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

[gavino200]

17 minutes ago, roadstar_na6 said:

The postman brought a little something today 🙂 It even slipped through customs 😄

 

After a quick running session and check if everything works it moved into it's new home:

 

 

 

Those walkway accordions look great. Are they hard to separate when you're putting the train back in it's box? How do they separate? 

[roadstar_na6]

They aren't as easy to handle as expected sadly. It took me like 10 minutes to connect two coaches because they're like a µ higher than the diaphragms on the coaches they go over. I guess for passenger coaches they're not really useable and after messing around with them for like 30 minutes total I was fed up and put them back in their packaging 😄 I'll revisit them at a later point with a EMU/DMU of some sort.

[bill937ca]

My Kato 10-950 Takamatsu-Kotohira Electric Railroad 30 type arrived today.  Wow! Shipped Monday from Osaka and in Belleville on Wednesday!  Kotoden bought these former Keikyu 230 type trains around 1980 and they ran until 2007.  Wonderful old trains with growling gears, Brill27 MCB trucks, open diaphragms,  whirling fans overhead and great gear noises. I was beginning to think Kato or Tomix would never make a model of this train.

 

Here they are in their final years.  Video by inukyu7000.

 

My photos are below the video.

 

 

 

Edited April 7 by bill937ca

[railsquid]

I've been hoping to find one of these for a long time:

 

 

Apparently out of production since the 2000s, finally re-released.

 

Recent-ish blog article from Greenmax here: ☆☆☆新製品紹介／ストラクチャーキット・高架下の倉庫・店舗

 

 

[Pauljag900]

Few bits arrived this morning,yard buildings,signal boxes and some groundcover and walling

 

[inobu]

On 3/31/2021 at 3:05 PM, inobu said:

I had a feeling.....So I ended up calling the online shop to verify my order and sure enough it turns out they did not have any of the items.

They stated that they will order it and when it comes in they will ship. Uhhh, I don't think so. I canceled the order. 

 

Started looking again and found another shop that had it posted. So I order the first one then order a second one. It stated I could not order 2.

That let me know their inventory is counting and updating.

 

I order everything and now we will wait.

 

Inobu

Only piece I was able to get was the V50. I guess I have to make my own V-Set. The V51 available are $300+ and not worth it. The better value is to buy

trams with those hobby dollars.

 

Can't find switches as well. Necessity is the mother of invention, so let's see what happens.

 

Inobu

 

[bill937ca]

This is a pattern I've seen before with Kato Unitram. The sets come first, then the individual trams and then later the individual track pieces. i think it is relative to Kato being a family business.  They will only take on so much at a time. Was like this 2007 and earlier and is still like this.

Edited April 9 by bill937ca

[inobu]

Funny, thing. Just after I posted I thought to look one more time and found 2. Let's see what happens there.

I think I have enough pieces to start a build.

 

Inobu

[inobu]

57 minutes ago, bill937ca said:

This is a pattern I've seen before with Kato Unitram. The sets come first, then the individual trams and then later the individual track pieces. i think it is relative t Kato being a family business.  They will only take on so much at a time. Was like this 2007 and earlier and is still like this.

Yes, it seems the case but looks like a sustainable business model. Looking around everything is pretty much out of stock.

 

Inobu

[Dinosbacsi]

19 hours ago, railsquid said:

I've been hoping to find one of these for a long time:

 

 

Apparently out of production since the 2000s, finally re-released.

 

Recent-ish blog article from Greenmax here: ☆☆☆新製品紹介／ストラクチャーキット・高架下の倉庫・店舗

That's nice looking! I remember seeing a video where they made a really realistic diorama using these. Though it looks like they don't fit Unitrack?

[railsquid]

3 hours ago, Dinosbacsi said:

That's nice looking! I remember seeing a video where they made a really realistic diorama using these. Though it looks like they don't fit Unitrack?

 

Yup, per the linked blog article they are only suitable for "normal" N gauge track or Tomix Finetrack.

Edited April 10 by railsquid

[Szepessy]

On 4/1/2021 at 4:51 PM, JR East said:

 

On top of that, they  enclosed a post card for the Gold EF65 Lottery. Posting it from France as 'postcard' is not possible as everything is written in Japanese on it ... thus I raised the question and less than 8 hours after, I received a very clear mail with PDF attached to explain how to fill it and where to send it (see attachment). That is what customer care should always be everywhere in the world. 

 

Thus I deciced to order again from them. Now I can be confident. Another great thing, you can"t order more than they have in stock. I dediced to purchase several similar freight cars and at a moment, I was not able to order more than 3 units as they were not in stock. That's what I'm appreciate. Of course you can preoder ... but at least, if you're able to order online, that's because they'are really in stock (not what I read on page 505). 

 

I went to Japan more than 10 times and,even 20 years after my first travel, I'm still surprised how they do their job more than properly and efficiently. 

 

Meanwhile, can somebody tell me whether - If I'm receiving another 'Godl EF65 card' - I can send it again or is the lottery bound to one unique participation (same name / same address) ? 

 

 

KATOEF65-Application postcard address.pdf 235.18 kB · 9 downloads

Nariichi from Modeltrainplus also gave instructions. I put the two cards (as I received so much) filled out, for safety reasons, in an envelope, and sent both cards in separate envelopes to Kato. Postage was over €5...

[cteno4]

If anyone wants one of these postcards, I have one and could send it to you or just give me your information and I’ll send it in for you.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[roadstar_na6]

1 hour ago, Szepessy said:

 in [...] envelopes to Kato

 

That's what I did as well considering Kato's address was not written on the card in Romanji and I once had a letter come back to me because some guy at Deutsche Post was too dumb to difer between "From" and "To" on a Japanese stationary envelope. I only paid 1,10€ postage tho 😄

[railsquid]

Finally got my hands on a Kato 205 series Chuo-Sobu line set at a reasonable price:

 

Kato 205 series (Chuo-Sobu Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Kato 205 series (Chuo-Sobu Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

which is a sure sign Tomix will release a version soon, but anyway.

 

Sadly no surprise interior lighting, but the motor unit came packed with free extras.

[gavino200]

On 4/1/2021 at 7:47 PM, EdF said:

Are you going to also get koki105s?  They are also on preorder.

 

I really like how these Toyota containers look on the blue Kokis. Thanks for telling me about the Toyota train!!  I think I'll have to get some more blues. It seems only right. I hope there's a blue Koki out their with tail-lights. I'm a sucker for tail-lights. 

 

Edited April 11 by gavino200

[cteno4]

Damn you, that does look nice!

 

jeff

[Cat]

Slow boat came in with surface parcel, pre-ordered through 1999: Girls und Panzer das Finale containers:

[ED75-775]

8 hours ago, Cat said:

Slow boat came in with surface parcel, pre-ordered through 1999: Girls und Panzer das Finale containers:

More GuP stuff? Oddly enough I've been ogling one of the GuP Kashima KiHas on Zenmarket lately myself... so tempting... and Part 3 of the Das Finale series is coming too!

 

My latest haul leans less towards containers (I've saved those for my European H0 layout) and more towards steam locomotives: another 8620 (Kato) should be en route from Zenmarket later this week, and I have a C57 and three 33 series coaches on order for July via HobbySearch. I did also try to get a Kato 5003-1 via Zenmarket but someone else was a bit more determined than I was. So back to the drawing board; and why is this coach so attractive? I've only ever seen two come up for sale so far.

[bill937ca]

Shipped March 29, 2021 by Japan Post Small Packet!! Lighting kits for my Greenmover tram.

 

Edited April 13 by bill937ca

[Cat]

2 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

More GuP stuff? Oddly enough I've been ogling one of the GuP Kashima KiHas on Zenmarket lately myself... so tempting... and Part 3 of the Das Finale series is coming too!

I have 2 other surface parcels out at sea now.  One has a later release of Das Finale containers featuring other schools.

[James-SNMB]

On 4/13/2021 at 8:58 AM, bill937ca said:

Shipped March 29, 2021 by Japan Post Small Packet!!

Wait, as in "Surface" small packet? The one quoted as 1-3 month delivery? If so, that's fantastic! I have been holding back because of the lack of midrange shipping options, but this might change that...

 

[katoftw]

Wouldnt have gone surface if that quick.

[Jimbo]

cool stuff!! I'm trying to find some Nissan containers,,

[bill937ca]

1 hour ago, James-SNMB said:

Wait, as in "Surface" small packet? The one quoted as 1-3 month delivery? If so, that's fantastic! I have been holding back because of the lack of midrange shipping options, but this might change that...

 

In the corner it says "Air". I suspect some type of hybrid service. Something like Fed Ex out of Japan and Canada Post after the arrival in Canada.  eBay often does this type of thing now.