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

[Cat]

Hobby Search package just landed too.  There's another en route that shipped 5 days after this one did.

 

Eventually, we'll be picking up more of these Tomix Yard Extension sets.  Having this first one on hand will help us do precise track planning and calculate just how many more to pick up.  For our Shorty layout and operations, we'll skip the usual ladder-track approach to the yard.  Current theory is to modify a Walther's HO Transfer Table to use for N Scale operations with the traversing bridge long enough to carry a full 5-unit train.  Yard tracks can be placed on either side of the transfer table.

 

I have a line on buying a used Walther's kit that hopefully will work out.  Met someone from a local club that was selling stuff at the Springfield show in January who has one.  He was going to bring it to the next Greenburg show here in Mass which was scheduled for next weekend.  The show has very sensibly been postponed til November.  Will have to see if we can arrange a time to meet before then.

[Cat]

And right on track, the next Hobby Search parcel has arrived with the last key track sample for our planning, the Kato single cross-over with the very pretty combo of concrete and synthetic sleepers, two new sets of cute Hino Poncho buses, and roadway bridges.  We're still hunting YAJ for a Tomytec Steel Bridge C at a better price than the expensive one that's been up for awhile without selling (looks priced too high for everyone else too).

 

[Jimbo]

I have finally found Japanese bill boards!!    Sankei makes some, I don't have a printer so these should work fine  Now if they don't get lost like my other orders from Plaza Japan!!   Along with some Led light strip's I should have enough to re light my other stations also,,  Where I live model railroading is slim to none in the hobby shops,, More so Japanese N scale  nothing here,,at all!

Edited March 24, 2020 by Jimbo
wasnt done

[beakaboy]

My last order for a while. All products were on special or good prices, but I got hit with 15% goods and service tax by AmiAmi.  Interesting that an order a few months back from Hobbysearch did not include gst charge and still arrived here without being held by customs. (Possibly due to its value of NZ$175.00) .   67yen to the kiwi $ when i ordered at beginning of March. Was down to 56yen a few days ago.

[TFW]

Arrived from plazajapan today. EMS still fast, just 7 days! 😁 However some SAL shippings from 6 weeks ago still not have arrived.   😢 With most flights canceled nowadys these SAL shipments probably will take some more weeks.....

 

 

Thomas W

Edited March 25, 2020 by TFW

[katoftw]

I think SAL will probably be timed in months for the rest of the year.

[railsquid]

A bucketload of Greenmax kitbuilt 72/73 series in surprisingly reasonable condition.

 

GreenMax 72/73 series (kit) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[lighthouse]

Got my first B-Train today. It is a present for my girlfriend who love cats. She told me after a documentary about Tama the station-cat, if a model of this train is available I would buy it. So I found a model 😅  Now I search for a trailer- and motorcar...

[Cat]

Tama,  the Honorary Eternal Stationmaster, rocks!
=^,^=

[roadstar_na6]

I think you‘ll need a second set to make a complete train and then just look up what HobbySearch recommends for making them run 🙂

[Welshbloke]

I keep looking at those Greenmax 72/73 Series kits. The main offputting thing is the cost by the time you've added all the parts to assemble a working model.

 

I am still surprised Kato haven't made any, given they offered the KuMoYa 90s converted from the type and it's a missing link between their 11/12 Series stock and 101 Series. I realise Tomix have but theirs seem harder to find, especially if you want a Yamanote Line set rather than the short formations used on branches in later years.

[Kiha66]

I have the A and B brown 4 car sets from tomix, they're older models but they're in the HG line and very well done.  I'd much recommend picking some up if you see them for sale.  I was weak and got another 5 car orange set too recently...

[railsquid]

Yeah, I've got the Tomix ones too (brown and Yokusuka), nice models, the only thing I've done with them is replace the wheelsets with blackened ones.

 

I've found a fair bit of kitbuilt Greenmax stuff on Yahoo Auctions for very little money. IIRC I paid about 3,500 yen for 6 of the above cars and 3 17 metre cars, both types including one motorized car, albeit the noisy old type. Most cars need a little cosmetic attention, but overall can't complain :D

[deathletter]

I am not certain if this is the proper thread but Japan Post has suspended all SAL service. The page below has a PDF link with more information. 

 

 

https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/0401_02_en.html

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by railsquid
remove FB tracking ID

[railsquid]

2 hours ago, deathletter said:

I am not certain if this is the proper thread but Japan Post has suspended all SAL service. The page below has a PDF link with more information. 

 

 

https://www.post.japanpost.jp/int/information/2020/0401_02_en.html

 

 

Relevant thread here.

[deathletter]

32 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

Relevant thread here.

I should have known it was already here, somewhere.... My apologies.

[JR 500系]

On 3/19/2020 at 4:17 AM, Cat said:

 

 

I like how your bus fleet is growing!  🙂 

[JR 500系]

Firstly, Apologizes for the hiatus! Been a little off lately and adjusting to the new work arrangements, but the parcels didn't stop coming in! 

 

 

My usual Ami dropped these off from my pre-orders... Those little Hino Poncho buses are REALLY cute! Missed the Oykot the first time round and not gonna miss it again... It's a lovely train, very nicely painted!

 

 

MTP dropped these off for me... Probably due to licensing issues I couldn't see these elsewhere that are available for overseas buyers... Thanks Nariichi san!

 

 

And a little something from HS, that had a REALLY LONG trip... This parcel got delayed more than 2 months, stuck in transit, went back to Japan, and got re-shipped again with no reasons whatsoever... Oh well, i'm glad it finally made it here though... 

 

Why do I have a feeling I am buying more and more yet not building and running more similarly? 

[railsquid]

Still chipping away at the MicroAce back catalogue:

 

MicroAce EF13 (EF13-6) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

EF13-6, made in 2002, I have a photo of the prototype heading along the Chuo Line in 1971 with a rake of passenger coaches.

[Cat]

4 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

 

I like how your bus fleet is growing!  🙂 

Some time ago, we expanded the definition of our layout: we are modelling Ibaraki transportation systems.
: 3

Every google street view of both entrances of both Mito and Katsuta Stations are always packed with lines of buses and taxis.  Even little Oarai Station usually has a Hino Poncho waiting out front, and always one or two Hino Ponchos in the mix at Katsuta.  Google-map-fu finally revealed where we could put the Mito bus yard for Ibaraki Kotsu, and bonus discovery right across the street from it is Green Taxi headquarters.  The JR Bus Kanto yard is off-board for us, but one bus yard is sufficient for our story-telling (and available space). 

 

With the Kindergarten Van in the box set shown up above, and another Kato one coming, we'll be adding a Kindergarten destination for them.  Two Pizza-La locations (make two, they're small) have gone in to provide home ports for the pizza bikes.  Just the other day while google-mapping to figure out what to put in a tiny corner by Katsuta Station, lo and behold, we discovered a bicycle parking area right there.  There was many cries of "Squee!" in the house yesterday when I found a small local Yamato Transport office in our area, and the Tomytec Day & Night Taxi Stand will be a perfect proxy for it (now if only someone would make Yamato's local delivery vans....).

On the topic of buses, perhaps you or someone here could help with a model question that my google-fu has completely failed to solve.  In our stash of kits, we have the Tomytec Midtown Bus Station acquired some time ago to use for miniature gaming scenery, and are hoping to find a home for it on the layout.  It would be nice to find something like this building anywhere in the eastern depths of Mito City or Hitachinaka City heading out towards the coast. Visually scouring google maps, and also trying different search terms, has failed so far.  Searches for "bus station" only turn up the big mainline train/bus stations.  Do these little bus stations exist these days; and if so,  what might be a better search term to find them?

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10372913

As a side note on buses: Jeff has pointed out how autos are the most expensive scenery item per square centimeter.  Buses help a little bit with that, they provide somewhat better square centimeter value for the yen, and much more readily identifiable story-telling elements of how places in the model world connect with each other.
 

[railsquid]

9 hours ago, Cat said:

On the topic of buses, perhaps you or someone here could help with a model question that my google-fu has completely failed to solve.  In our stash of kits, we have the Tomytec Midtown Bus Station acquired some time ago to use for miniature gaming scenery, and are hoping to find a home for it on the layout.  It would be nice to find something like this building anywhere in the eastern depths of Mito City or Hitachinaka City heading out towards the coast. Visually scouring google maps, and also trying different search terms, has failed so far.  Searches for "bus station" only turn up the big mainline train/bus stations.  Do these little bus stations exist these days; and if so,  what might be a better search term to find them?

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10372913

 

 

I'm probably not the best person to ask about bus-related stuff, but I suspect the kinds of bus stations represented by the various Tomytec models have in real life long since fallen victim to various waves of station vicinity redevelopment, particularly the universal "rotary", which enables buses to set down/pick up passengers using public roads in front of the station. This negates the need for individual bus companies to carve out their own private bus terminals from the crowded station environs common maybe half-a-century ago. The nearest you'll find are the bus company ticket/information offices, which are usually in a building or kiosk next to the rotary, like this one:

 

https://goo.gl/maps/MLwL3tWtJiwcKAnY8

 

If at all, something similar to the model you link to seems like it could be still found as the central bus station for a regional bus company in some rural area poorly served by railways, but that's just a guess. I can't claim to have travelled every inch of Japan, but don't recall seeing anything like it. However there's nothing preventing a bit of Rule 1 and just pretending there's a corner of Mito or wherever, where redevelopment hasn't reached yet.

[JR 500系]

I agree with squid! I'm guessing Tomytec is inching towards the usual rotary type buses that one can see so often stuck out at terminals or railway stations... I too have the midtown bus terminal but couldn't find a good space for it... I think due to it's design I highly suspect it is located in the outskirts near a rural train station, serving as a connection point to further out rural areas, or as an extra boarding/ alighting point for long distance buses... 

 

Well to me… I just had to try and get all the buses cause I just LOVE the details that go into these cute little transport boxes!

 

[Cat]

Thanks folks for the confirmation of my suspicions.  I've applied a lot of google-fu to this puzzle.  The best hope in our area of operations would have been maybe somewhere around Hitachi Seaside Park or the not too far away Ajiguara terminus of the Minato Line, or possibly for the local Oarai Hino Ponchos; but couldn't find anything vaguely similar.  We will ponder applying Rule 1 to create a Hino Poncho depot if a suitable space appears as we're drafting the mid-area modules.

During a future coffee break, I'll take a google down the Suigun Line and see if there might be something that-a-way.  Sometime in the distant future, we might add a Suigun module.  And there is always a chance that I might stumble on a street view of some shop/business that looks sort of like that building.

[Cat]

Big Buyee package just came up from the basement. We've taken to leaving mail in the basement for a day to decontaminate; this one sat down there for two days as we were rather busy yesterday. Tonight we got to dive into all the goodies. Lots of small purchases from YAJ, taking advantage of Buyee waiving their bidding fee during March.  It was a delightful way for us to unwind for the evening.
 

The streets and parking lots of Ibaraki Shorty will be well decorated. This bunch adds to what we got from ZenMarket last month.

The pair of cell towers will go atop the NTT Docomo building in Mito.  Asahi TV is technically out of our region; but they are channel 38 in Mito, and so they can have a TV truck filming on our layout.  I'm also keeping a weather eye open for the NHK TV truck so they can roam around filming Railway Journal.

 

With two roughly comparable sized purchases from each service, I can now apply math to do an actual comparison of the costs.  Will post conclusions in the Proxy Buying thread after I get around to the mathing.  They each have arranged their fee structures so differently that we needed to go the hard science route to gather sufficient data before the costs could be compared. I love science.
: 3

[jasona2z]

2 hours ago, Cat said:

Big Buyee package just came up from the basement. We've taken to leaving mail in the basement for a day to decontaminate; this one sat down there for two days as we were rather busy yesterday.

 

Are you decontaminating with anything in particular?