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

[chadbag]

3 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

 

Actually thats a pretty common kato board, not sure if digitrax stocks it as its mostly limited to Japan stuff but NGDCC should make a replacement I believe. 

 

Yeah it looks like the DE29 style board... Thanks.  They also should fit my EF58s.

 

ETA:  The TCS K0D8-XX boards look like they might work for both (one or the other)...  (Bonus since TCS supports RailCom but they are expensive).  Have to figure out the LEDs with the HB-E300  (EF58s look straightforward)

Edited April 7, 2018 by chadbag
update with TCS

[Philphil]

I JUST DID AN OOPSIE. I made a somewhat low bid for a Microace set this morning, just for fun, but managed to win it, "accidentally".

[chadbag]

2 hours ago, Philphil said:

I JUST DID AN OOPSIE. I made a somewhat low bid for a Microace set this morning, just for fun, but managed to win it, "accidentally".

 

I have a few things that followed that storyline...

[Philphil]

4 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

I have a few things that followed that storyline...

Oh gosh yes, I understand that very well!

[ia909]

Back from a quick trip to Tokyo and picked up a few things whilst there, a small selection of which is shown in the photos below.

 

The Tomix ballast hoppers and a couple of Tomytec buses were bought from Tomix World in Omiya where the staff kindly gave me four Tomytec buildings kits that seem to retail for around $50 total. Not sure why they'd do that but was a very kind gesture and offsets their 'higher-than-everywhere-else' prices!

 

Hello and thanks to Takayama-san at MTP for the Tomix JOT tanks and the EF64 (as an aside, anyone visting should ignore Google Maps directions - from Nishi-Kawaguchi station take the West exit, down the stairs and straight ahead over the bus turning circle. Take the second road on the left and keep going, under an elevated main road and MTP is in the second block after that road bridge, on the right - no more than four or five minutes).

 

Prices seem to vary quite a lot now. I was very happy with the Tomix five wagon Koki 107 set with 25 'green' containers for Yen 9,300 (about £62/$87) from Tokyu Hands in Shibuya but thought both Tam Tam and Yodobashi's  prices had gone up even since I was last there in October. Maybe it's just the amount I was asked to hand over at the till!

 

[Sascha]

A little order from Nariichi. Now im missing the Nagamare. Hope I can snatch it for cheap.

[railsquid]

55 minutes ago, ia909 said:

Prices seem to vary quite a lot now. I was very happy with the Tomix five wagon Koki 107 set with 25 'green' containers for Yen 9,300 (about £62/$87) from Tokyu Hands in Shibuya but thought both Tam Tam and Yodobashi's  prices had gone up even since I was last there in October. Maybe it's just the amount I was asked to hand over at the till!

 

 

Maybe it's because the yen has risen by 7~8% in the last few weeks?

[Das Steinkopf]

1 hour ago, ia909 said:

Prices seem to vary quite a lot now. I was very happy with the Tomix five wagon Koki 107 set with 25 'green' containers for Yen 9,300 (about £62/$87) from Tokyu Hands in Shibuya but thought both Tam Tam and Yodobashi's  prices had gone up even since I was last there in October. Maybe it's just the amount I was asked to hand over at the till!

 

 

 

Nice find with the 50th Anniversary Koki's, I am amazed that there is still some of them floating around in new condition. 

[EH500 (12)]

1 hour ago, Sascha said:

A little order from Nariichi. Now im missing the Nagamare. Hope I can snatch it for cheap.

They were kinda expensive (16000yen and more) when I looked for one 2-3 months ago. Its a great looking train though.

Edited April 8, 2018 by EH500 (8)

[Densha]

2 hours ago, ia909 said:

The blue and yellow Tomix World Limited Edition HoKi 800 are really cool! These may be fictional liveries, but the yellow ones look very similar to the HoKi 800 that Ohmi Tetsudou uses.

[chadbag]

I approve of container purchases 

[ia909]

4 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

Maybe it's because the yen has risen by 7~8% in the last few weeks?

 

Not sure about other currencies but I think its been broadly static against sterling (Yen 150 / £1) for months. When I started buying Japanese the rate was a killer at Yen 110 / £1!

[ia909]

2 hours ago, Densha said:

The blue and yellow Tomix World Limited Edition HoKi 800 are really cool! These may be fictional liveries, but the yellow ones look very similar to the HoKi 800 that Ohmi Tetsudou uses.

I didn't know if that was a real livery or not. But I'm handy enough with an airbrush so I'll look for some photos and maybe a respray is in order.

 

Incidentally they were Yen 2,800 for a set.

[ia909]

4 hours ago, Das Steinkopf said:

 

Nice find with the 50th Anniversary Koki's, I am amazed that there is still some of them floating around in new condition. 

Yes, I saw them on Good Friday at Tokyu Hands and didn't buy them then, and was quite surprised to see they were still in stock last Tuesday when I popped back in. I think they were good value at Y9,300.

 

By that time my total purchases were so far over my duty-free allowance (£390 in to the EU), that a trip through the 'red channel' at Heathrow was a given and I thought paying the excess would be cheaper than another airfare to Tokyo. As it was the customs guy didn't charge any excise duty (I don't think he knew the right HS code for scale model trains), and the VAT was only £46.

[Densha]

7 minutes ago, ia909 said:

I didn't know if that was a real livery or not. But I'm handy enough with an airbrush so I'll look for some photos and maybe a respray is in order.

 

Incidentally they were Yen 2,800 for a set.

The actual livery that JR uses for HoKi 800 is black. This is the correct model of that prototype: http://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/n/2777.html

 

If you rather have the black livery I would advice you to buy the Tomix 2777 and sell your limited edition sets.

[ia909]

1 hour ago, chadbag said:

I approve of container purchases 

That makes 360 in my collection!

[ia909]

1 minute ago, Densha said:

The actual livery that JR uses for HoKi 800 is black. This is the correct model of that prototype: http://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/n/2777.html

 

If you rather have the black livery I would advice you to buy the Tomix 2777 and sell your limited edition sets.

I'll certainly think about that option.

 

Many thanks for the information and link.

[AllScales]

1 hour ago, Densha said:

The actual livery that JR uses for HoKi 800 is black. This is the correct model of that prototype: http://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/n/2777.html

 

If you rather have the black livery I would advice you to buy the Tomix 2777 and sell your limited edition sets.

Thanks for that! A pair of hoKi 800’s will be a nice addition to the fleet.

 

Meanwhile, my 3 coach H-T unit (in Glacier Express 2017 livery) arrived yesterday. Two whole days early, as opposed to the previous packet that was a day late!

[Claude_Dreyfus]

It has been a little quiet on the J-Trains buying front lately. Quiet, but not dead.

 

First up are a set of Tomytec Nissans. [Edit: I forgot, I mentioned these a few weeks ago on here!]

 

Earlier on in the year, I received (like so many other on here) a Shiki-Shima set; which is really nice. Within a couple of days, my Micro Ace HB300 arrived. I have been after one of these sets for a while, and put it on order when MA announced them. Since then Kato have subsequently announced and delivered their version in the time MA have taken to release theirs!

 

I first saw this unit back in 2014 at Matsumoto station, and since then have rather hoped someone would produce it.

 

Finally, I went to my local model shop (Gaugemaster) for their Bahnfest today. Whilst not known for their competitive pricing, this event can get you some cracking bargains (20% off all marked prices, and some of those were rock-bottom). First up was a H0 Piko DCC-fitted NS Hondekop for £40.00 (it was rude to refuse such an offer!!), and secondly was a set of Kato Eurostar intermediates - useful as it means an inexpensive way of swapping one of the extra bar coaches in my current Eurostar set for something more accurate. 

 

Edited April 8, 2018 by Claude_Dreyfus

[nah00]

10 hours ago, ia909 said:

I'll certainly think about that option.

 

Many thanks for the information and link.

 

I rather like the yellow and blue ones, they're more conspicuous (kind of important for MoW equipment). Might also be because they'd look at home doing maintenance on one of the Boso lines so I'm a bit biased there. 

[defor]

Nothing too interesting has arrived recently-

Been buying parts for getting automation working correctly, using my daughter's layout as the guinea pig :)

Bought Digitrax BXP88 and PR4... Of course I found out quickly that transponding was going to be the only option if I wanted to use dcc turnouts.

Anyway, received a tiny used rolling stock order from BOOKOFF (EF210 & EH500) as part of my monthly YAJ shipment:

 

At least now I can PARTIALLY fix up the other EH500 I already had that was missing all the detail parts, but will likely transfer the DCC boards to this one, and equip the EF210 with one as well.

 

Slowly growing my freight fleet. Next up- more Koki and containers!

[chadbag]

Got some stuff from Amazon.co.jp.

 

Another KoKi with Yamato containers (amazon finally had them in stock itself, not through a marketplace seller, at a reasonable price, so *needed* to get one more).   And some Greenmax containers with dolphins on them.   My first Greenmax containers.  And these looked cool and fun.

 

 

[defor]

55 minutes ago, chadbag said:

And some Greenmax containers with dolphins on them.   My first Greenmax containers.  And these looked cool and fun.

I'm kinda dying to see what kind of attention to detail is given to them if you get some photos- The fact that they open is quite neat!

I'm also curious how good their clip connection to Kato Koki's is- I find generally that Tomytec containers are a little loose feeling...

I'm sad that the normal Green Max opening19D seem out of stock everywhere...

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, defor said:

I'm kinda dying to see what kind of attention to detail is given to them if you get some photos- The fact that they open is quite neat!

I'm also curious how good their clip connection to Kato Koki's is- I find generally that Tomytec containers are a little loose feeling...

I'm sad that the normal Green Max opening19D seem out of stock everywhere...

 

When I have a few moments, I will give them a try.  Probably a day or two as I am in the middle of a tight deadline.

 

FWIW, my Tomix containers have been tight -- about equal to KATO containers -- on my KATO KoKi.   Some are tighter than others as is the case with any mass produced thing.  But in general I cannot really tell a difference between the two when attaching to a KATO KoKi.

 

I have both Tomix and KATO KoKi so will try the Greenmax containers on both.

I have more  non Tomix / non KATO containers on the way.  From Platz and Hogarakadou mostly, so will be interesting to compare.

 

 

[ia909]

13 hours ago, chadbag said:

 

When I have a few moments, I will give them a try.  Probably a day or two as I am in the middle of a tight deadline.

 

FWIW, my Tomix containers have been tight -- about equal to KATO containers -- on my KATO KoKi.   Some are tighter than others as is the case with any mass produced thing.  But in general I cannot really tell a difference between the two when attaching to a KATO KoKi.

 

I have both Tomix and KATO KoKi so will try the Greenmax containers on both.

I have more  non Tomix / non KATO containers on the way.  From Platz and Hogarakadou mostly, so will be interesting to compare.

 

 

 

I have both the items you've just received and to my eye at least the quality of the Greenmax containers is on a par with say Tomix and Kato but not quite as good as Platz, Hogarakadou or Aoshima. I use the Greenmax containers in an industrial setting where I think the containers are more likely to be seen open for loading and unloading than in the JRF container yard or loaded onto KoKi's. That said, they have had a run round the layout without problem.  

 

I agree with you entirely that the production tolerances vary often from batch to batch even within the same manufacturer. I'm lucky enough to have over 300 containers and 60 KoKi 100 -107's and, for example, some Kato containers don't fit the Kato 106's as well as they do the Tomix 107's. My paws sometimes struggle lining-up the little mounting tabs but once that's done then generally things are OK.

 

As an aside, I have a Morita unassembled kit of a UT20A and I must have missed the bit that said it was metal castings when ordering. Anyone any experience in building these?

 

Ian