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

[TheNicofabi]

2 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Hey Nico, glad to see you back!

 

jeff

 

Might be more active soon as my profession is possibly going towards Modeltrains now since I am back and had to look for something.

[railsquid]

Kato 205-3000 series (Hachiko Line).

 

Kato 205-3000 series (Hachiko Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Detailed by previous owner.

[cteno4]

16 hours ago, TheNicofabi said:

Might be more active soon as my profession is possibly going towards Modeltrains now since I am back and had to look for something.

 

Ohh shoulda interesting!

 

jeff

[miyakoji]

18 hours ago, TheNicofabi said:

 

Might be more active soon as my profession is possibly going towards Modeltrains now since I am back and had to look for something.

Nico I'm interested to hear how things went for you in Japan.  Were you in Ichikawa the whole time?

[TheNicofabi]

2 hours ago, miyakoji said:

Nico I'm interested to hear how things went for you in Japan.  Were you in Ichikawa the whole time?

 

Yeah I was, didn't get to travel arround much cause I only had the choice of "Money and no time" or "Time and no money" but I was happy there, was a nice place to live with all the things I got to do.

[nah00]

May's HS order, should've paid more attention as had I known that the Seino koki set came with transfers for renumbering I would have bought 1 or 2 more of the separate cars. Not a complete waste though as I have few more koki-107 I can renumber...

 

Also I passed on the Kato Kyushu DE10 set on release and regretted it, luckily MB Klein had them in stock and on sale plus free shipping, paid slightly more than Japanese retail but evens out with no shipping cost. Hard at work here, the horns on the cab roofs are harder to install than I remember. 

[serotta1972]

Those Kato DE10's look really sharp don't they.  Wow, MB Klein had them huh.  Glad you were able to get your hands on a set.

[GDorsett]

Klein's had Japanese trains? Madness! Haven't seen anything like that since their old store with a single lonely N700 Dr. Yellow.

[cteno4]

They tend to buy a pile of Kato Japanese trains every couple of years or so. They tend to be closed out after a a year or so and then they usually go again. Price is around Japanese full retail or a bit higher, but cheaper shipping than ems. It’s been dropping off over the years.

 

jeff

[Sheffie]

Yes, those horns were a real pain, even with the special tool. I think I lost two before I got two attached 

[railsquid]

Surprisingly I have become the owner of a 6 car Chuo-Sobu line 205 series set, in the form of a RTR set produced by Greenmax on behalf of craft/hobby chain Yuzawaya, who used to sell model trains but appear to have stopped at some point before I started buying them.

 

Greenmax 205 series (Chuo Sobu line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

I can't find out much info about this set, it may have been on sale in 2000/2001. Vendor mislabelled it as a case of unidentified junk, so it went for quite a low price, but it is in decent condition. However it's basically a pre-assembled Greemax kit so a bit on the spartan side (no interior, no lighting, no car numbers or destination blinds). Still, much better value than the Kato version (which fetches insane prices when available, which isn't often) and should be easy enough to improve.

(And the moment I've finished improving it, Kato will no doubt re-release their version).

[chadbag]

Kleins still shows the DE10.  Just wait for a free shipping and discount coupon to come along, which happens pretty regularly, and you got yourself a good deal.  Wish I was not on moratorium, as I had this one pre-order from Japan twice and cancelled twice (due to moratorium).   

 

Go for it if you like those DE10s as the prices will only go up.

[GDorsett]

don't need free shipping if you'll be at the shop anyways

[insert thinking guy meme here]

 

Need to make a run anyways, got a kid who wants one of my HO models. Guess I should fix the wiring in that one, shouldn't I...

[chadbag]

4 minutes ago, GDorsett said:

don't need free shipping if you'll be at the shop anyways

[insert thinking guy meme here]

 

Need to make a run anyways, got a kid who wants one of my HO models. Guess I should fix the wiring in that one, shouldn't I...

 

Do they have the same prices in store?  A lot of places have different prices in store versus online.   You can check by going to their site and adding it to your cart (to see the real price) and then going to the store and seeing what they want there.

[GDorsett]

Yes, it is the same. It's the same thing, but they pull from the internet side, as that's their main buisness. In fact, they prefer you to use the in-store computers to order large orders instead of coming into the store with a list.

[cteno4]

Yes Klein’s is very good about this, but like Garrett mentioned they want you to use the computer put in to pull anything that’s not out on the shelf. They are really good on keeping things fair, it’s a quality shop.

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

IIRC Klein's will let you choose "pickup in store" as an option when choosing shipping.  However you will be charged sales tax, so I'd check to see which would be cheaper.

[cteno4]

Living in md I get hit either way. I guess I could have it shipped to the sister in law’s in va! It is the store to visit once a year for a good old school train store fix! I grew up with two local hobby shops with great stock of n scale to go press our noses up on the lass cabinets and ware out those rotating shelves. Amazed the staff out up with us scraping out our quarters and dollar bills to buy a $2-3 train car...

 

jeff

[chadbag]

6 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

IIRC Klein's will let you choose "pickup in store" as an option when choosing shipping.  However you will be charged sales tax, so I'd check to see which would be cheaper.

 

With the new laws (due to SC ruling) they seem to be charging tax anyway for many states.  I did a test cart with the DE10 and they added Utah tax to it (I didn't check our as I was only checking prices)

[Martijn Meerts]

My Kato GG1 I got from Klein's, shipping was really cheap on it to. Then some time later I wanted to order some replacement couplers for the Kato Morning Daylight set. 10USD for the couplers, just over 100USD for shipping, since they removed all but the express services 😄

 

I thought at one point it'd be my go-to store for US stuff, but the shipping makes it too expensive.

 

[cteno4]

Yeah they had issues with international shipping some time ago I remember. I use to know one of their staff, but not seen him for a while.

 

also the customs forms here have become pretty nasty here, no little short form and if for business many boxes to check off. I hope that they can just submit them electronically as a business. Last time I filled out the long form on the usps web site and printed it out they still had to enter the info in by hand at the post, it was very obnoxious... I can see why shops add handling fees to these things as the last post to Australia took me about an hour to fill it all out and post it.

 

yell if you need something small like that shipped over. I think you can still airmail a small padded envelope, but they have been trying to push anything non letter to global priority which ain’t cheap...

 

jeff

[railsquid]

Finally found some NEX logos for my ca. 1991 Kato 253 series.

 

 

Now just to find some quality time to apply them...

 

[Welshbloke]

The case arrived for my JNR container train. After some research it turns out the KoKi 10000s did use the Kanmon Tunnel at the time when the EF30s were in service, so a pair of EF30s and ten KoKi/Fu 10000s will be assembled:

 

 

Does anyone sell alternate numbers for these KoKis? I had a good look through the KoKiFu box but no sign of a sheet. While they're almost invisibly tiny to the naked eye I'd rather not have nine identically numbered wagons on camera...

[nah00]

On 6/18/2019 at 8:35 AM, chadbag said:

 

With the new laws (due to SC ruling) they seem to be charging tax anyway for many states.  I did a test cart with the DE10 and they added Utah tax to it (I didn't check our as I was only checking prices)

 

I got charged PA tax on mine, Pennsylvania is ALWAYS on top of it when it comes to extorting sales tax for purchases to wheedle away in Harrisburg. Strangely eBay doesn't do it yet though it says I 'might be responsible for it'. There's a link to click but it goes to a dead page so oh well. For what it's worth the DE10s may be worth braking the moratorium, they can be used on a lot of trains (Seven Stars both as a pusher and as the locomotive, double-headed on the shorter Twilight Express they ran, MoW if you have a MaYa-34 or some Tomix hokis and general switching/freight duties) so I don't think that necessarily a bad investment. 

[chadbag]

1 hour ago, nah00 said:

 

I got charged PA tax on mine, Pennsylvania is ALWAYS on top of it when it comes to extorting sales tax for purchases to wheedle away in Harrisburg. Strangely eBay doesn't do it yet though it says I 'might be responsible for it'. There's a link to click but it goes to a dead page so oh well. For what it's worth the DE10s may be worth braking the moratorium, they can be used on a lot of trains (Seven Stars both as a pusher and as the locomotive, double-headed on the shorter Twilight Express they ran, MoW if you have a MaYa-34 or some Tomix hokis and general switching/freight duties) so I don't think that necessarily a bad investment. 

 

Yeah, it would be nice.  At the moment we're busy planning our house build for next year.   I'll probably try and pick up the set used or something in the future, once the house is done.