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

[Fenway Park]

Ordered Tomix 153 series low cab set and add on two car set buffet and first class car. 

 

December release, interestingly HS say the low cab variant cannot be cancelled. 

 

Used on Sanyo Line. 

 

 

[railsquid]

Another one for the Chuo-Sobu line fleet 😄

 

MicroAce 103-1200 series by Rail Squid, on Flickr

Edited August 9, 2019 by railsquid

[Pauljag900]

Love that colour combo buddy👍😀

[kenjidm]

Just ordered the Tomix Pokemon train for my kid.  He will be pretty excited.

 

[cteno4]

Uh oh you are getting sucked in fast! 😜 

 

Your son (read you) will love how many painted trains in japan!

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[serotta1972]

Oh hey, I just got my Pokemon Train too.  I think my kids will enjoy it but not ashamed to admit that it's mine. 😁 Also adding a new region to my collection - JR Shikoku 2000 Series, love my Kiha Limited Express trains.  Also, this train kinda resembles the BART trains in the Bay Area.

 

[chadbag]

Went to Den Den Town today in Osaka -- to the Joshin Denki Kids Land.  We are getting near the end of our trip -- Monday leaving my SILs house for Tokyo and a couple Disneyland days and leaving for home Thursday, the typhoon-gods willing (Typhoon Krosa is supposed to get near or hit Japan mid week).  So today we went and did last minute shopping.

 

I just got a few things -- lots more I would have liked to get including the Pokemon train you guys have posted above -- but I held off.

 

Got two packs of "Open Pit" concrete track.  Saw track like this in Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto with the Shinkansen and thought it would be interesting.  My son wanted me to get a 90 deg crossing for some reason so I got that.  2 busses, and a set of Hogarakadou containers, plus 3 sets of the blank white Hodarakadou containers for future use, and 6 FL12 cab light decoders rounded out the days purchase.  Love the tax free and additional 5% off when using Visa that they do (as does Yodobashi).  

 

I did not find the KATO 10-1122 I had hoped to find, which I thought was being re-released in June and I figured at least one store should still have one, but no cigar.   I guess I bought the Hogarakadou containers as a consolation prize.

 

Edited August 10, 2019 by chadbag

[GDorsett]

I fell down, down, down, into the burning ring of fire...

 

Second truck, first busses, first cars, and something interesting I'm not sure I can get away with. Guy had a bunch of stuff at this weekend's Greenburg show and it's following me home. Got a semi with pipes on it, two busses that I know I've seen before but can't remember where they run, a neat trolley bus, a few small cars, and one Tomica toy Schnabel road train, so that's interesting.

 

 

 

 

And here's a picture of my HO train running just for good measure.

 

Except that it embedded upside down...oh well.

[bill937ca]

The Tomica toy vehicles are not to consistent scale. They are made to fit in the palm of a ten year old. The bigger the prototype, the smaller the model.

[Onizukachan]

Well I pulled the trigger and bought a Tomix 500 type Eva!

Guess I’ll have to build some Japanese themed Modules now!

[cteno4]

Wow what scale is the transformer truck?

 

jeff

[Kamome]

Nothing hugely exciting.  Grabbed some tram innards for my dormant Chikuho Dentetsu 2000 series so I can run them all without switching body shells. These always seem to be difficult to find, possibly as Tomytec has had to produce so many slightly different units.

 

Now need to find a suitable case to put them all in and in the future invest in some head/tail light kits 

Edited August 11, 2019 by Kamome

[Das Steinkopf]

7 hours ago, GDorsett said:

I fell down, down, down, into the burning ring of fire...

 

Second truck, first busses, first cars, and something interesting I'm not sure I can get away with. Guy had a bunch of stuff at this weekend's Greenburg show and it's following me home. Got a semi with pipes on it, two busses that I know I've seen before but can't remember where they run, a neat trolley bus, a few small cars, and one Tomica toy Schnabel road train, so that's interesting.

 

 

 

Kyoto Metropolitan Transport Bureau bus I have several of those now but not as old as your example. 

Here are some of mine, I also have an Isuzu Elga as part of the fleet. 

https://flic.kr/p/SUT4o4

[Sheffie]

Ordered: Kato 10-050 Hankyu Series 6300 (Basic 4-Car Set)

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/m/10003374

...although not from HS, since it’s officially “terminated”. This was just about the only Hankyu train I could find that was 4 cars or less, powered, assembled, and would ship to the USA. Which is amazing considering the sheer number of different Hankyu trains out there.

[Keith]

Ok so this is definitely (probably) the last purchase until I build something to run things on. I had a look in the roof at the weekend and I already have a lot of UK outline, somewhat more than I thought from years ago and they are still in their boxes as well.

 

Keith

 

 

 

[kami_illy]

Got some "First Car Museum" pieces... 

A good way to collect ALL the shinkansen without spending a ...load of money and space (for me its first cars or all of them). So they complement my small fleet of 700 Nozomi and 200 Tohoku. Now i kind of regret that i sold my other ones (500, N700-8000, 800).

 

Just saw that the 500 and 800 will also come as "first car", yay. 

 

[nah00]

Had computer problems so getting caught up, June was mostly Kobaru items that'll probably disappear, ended up getting a lot of their beach stuff since no one else makes anything close, the windsurfers are really nice. Also the stairways are well done, should have bought more than one set of railings though.

[nah00]

On 8/11/2019 at 12:00 PM, cteno4 said:

Wow what scale is the transformer truck?

 

jeff

I have it as well, the bottom of it says 1/173 so it's slightly small, only 'problem' is that being a toy the transformer part is very, well, toy-like. It is eye-catching though and placed in the background and weathered a bit (or even just dull coated) it stand out quite as much. It is quite big though so I don't have anywhere to put it on my layout right now.

[cteno4]

Thanks nah! Yeah bit of forced perspective in the rear. Unfortunately the Takara Tomy are usually a bit bright, plasticine, and toylike, but for some interesting things... but I think for the space it would take maybe a train car being towed thru a street may be more fun.

 

jeff

[nah00]

The train car is definitely more interesting, the Schnabel transporter would really only look in place around a big factory or in the background at a power plant. I have a few others, namely the Kobelco SK3500D demolition machine (https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10402070) which is way too small for N but at 1/228 is perfect for Z and the Hitachi SCX900-3 crane (https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10436306) which at 1/120 seems like it would be too big for N but it looks about the right size, only problem is the already mentioned toy-like nature of it. Would definitely work in the background though, just not in the middle of an equipment lot like I planned. I've seen it on a few Japanese layouts on Youtube too. Was going to get this one too but I don't know how '1/113' scale it is: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10537397

[cteno4]

I think the takara Tomy sort of do the scale to fit in the box thing so come out with these wild range of scales. They can be frustrating as they seem to use the same wheels on a variety of scales so they can look funny as well as being a bit toy looking wheels.

 

would also be a fun scene with transferring the transformer from a Shiki car to a road train. There was a great YouTube of this with two cranes lifting a transformer off onto cribbing to then join up to a roar train.

 

i have the hitachi crane and it would work well in the background. Luckily I have a gob of the various 1:150 construction vehicles so many many cranes...

 

jeff

[EH500 (12)]

On 8/8/2019 at 5:38 AM, Sheffie said:

 

Inquiring minds want to know. How many of each do you have, and what do you think of them - detail level, quality of running, variability of quality even (since you own so many)?

 

So after some delay a short EH500 comparison:

 

Tomix:

EH500 1st Batch

 

EH500 2nd Batch (old version)

 

EH500 2nd Batch (new version)

 

EH500 3rd Batch

 

 

Kato:

EH500 2nd Batch

 

EH500 3rd Batch (3037-1 old version)

 

EH500 3rd Batch (3037-2 new version)

 

 

 

Range of upward movement of the couplers (you can easily spot the manufacturer by the coupler. Tomix black, Kato grey):

Tomix (has built in magnet, very useful for remote coupling)

 

Kato (no built in magnet and very limited range of movement)

 

 

 

 Side by side, 2nd Batch (Tomix old version):

 

 

Side by Side 3rd Batch:

 

 

 

 

Side by side all batches:

 

 

 

Top view of all EH500s, from left counting up from EH500-901 to EH500-69 on the right.

 

 

 

 

So, to answer Sheffies questions:

-How many of each do you have

EH500 1st Batch (1 Tomix)

EH500 2nd Batch (4 Tomix, 1 Kato)

EH500 3rd Batch (5 Kato, 1 Tomix)

 

-detail level

Regarding 1st and 2nd Batch both are ok, little differences here and there.

Regarding the 3rd Batch I would say stay away from Tomix as their red color is way to bright in my opinion.

3rd Batch locomotives are in fact a bit brighter than 1st and 2nd but Tomix went way to far in the bright direction as you can see below.

As far as I know Tomix is the only company to offer a 2nd Batch with handles at the front and rear and 1st Batch is only available without handles.

 

 

 

 

-quality of running

Kato has the better motor in my opinion, very smooth and able to run very slow.

The tomix motor starts very abrupt and doesnt handle slow speeds as good and tends to stutter a bit.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaDXFQvB83I

 

 

-variability of quality even

I wont judge the 1st and 2nd Batch EH500s as these are all second hand, except the one new 2nd Batch from Tomix, but the four Kato 3037-1 I have are all of the same quality with one having a tiny bit brighter red color, only noticeable if you put them all next to each other. I guess this is due to different production runs.

 

 

 

A little advice on how to get an EH500 for Europeans:

 

Either get them when there is a new production run or look at ebay.

You should never pay more than 120€ for a new EH500, used should be below 90€. The current price for a new Tomix or Kato EH500 seems to be between 105 and 110€. (shipping not included)

 

Tomix:

https://www.dm-toys.de/liste/search/eh500.html

 

Kato:

https://www.menzels-lokschuppen.de/Modellbahnen/Elektroloks/Kato-30372-JRF-E-Lok-EH500-Ep-5-6.html?listtype=search&searchparam=eh500

 

On ebay I have bought used EH500s for as low as 30€ (seller thought the motor was dead, lol it wasnt) but most were between 70-90€.

If you see an 1st Batch EH500 I would recommend to buy it immediately (or tell me) if the price and condition is ok as these are really rare to find.

[RogerMc]

Picked up my 2nd (or is it 3rd?) category. Got what I feel is a good deal because the cars are lit with LEDs as a kludge and of course they only light in forward direction. Sleeve is a bit scuffed and the panto is a little wonky. I'll find replacements somewhere. But she runs just fine.

 

 

[cteno4]

Adding a bridge rectifier to the lighting circuits will probably fix that.

 

jeff

[GDorsett]

On 8/10/2019 at 11:00 PM, cteno4 said:

Wow what scale is the transformer truck?

 

jeff

 

Small enough to get away with, but big enough for some people to fuss about. How's that for an answer?

 

 

 

next to an HO F350 truck with the Kyoto bus in the bed.