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

[Kamome]

Sorry if anyone is offended by items in the wrong thread but as my main acquisitions were N, i thought I would put it here. 

 

What i used to consider a large haul, however seeing other members container sized deliveries, you could call this a slow day. 😂

Anyway starting to frequent a small little train store, literally 50 metres from my home with some little gems that have been long sold out in many other places. Been eyeing up the Tomix Hinotori in there for sometime and had some wiggle room in the train budget so it came home with me. Also this weekend I secured a Nagasaki tram and motor unit from Tomytec and finally got those last 4 nahane 20s  I needed for an Akebono formation in some weird scale called HO. I think it’s pronounced “ho” as in Santa’s cheer.

 

I love the Hinotori and it’s my first Tomix bookcase set. Slightly bemused by the design of butchering the bogies if you want to add TN couplers. I will, but does fill me with a bit of dread as I just paid for it and now I have to cut bits off. At least it’s not parts that would be easily seen. Just add TNs from the off Tomix, I say. It’s a nice train, who wants horrible rapidos on it.  Still as it’s the first of my Tomix bookcases, it should be easy to find.

The Nagasaki 200形 is a nice little tram, shown here next to a Hiroshima 1900形 counterpart. 

 

[marknewton]

Nice selection - always makes me happy to see HO models going to a good home! 👍

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Impressive HO scale Stuff! in the UK HO Japanese products are always overpriced sadly

[Kamome]

Cheers @marknewton. I’m a bit of a stickler for blue trains and the 20 has always been one I’ve wanted in HO. Just love those dome shaped ends.  Now just to order some side decals, coach numbers and headmark stickers for the old Akebono.

 

@The Birmingham train spotter There is still some overpriced stuff in Japan too but with Kato, you get pretty good value in terms of cost and detail. ¥4500 per coach is pretty reasonable I would say. (£29) They just need a bit of detailing which some UK modellers would be reluctant to do, especially at the prices being charged in the UK. The same coach is on sale at Gaugemaster for £72.

 

UK models usually have a lot more detail out of the factory and unfortunately, people pay the prices and the models sell through. So manufacturers build to their equations of shown interest, preorders plus shop stock, the models sell out and repeat. Dapol seem to be producing some reasonable priced stuff at times. An O gauge pannier tank engine for £250 is very good, I think. Anyway this is all for another thread, really. 

[The Birmingham train spotter]

Dapol products are worth their prices as their models are fully detailed I've only ever held a Dapol OO Gauge BR class 21 for £195,buying second hand is better 

[disturbman]

3 hours ago, Kamome said:

Slightly bemused by the design of butchering the bogies if you want to add TN couplers. I will, but does fill me with a bit of dread as I just paid for it and now I have to cut bits off.

Greenmax and Tomix both. I know the feeling, but it's worth it and the trucks are in the end not a particularly valuable and fragile part. There is not many ways you can botch this if you have the correct tools. Happy snippin'.

I didn't know you were such a Kato boy 😉

[Kamome]

1 hour ago, disturbman said:

I didn't know you were such a Kato boy

Thats not even half of the green boxes. Mainly due to availability when I was in the UK but yeah, i’ve been pretty loyal. Should’ve bought shares. I have 2 lonely blue Microace bookcase sets and now 1 Tomix. Most of my Tomix is HO as, you know me and my hatred of silver wheels on models plus I generally preferred the Kato colouration compared with Tomix on like for like models. Still no Greenmax though. Put off by the price point and lack of interiors on some models. Good job I don’t collect Meitetsu. 

 

Tomix is also losing the fight in HO stock too but this is more down to the coaching stock I wanted. I actually prefer the level of detail on the Tomix product. Kato’s N and HO offerings seem similar in build quality and features whereas Tomix’s feel a bit like toys for N and exquisite models for HO. 

[disturbman]

On 10/3/2021 at 4:19 PM, Kamome said:

Still no Greenmax though. Put off by the price point and lack of interiors on some models.

Don't you collect HO? 😘

If they have nothing that interests you, no need to think twice about it. I didn't have any Greenmax for a very long time; because of the price tag, the horrible (original) screeching motor, the look of some of their plastics, but I'm very happy about the sets I have since acquired. Even more since I can swap away those awful silver wheels. Their trains look better in person than on pictures, though you don't have that problem since you can just go to a hobby shop stocking all of the Japanese manufacturers.

[katoftw]

I was the same in my thoughts about Greenmax.

 

Now I have a massive collection.

 

A single red Kiha 220.

 

😀

Edited October 5, 2021 by katoftw

[Kamome]

4 hours ago, disturbman said:

Don't you collect HO?

My main collection is N gauge which is how I started. When I finally get a space to build a layout it will be N due to Japanese living space limitations. There is still such a good offering of n scale trains and scenic material but there are some limitations to using the smaller scales. You can’t argue with the price and the sheer choice and I love every single one of my n gauge trains. 

 

I bought an Kato HO EF65-1000 with a couple of Tomix Koki 106s some years ago and I was just hugely impressed by the jump in detail and running quality.  I’d say i have a few trains of interest in HO as the price points have been relatively accessible.

 

As for Greenmax, my n scale collection is quite eclectic, buying trains I find interesting rather than focussing on a particular era, company or region.  I did look at the BEC819 from Greenmax but the cheapest i found it for was ¥15000 for a 2 car train which seemed a bit steep. 

As the majority of their releases focus on the major private railways, and as I’m not building a fleet of one particular operator, I’ve tended to not look at their products that much.

[Nozomi329]

I doubt if Kato actually changed anything from 10-278/9 other than the road numbers, but since I don't have one anyways...

Good to see they included the green car in the basic set. I'm also a bit curious of why they switched from the 4-car basic set to 6-car. The 4-car basic probably went along with the starter sets. Kato seems to be swinging between large full sets mode and small basic+ addon mode from time to time...

The 4-car addon set has the same box as the 6-car basic, and the foam is cut in a way that allows the full 10 cars to be stored in number sequence in the 2 boxes.

Simple yet elegant. I like how the paint here is reflective enough to show the streamlined contours.

On occasion, the train has a little problem negotiating an S curve that probably shouldn't be laid that way after all. No problem with turnouts or other stuff so far.

It's (relatively) easy to install EM13 and FL12 decoders and no wiring is required, the 10-car train reaches a scale speed of 275km/h at about 52/128 speed step. I've been thinking of adding sound using the new esu decoder for Kato...

 

[gavino200]

Very nice!! Mine is on the way. I can't wait!!

[JR 500系]

Posting some stuff i got recently, mainly pre-orders... 

 

First parcel, packed beautifully from Tokonami san as usual ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is an odd-ball, but i seem to like the toroko more and more... it is also one of the Shikoku 3-brothers so yeah ~  Makes me wonder, since MA already has the Kiha-54 models, where are they not making the ones that runs in Hokkaido? I believe i'll get the MA one over the GM ones.... 

 

Another parcel from Rokko ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah the E257-2000 series Odoriko is REALLY BEAUTIFUL in that white and blue... very elegant 

 

 

 

just love how bright the lights are!

 

And a single item that was on sale at Ami so yeah why not 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[katoftw]

That rainbow coloured articulated bus is nice.

 

The more I see that E257, the more I am failing my resistance to buy it. The colours are just so nice.

[serotta1972]

I was just informed that I pre-ordered an E257, I had forgotten. 😁 I'm still passively collecting trains.

[Pauljag900]

4 hours ago, serotta1972 said:

I was just informed that I pre-ordered an E257, I had forgotten. 😁 I'm still passively collecting trains.

As if we did nt know that already!😂😂👍

[JR East]

 

 

On 10/9/2021 at 5:13 AM, serotta1972 said:

I was just informed that I pre-ordered an E257, I had forgotten. 😁 I'm still passively collecting trains.

I've preorder too ... but the 5 cars set which will be delivered end of October acc to the prod calendar;

 

JM 

[MeTheSwede]

Unlike many (most?) here, I'm not into the train collecting aspect of the hobby and don't see myself adding significantly more rolling stock within the forseeable future.

 

However, I couldn't possible argue that I had everything I needed before I bought this piece.

 

 

I guess my next step is to go to Wakayama and ride the train, greet the various station masters along the line, including the current Super Station Master of Kishi and pay my respect to the Wakayama Electric Railway's former Executive Director Tama, who is nowadays deityfied at her shrine outside Kishi station.  😁🐈

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by MeTheSwede
cats

[JR East]

Just arrived this morning, my X-Type Anti-flaching LED Light for my Kato Saphir Odoriko (in light yellow to make it as real as it gets).

 

Only 33 euros  for 8 pcs DDP ... that's not expensive

 

 

 

 

[Yavianice]

I have equipped mine with Light Bulb lights in the Premium Green Car, and the Lite Yellow in "ordinary" green car. On interior images it looks like the difference is not that big, but, the interior is more "woody/dark" in the premium green car, which (in my opinion) makes the light bulb lights a bit more appropriate (like in the video below, premium green car is at the end of the train).

 

 

[ED75-775]

Meanwhile in New Zealand, a care package arrived from Zenmarket yesterday:

A Japanese family friend said I should have a C62 as the ‘queen’ of JNR steam locomotives, and this one came my way for NZ$115.00. And the big thing? Well, I do have other interests, and it was in the same package, so...

 

sorry not sorry I guess?😁

[railsquid]

MicroAce E127:

 

MicroAce E127 (Oito Line) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Will need a bit of de-screeching, but hey, it's MicroAce, 2nd hand and dirt cheap.

[disturbman]

More like a function of its age and a lack of maintenance.

[railsquid]

And older MicroAce models (at least the multiple units) seem to age faster (mechanically) if not maintained (compared to Kato and Tomix), which is why they are sometimes so cheap :D.

[disturbman]

What I wonder is when the cut off date is. I have a few 2006-2009 MA models, I avoid going older, and they all perform fine, never had a screecher. I have one that has become slightly temperamental and I think it might have to do with the the oxydation of the pickups and coper strips. I would need to dig into it more properly, but setting up shop for such maintenance is an hassle around a 4-year-old.

 

My impression is that they might have overhauled their general design around 2005-2006. But I don't own enough older pre-historic models to compare. I wouldn't be surprised if their first models had a few material quality issues, we all know their first steamers where slightly whack, as they were a small and new entrant. I also wonder if their general over-greasing is not an issue.

My experience with the older GM motor is much worse than with older MA sets, but I might have been unlucky with one and lucky with the other.