture is indeed a tool to remove the cleaning inserts. 1 end if for the vacuum part, the other end of the polishing/grinding disc.

 

 

@ Densha - Nice Doctor Yellow track cleaner! You know, till now, although i have the track cleaner (normal blue verison), i tried using it to, well, clean my tracks, but just didnt get the desired results... I tried all three methods according to the instructions - The Wet method with sponge and water, the vacumm and brush method and the hard sponge cleaning method. Although after cleaning i saw that the sponge is indeed dirty, but i anticipated it to be even more dirty as i know my tracks are rather dirty, being sitting there for a year now... Perhaps i'm not doing something right... Anyhow, this guy is a giant and takes quite a strong loco to pull along. I used my yellow DE-10 from my Nostalgic train set to pull it along, and i can see the loco isn't happy...

 

The Tomix cleaner isn't meant to clean incredibly dirty track really, but more to run every so often. When track gets really dirty (and it eventually will, track cleaner or not), you'll have to clean it by hand. With track cleaners it just takes a bit longer in between manually track cleaning sessions ;)

 

The vacuum bit is actually really nice to pick up bits of ballast and some dust. The polishing disc is rather nice as well. The grinding disc however I'd use very rarely, if at all.

[Densha]

There's no plan to sell it at all, but I'm still wondering who would have replaced the couplers if it was bought brand new from an official train shop. I'm guessing there were two versions with the same article number, one with shinkansen couplers and one with rapido couplers. If it had shinkansen couplers we wouldn't have been able have to use it as well. ;)

 

@Minelayer

Nice 185 series you got there! :)

[Keikyu]

 

Actually came yesterday, but no one was here to receive it.

[bill937ca]

Received Kato Rounhouse 10-922 Mangattan LIner II painted train plus other minor bits incuding a Wamu 380000.

 

Ordered Tokyu Series 300 303F classic blue tram  from HS.

Edited May 22, 2013 by bill937ca

[macdon]

I got another box of goodies from HS

 

 

 

 

Mardon

[Martijn Meerts]

Got the Sankei "Castle in the Sky" trestle bridge and train yesterday.. It's one of those Ghibli releases by Sankei which I just can't pass up ... (Even though I still haven't built any of the Sankei Ghibli kits I have ;))

[Darklighter]

48h from AmiAmi/Bigman to Germany, 1 week in customs. :confused5:

[KenS]

It's been a long drought for me on new trains, broken only by an E1 earlier this year, but sometimes things have a way of bunching up.

 

Not much longer than a week ago my new MicroAce E926 East-i Shinkansen test train arrived (MicroAce A8470), and I've been playing with it of late. It's a good train, although the couplers are a bit odd and the body harder to open than most of these.  When I puzzle it out some more I'll write about it. I already have their East-i E test train for electric commuter lines, so now I'm equipped to fully test the layout (not that these models actually test anything).

 

Today, about ten minutes ago, the doorbell rang and it was my Yamanote E231 "Green Wrapping" train (Kato Roundhouse 10-933). This is the model of the "wrapped" train commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Yamanote 103 trains, which introduced the apple green color. Aside from coming in a pair of red Kato boxes with the Roundhouse logo, inside a single double-wide slipcase, and being green, it appears to be a standard E231, with all the usual DCC sockets, add-on stickers, etc.  I won't get to run it before tonight, but I'm looking forward to that.

[Minelayer]

@Ken I love that E231. I've got to get it.

[lurkingknight]

so it begins...

 

 

 

my order from amiami just arrived.