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

[HantuBlauLOL]

Just got this second hand 211 series from Kato today,

 

 

Finally a chassis to make this one

 

[spacecadet]

Well after riding the train itself, I couldn't resist ordering the upcoming 12 car Kato Cassiopeia set, along with the matching EF510. I'm thinking of getting another EF510 in Hokutosei colors since that's what actually pulled us on my trip.

 

Does anyone know if there's any difference in the new set vs. the old models, or is this just a repackaging?

[Davo Dentetsu]

Well after riding the train itself, I couldn't resist ordering the upcoming 12 car Kato Cassiopeia set, along with the matching EF510. I'm thinking of getting another EF510 in Hokutosei colors since that's what actually pulled us on my trip.

 

Pop in the extra carriage lighting.  You'll have no regrets whatsoever with it.  :)

[Welshbloke]

KuMoYuNi 143-1 from Tetsudou Collection 20 is now on order, along with a couple of packs of PS23 pantographs (one for it, two for the pair of 119-0 cars I ordered a few days ago).

 

Whether or not I motorise it will depend on how well the TM-14 chassis matches my Kato EMUs. It'll probably spend a lot of time with a KuMoNi 83 and/or my 165 Series, so I'll test the TM-14 I have against them (going under KuMoHa 123-1 when that arrives) before I order another.

[katoftw]

Cheaper and less mucking around if it is just gonna be a trailer car.  Personally I wouldn't me mixing Tomytec with Kato/Tomix/MA/GM due to the finishing quality differences and lack of direction lighting.

[Welshbloke]

I've not really seen much difference in finish with the latest stuff. Certainly not to the extent that you wince at it. The 105 Series on the shelf behind me doesn't look cheap and nasty compared to the Kato KuMoYuNi 74 parked next to it.

 

Directional lighting isn't a problem as it'll be coupled between a KuMoNi 83 (which has lights) and the rest of the train, so if anything it's helpful not having it.

[JR 500系]

Two parcels were delivered to me last week:

 

1 from Ami Ami... My small pre-order of the Kobaru road markings together with some smaller items that were in their bargain bins...

 

The next was from Buyee...

 

Which allowed me to lay me hands on 2 of the Toei bus collection sets I have been eyeing on for a long time! Finally now I have them, and the 5-bus set is really amazing and nice, in the older Toei colour! Now my Toei bus fleet just got reinforced!  :)

 

A bus hobby book that was going for next to nothing... A nice interesting read and ogling at the pictures for a bus fan like myself...

 

A Kiha-187 decal sheet. First try at buying these decal sheets... The detail on the decal did not come out to as nice a detail as I thought it would... Now to try it onto the Kiha-187 to see how it looks on the train...

 

A Lucky win on that Kato E127-100 series Otio Line 2-car set that came with pre-fitted interior lights. Didn't expected to win this but it's a nice 2-car train to run ~~

 

And finally the 281 series Haruka! This added onto the fleet of JR West Limited Express trains ~~

 

All in all, Buyee saved me quite a fair bit on service fees that I would have to pay otherwise and getting some stuff that were otherwise hard to find except on Yahoo Auctions... Cool!  :)

[Das Steinkopf]

Two parcels were delivered to me last week:

 

1 from Ami Ami... My small pre-order of the Kobaru road markings together with some smaller items that were in their bargain bins...

 

The next was from Buyee...

 

Which allowed me to lay me hands on 2 of the Toei bus collection sets I have been eyeing on for a long time! Finally now I have them, and the 5-bus set is really amazing and nice, in the older Toei colour! Now my Toei bus fleet just got reinforced!  :)

 

A bus hobby book that was going for next to nothing... A nice interesting read and ogling at the pictures for a bus fan like myself...

 

A Kiha-187 decal sheet. First try at buying these decal sheets... The detail on the decal did not come out to as nice a detail as I thought it would... Now to try it onto the Kiha-187 to see how it looks on the train...

 

A Lucky win on that Kato E127-100 series Otio Line 2-car set that came with pre-fitted interior lights. Didn't expected to win this but it's a nice 2-car train to run ~~

 

And finally the 281 series Haruka! This added onto the fleet of JR West Limited Express trains ~~

 

All in all, Buyee saved me quite a fair bit on service fees that I would have to pay otherwise and getting some stuff that were otherwise hard to find except on Yahoo Auctions... Cool!  :)

I have to agree with you there in that the E127-100 are nice looking liitle train, I got to admire a few of them when I went to Matsumoto.

 

[JR 500系]

Yeh... And they blend in well with the E351 or the 211 series at Matsumoto station...

 

Hang on, 9th April 2015? I just arrived Japan and is mostly probably on the Sakura when you took this photo ~  :P

[enodenlover]

I just received the six Kobaru pavement markings sets that I pre-ordered from Hobby Search; actually it was eight since I ordered two each of sets numbers 1 and 2. These dry transfers are gorgeous and are going to make a lot of members of this forum very happy.

[Kabutoni]

This weekend my ultra cheap ZJ gauge 485 Series arrived. Today I decided to take it apart for preparation to modify the thing for N Narrow operations:

 

 

Left powered bogie is unmodified. The right one has a part cut off and the worm drive removed. In the background you can see an unpowered bogie.

 

The motors on display here are the original ZJ gauge motor (in front) and a Bandai B train motor (far right). The smallest motors I have. Still too big for a small engine in 1/150 narrow gauge... I have thus ordered a bunch of cheap tiny 3V motors, which are actually for smartphones. The idea is to mount it like this to the powered and modified bogie: http://pds.exblog.jp/pds/1/201007/31/86/e0137686_18271978.jpg

 

Yes, it's extremely small and it might be a bit beyond my skills and the capabilities of my tools, but I'll try anyway. It's a relatively simple conversion. I'll be happy if it can pull two, three cars, or even itself at all.

[miyakoji]

Toni, what's gotten you interested in this narrow gauge stuff?  After all, Keikyu and Keisei are 1435mm right? ;)

[Kabutoni]

Toni, what's gotten you interested in this narrow gauge stuff?  After all, Keikyu and Keisei are 1435mm right? ;)

 

I always had a thing going for narrow gauge feldbahn operations when I lived in Europe, as well as the charming Kiso Railway (軽便) operations. I like strict collections that adhere to a certain time, company and place, but I also need variation and freedom my fields of expression. Hence, the free and interpretative world of industrial oriented narrow gauge comes to mind. Not wanting to switch to 1/87 or 1/80, I chose to stick to N scale as my default, thus moving to the obscure N Narrow (6.5mm) gauge world. 

 

Don't get me wrong here, but I also have a bunch of 'sinful' 1,067mm gauge stock (Sōtetsu and Kantō Railway) on 9mm gauge :P

 

On a side note: a few former local railways nearby also operated on narrow gauge. These were the Shōnan Kidō (Hadano to Ninomiya (until 1935)) a.k.a. the 'Tobacco Railway', the Atami Railway (Odawara - Atami (until 1924)), and the temporary construction railway for the Yokohama Suidō Dōro (Lake Tsukui - Yokohama). Of the latter, very little is known and probably was probably only a human powered one. Not much to investigate on thse topics, and all disappeared very rapidly.

[marknewton]

A little late, but here's some photos of my latest arrivals from Loco1hobby:

 

 

Tramway DD14

 

MicroAce ED60

 

 

MicroAce ED61

 

Tomix Series 583 EMU

 

The photos are from an iPad, so my apologies for the quality. The models are all superb though! The photos were taken on a module I'm building that will incorporated in the layout later on. At the moment it's as rough as guts, but it's useful as a photographic diorama.

 

As always, kudos to Keitaro for his great customer service.  :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[miyakoji]

The locos and the catenary look great, Mark.  Any particular plans for the DD14?

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Lovely! It reminds me, I need to sort out the MA ED62 in the very near future. I too an interested in your catenary and wires. Who produces them?

[beakaboy]

I Have never ever seen a DD14 and I Love it! Does anyone make one in N Scale?

[railsquid]

Microace I think.

 

Yup - double pack with snow plough, A8163. They're on my list to acquire if I run into one cheap, I like the look.

Edited November 25, 2015 by railsquid

[marknewton]

The locos and the catenary look great, Mark.  Any particular plans for the DD14?

Thank you. I have to admit that the DD14 was an impulse buy. I've got other locos made by Tramway and they're excellent models so I couldn't help myself. :) I suppose I should get a snowplough to go with it - but I have seen a few photos that show DD14s hauling what appear to be ordinary revenue trains. I've even got one of a DD14 hauling a pair of Kiha52 DMUs which presumably had failed in traffic. So I'm open to suggestions.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Lovely! It reminds me, I need to sort out the MA ED62 in the very near future. I too an interested in your catenary and wires. Who produces them?

Thanks Claude. My catenary is a bit of a bodge, because I don't think I'd live long enough to scratch build it all otherwise. This is the first section of overhead I've made and so it's really more of a trial than anything else.

 

The masts are made by Kato. I cut off the arms and registers and replaced them with arms made by Viessmann. The wires themselves are also made by Viessmann. They're finer than the similar Sommerfeldt wires, and fairly easy to shape and attach. I haven't painted them yet, but even so they're fairly inconspicuous against a light-coloured background. The low-quality photos make them look a bit chunkier than they are in reality.

 

I'll readily admit that it's a compromise solution that doesn't come close to replicating the appearance of real JNR-style catenary, but as it's fairly easy and simple to build it's a compromise I can accept.

 

If you like I can quote the various Kato and Viessmann part numbers for you when I get home in the morning.

 

Oh, and if you do decide to get an ED62 I'm sure you won't be disappointed with it.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

Edited November 25, 2015 by marknewton

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Thanks. A potential future project for me is a small H0 layout to house my ever-growing fleet of electrics, so catenary will be a must. Any part numbers you have to hand would be most welcome.

[marknewton]

G'day Claude,

 

The masts I used are Kato part number 5-054.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10250363

 

I used these simply because they were readily available in large quantities, so I bought them in bulk. Also, they only have a two-insulator crossarm on the top, which minimises the amount of extra wire I'll have to attach to complete them! :)

 

The arms/registers I used are Viessmann part number 4171.

 

http://www.viessmann-modell.com/shop/product_info.php?info=p571_H0-Beam--5-pieces.html#top

 

The running and catenary wire sections are Viessmann part number 4153/universal catenary wire 210-240mm, to match the spacing of my masts on this module.

 

http://www.viessmann-modell.com/shop/product_info.php?info=p576_H0-Universal-Catenary-Wire-210-240-mm--3-pieces.html#top

 

These catenary sections need to have the ends formed into "eyehooks" to attach to the arms/registers. Viessman make a special pair of pliers to form them, but you can get away with using chain-nose pliers as an alternative.

 

To attach the Viessman arms to the Kato masts I cut off the moulded plastic arms/registers, then drilled into the mast in two places to attach the Viessman parts. I found it easier to cut the moulded mounting lugs off the Viessmann insulators to allow the wire portion of the arm to enter the drilled holes. Then I secure them with CA/superglue.

 

The masts are secured to the plywood deck of the module with long metric machine screws/bolts that are glued into the little plinth moulded on the mast bases. They turned out to be more rigid and robust than I expected, so I think they should work well on the layout in normal use. 

 

This photo shows the finished mast:
 

 

As I mentioned earlier these were just a trial to see if the idea would work. I'm satisfied that they will, and they're fairly quick and easy to make so I'm going to go ahead and start building them in bulk. 

 

Apart from the fact that they don't look much like real JNR catenary masts, my one quibble about these trial examples is that the clamping bands that are moulded onto the masts don't align with the new arms. On the "production" versions I'm going to replace them with new bands that do line up.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Welshbloke]

Well, not something I ordered but I just unwrapped my birthday present from my brother - a Kato KuMoNi 13!

 

Looks great, not tested it yet but will get the CV1 pack out later and see how it handles 150mm radius. The instructions say it can...

[cteno4]

Welshbloke,

 

Your brother knows you well!

 

Happy birthday and enjoy!

 

Jeff

[Welshbloke]

Well, to be fair, the usual tactic in this family is to ask people what they'd like in advance so he did get pointed in the right direction!

 

Also had the four car Kato 700 Series add-on pack from granny, so my 10-001 starter set "Nozomi" is now up to eight cars.

 

Oh, and a pile of Tomytec bits arrived by luck, so I now have a motorised KuMoHa 123-1 and 105 Series, and a 119-0 awaiting its powered chassis. Thinking I'll probably use the 119 in a Youtube video to demonstrate how to assemble these things.