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

[Rod.H]

Well I got more containers and track

Just missing three GuP container sets now! But yes I can run a train of pretty much GuP laden Kokis.

As for the track....

I got some viaduct track and wide track curves to do that

[Matthieu]

Hello,

First participation on your forum, which I have been reading for a few months with great interest. Here are some pictures of my last delivery from Plaza Japan. Enough to occupy a few winter evenings in my Parisian apartment. I have lots of questions to ask so I will try to find the right subjects, the right sections…

[JR East]

6 hours ago, Matthieu said:

Hello,

First participation on your forum, which I have been reading for a few months with great interest. Here are some pictures of my last delivery from Plaza Japan. Enough to occupy a few winter evenings in my Parisian apartment. 

 

Hello Neighbour ! 

 

JM 

 

[disturbman]

Bonjour, ancien voisin ! You delved right in, even with a Sankei kit, love the selection.

 

What’s in the 10-214 & 10-215? Loco-hauled trains? The boxes don’t have any series name written on it.

[JR East]

16 minutes ago, disturbman said:

What’s in the 10-214 & 10-215? Loco-hauled trains? The boxes don’t have any series name written on it.

 

 

https://www.katomodels.com/product/n/bookcase

 

 

[disturbman]

Ah, merci ! Vehicle cases 🙂

I always prefer to use Casco's rather than MA, Tomix or Kato since they don't have any writing on the side and have pocket for self printed labels.

[Matthieu]

Good evening,

 

I took these 2 bookcases to test the storage of my cars in US N Scale.

 

Occasionally I will test other brands.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWnhfTnof79/

[JR 500系]

19 hours ago, Matthieu said:

Hello,

First participation on your forum, which I have been reading for a few months with great interest. Here are some pictures of my last delivery from Plaza Japan. Enough to occupy a few winter evenings in my Parisian apartment. I have lots of questions to ask so I will try to find the right subjects, the right sections…

 

 

Hi there, glad you found us! And thank you for sharing with us your latest haul! 

 

Can i ask why there is a mix of Kato and Tomix tracks? Jusr curious ~  😛 That Sankei building is lovely, built for a sharp angle great for fillings at wierd corners, but i just dont have the skills to assemble it nicely ~  

[Matthieu]

1 hour ago, JR 500系 said:

 

Bonjour, content que vous nous ayez trouvés ! Et merci d'avoir partagé avec nous votre dernier coup ! 

 

Puis-je demander pourquoi il y a un mélange de morceaux Kato et Tomix ? Juste curieux ~  😛  Ce bâtiment Sankei est charmant, construit pour un angle aigu, idéal pour les remplissages dans les coins étranges, mais je n'ai tout simplement pas les compétences pour l'assembler correctement ~  

Hello,

 

No worries, curiosity is one of the best qualities of modelers! I use rails from both brands to enrich my tracks. In this last purchase I took Tomix inclined curved rails in single track because Kato does not offer any for the moment. I use Kato transition rails between the 2, it works wonderfully.

[jozasa]

I could not resist this Greenmax beauty!

[JR 500系]

And so, the JR West fleet expands further... First import:

 

 

 

no prizes for guessing who did such an excellent job wrapping them up!

 

 

 

 

I agree, this is REALLY NICE!

 

 

What's better than a bubble wrap? How about another plastic wrap below? 

 

 

 

With a little cut to access the book case, the plastic wrap stays safe!

 

 

 

Man didnt know why i sold my JR West fleet previously.... 

 

 

[JR 500系]

Next one to join the JR West fleet:

 

 

Box is much bigger due to... 

 

 

The magnificent Kato corner building... Very detailed indeed!

 

 

This is quite an odd ball, but pretty rare 

 

 

Love connecting cabs

 

 

That's quite a beuatiful face! Glad they're still running in service. Wierd Tomix included the TN coupler at connecting cabs yet NOT in-between cars....

 

 

The Full 7-car set 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by JR 500系

[Madsing]

2 hours ago, jozasa said:

I could not resist this Greenmax beauty!

 

Super nice! Are you planning a DCC upgrade?

 

 

[disturbman]

4 minutes ago, JR 500系 said:

Weird Tomix included the TN coupler at connecting cabs yet NOT in-between cars

 

That's how they do. Afaik, all their sets have TNs at cab ends.

[gavino200]

 

I received my "Ambitious Japan" 700 Series. I had some immediate buyer's remorse with this one, but it was one of those "cannot be cancelled" reservations. I thought it was a bit much buying this, as I already have a Kato 700 and I think "Ambitious Japan" is a bit of a lame sounding slogan.

 

But now that I have it, I'm glad. It comes in a nice presentation box. I'm a sucker for those. And also now I'll have a Kato and a Tomix version of the same train, so I can run them against each other so to see how they compare. The AJ slogan will make it easy to tell them apart. Also I like to have multiple trains of the same model running together as you often see that "IRL".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 26, 2021 by gavino200

[disturbman]

Good for you, you finally have a non-Kato train. It looks really nice.
 

45 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

I had some immediate buyer's remorse with this one, but it was one of those "cannot be cancelled" reservations.

I have this often with reservations. It's a bit like with concerts or doing something I have planed for a while. I already have lived that moment in anticipation so many time, that, when the time finally comes, I almost don't want to go.

Edited November 26, 2021 by disturbman

[Madsing]

3 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

I received my "Ambitious Japan" 700 Series. I had some immediate buyer's remorse with this one, but it was one of those "cannot be cancelled" reservations. I thought it was a bit much buying this, as I already have a Kato 700 and I think "Ambitious Japan" is a bit of a lame sounding slogan.

 

But now that I have it, I'm glad. It comes in a nice presentation box. I'm a sucker for those. And also now I'll have a Kato and a Tomix version of the same train, so I can run them against each other so to see how they compare. The AJ slogan will make it easy to tell them apart. Also I like to have multiple trains of the same model running together as you often see that "IRL".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never noticed these side panels on the Tomix model. I guess they retract when the train turns left or right. Do you like them?

They look a bit weird to me, but maybe from afar the whole train looks better, more “seamless”.

 

Marc

 

 

 

[gavino200]

Funny you should ask that. I'm not a fan of this feature. It's the main reason I've been reluctant to acquire Tomix Shinkansens. (I actually do have a decent amount of Tomix stock, though the vast majority of my stuff is Kato). I see what they're going for - trying to replicate the rubber/plastic joints on the real Shinkansen. But I don't think it's well executed, maybe because it stops abruptly at the top? It almost seems to accentuate the joins rather than make them more subtle. Somehow when I look at my Kato Shinkansens (without this joiner mechanism) my brain just doesn't notice.

 

They're spring operated and are very smooth moving. It'll be interesting to see if my opinion changes when I seen the Kato and Tomix run side by side.

 

 

[katoftw]

I think Tomix does it better.  Below is Katos attempt.

 

Both have a gapping canyon from above.  Just Kato continues it somewhat down the sides.

 

[cteno4]

The Tomix shinkansen diaphragms have worked well for me and looked good. I did have one E4 car that had the shell bent in a tad that pinched the pivoting diaphragm and caused some derailments, but I was able to bend the shell out and add a tad of dry silicone lubricant to the diaphragm side to get it working properly once I figured out. When running the Tomix look better to me. The Kato n700 diaphragm coupler was pretty awful in  it’s first pass. All wheel pickup of Tomix is also a nice bennie.

 

jeff

[beakaboy]

a few items from the recent Hobbysearch sale as well as some spare parts  arrived yesterday. My first Godzilla! The buses are around 1/110 scale which suits my TT scale New Zealand Layout. Need to strip them down and repaint. My friend does custom decals. Love the TV model bus  

 

[200系]

I always find it fascinating how certain features will invoke different reactions in different people. Discussions such as these always confirm to me why I'm usually not all that keen to recommend, or dissuade people from buying certain models, we all have our own criteria in what we find important, as well as things we may overlook as long as most of our main criteria are met, the human mind will always remain a fascinating subject.

 

 

With that said, I personally think the Tomix solution as used on their 'newer'  shinkansen models to be OK at best. While it is much better looking, in my opinion, than the featureless blobs they use on their 0 series, 200 series and 100 series models, which have always looked extremely toy like in my opinion (which is a shame, as the Tomix 0 series sets (0 sub-type and 1000 sub-type cars) released in the last 7 years are probably the best 0 series models ever released), I still think it is somewhat inferior to the Kato diaphragm couplers (absolute best in my opinion).

 

The thing with the diaphragm system used on the shinkansen is, like most things shinkansen, that it is actually much more conventional than people may realise.

With the exception of the N700 series family, the N700S series, the E5 series (with the caveat that formations U1~U27 and U28~, as well as the H5 series use a different system which doesn't entirely qualify as all around) and the E6 series, all other series use more conventional gangway connections. Though the gangways themselves are different from the ones used on conventional cars (though even with conventional cars there a re a number of different variants, but let's digress for a moment), they have to maintain air tightness, stand up to the higher aerodynamic pressure (especially in tunnels) and provide a high degree of sound proofing (especially as there are no gangway doors), in terms of size, shape and configuration they are remarkably similar to a conventional gangway connection. This means that on most shinkansen the gangway connection itself, should actually be visible from a number of angles.

 

So with this in mind let's take a look at the actual end car structure of the shinkansen:

 

222-35 at the Ōmiya Railway museum, note the inter car damper system on the top right

 

As can be seen in this image, the actual end car structure is remarkably ordinary in appearance. In the centre we can see the inner part of the gangway connection, with the latching mechanism clearly visible on both the top and bottom sections of the gangway, with the passenger handholds visible in the centre. When connected, steel plates would be slotted in the opening on the outside of the panels where the handholds are attached to, this would allow for movement of the inner structure while still maintaining a closed off connection on the passenger side. Normally, a rubber diaphragm would be placed around the gangway connection, which in turn would connect to the diaphragm on the connecting car, and this together would form the actual flexible diaphragm connection between cars. The Shibata based tight coupler with its bottom mounted electrical connector is unfortunately obscured by the sign.

 

The flap like panels you can see on either side of the car, and the thing Tomix tries to mimic with their moveable hood, are referred to as the outer hood (as this is, as far as I know, something which is only used in Japan, and particular to the Shinkansen, I don't think there's an actual English term for this structure, at least I've never come across any). Their function is to form a sort of aerodynamic barrier for the actual gangway, which greatly reduced noise.

In contrast to the Tomix moveable hood, they shouldn't really come into contact with one another during normal operations, though I do believe they are made of somewhat flexible materials, and thus allow for a small degree of movement (inward). Because of their design there is always a small gap during regular operations (on a straight section at least).

 

This configuration has been used ever since the introduction of the first pre-production 0 series cars (then still known as the 1000 type formation C) in March of 1964, and it has remained more or less unchanged ever since. Even for those series using an all around hood, the principle remains the same, as the all around hood actually functions exactly the same, and is considered as, the smaller outer hood used on the other shinkansen, i.e. they aren't so much a full width diaphragm connection as they are a simple aerodynamic cover for the actual gangway connection hidden underneath, the actual gangway connection on the N700 series, N700S series, E5 series and E6 series, is more or less identical to the one used on all other shinkansen.

 

723-9001 at the Nagoya Railway museum, note the presence of the rubber diaphragm as well as the steel plates I mentioned earlier.

 

 

Detail of the outer hood of 718-16 (left) and 719-16 (right) of JR West 700 series formation C17 (one of the 9, C formations transferred to JR West in 2012), about half a year before her retirement in April of 2016. Note the gap between the outer hood and the connected car, as well as the car end being visible through said gap (if I had been standing just a tad further to the left the gangway connection would've been visible as well, but I digress). Also, as a bit of trivia, note the difference between the position of the window on the passenger door on this picture (early type, as used on formations C1~C28), and the ones on the Tomix model (late type, as used on formation C28 and up).

 

 

A good look at the gangways and car end of N700 series 5000 sub-type formation K5. Formation K5 had to be evacuated from Nagoya station after a crack in one of the bogies of car 13 (785-5505) led to damage to the WN joint and gearbox, serious enough to make continuing the service towards Tōkyō unsafe (the later investigation would conclude that there had been a risk for derailment), while operating Nozomi 34 from Hakata to Tōkyō on the 11th of December 2017. Especially the 4th shot provides a somewhat rare possibility to observe the gangway connection on the N700 series while coupled:

http://huahua034.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-38.html

 

 

As well as a good look at E5 series formation U28 during her delivery to the Sendai Shinkansen Centre. note the gangways within the outside hood structure:

https://noriyuki.cocolog-nifty.com/s/2013/07/e5u28-8c54.html

 

 

With that said I personally think the Kato diaphragm (as introduced on their E1 series in the 1990's) coupler is the best overall coupling system used on any of the shinkansen models available right now, with the newer diaphragm coupler (as used on the E3 series, E5/H5 series, E6 series, N700A and E7/W7 series) a close second. This simply because it provides the best balance between realism and functionality, at least in my opinion. Yes the gap between cars is somewhat larger, and thus more noticeable, but with the Kato model at a scale coupler distance of 60 cm, while the Tomix model clocks in at around 86cm, the Kato system, though still out of scale, compares much more favourably with the 50cm interval on the real shinkansen. Adding to this is the fact that even from the side, which is supposed to be the best angle from which to examine the Tomix model, I can't help myself from noticing them being oversized in comparison to the real thing.

Compare for example the 6th picture @gavino200 shared with the second picture I posted above, and you'll notice that on the prototype the outer hood is perhaps 1/6th or at most 1/5th the width of the passenger door next to it, while the outer hood of the Tomix model takes up about half (if not even more) the width of said door.

 

While the ones on the Kato model are notably narrower than the prototype, I still think they give off a more realistic feel. I would say the bigger issue with the Kato diaphragm coupler is the lack of a Shibata below the gangway, I've always felt the gap this creates gives the underside a bit of an empty feeling, though with their newer diaphragm coupler it does include a Shibata style coupler eliminating

 

 

Of course as with all opinions regarding the merits and demerits of certain models, there is no correct answer (except for my own of course) in this case. I personally really like my Tomix 700 series C formation (last run version), as well as all my other Tomix shinkansen, the Tomix moveable hood has always been a bit of a pet peeve of mine, simply because I don't just like the shinkansen formations as a whole, but the individual cars as well (which is important in my opinion as well, as the shinkansen have always been ordered, built and managed on a per car basis, though with the newer series remaining in the exact same formations from the moment they enter service till the day they are retired, they are still much less of an actual (single) unit than they might appear to be) , and for which the Kato (and MicroAce) system works a lot better.

I also think, that with the praise the Tomix electrical couplers and moveable hood sometimes gets on this forum, that it is also important to provide a counter argument with regards to the actual relation with the prototype, or lack thereof in this case.

 

 

So I guess this was my shinkansen related lecture for this week, stay tuned for more in the future.😅

[KateM]

I've managed to put my hands onto a Tohoku Emotion set. No more space for Kiha 110/111/112 cars left 😄

 

 

 

I've also preordered the new Train Box container cars today. My コム collection is growing 🙂 

 

[Rod.H]

13 hours ago, katem said:

I've managed to put my hands onto a Tohoku Emotion set. No more space for Kiha 110/111/112 cars left 😄

 

 

 

I've also preordered the new Train Box container cars today. My コム collection is growing 🙂 

 

Dang, for a moment there I'd thought I'd lost my Kiha110 case, but mine's not yet full and I've the set that matches classic JNR colours https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10442794

[Matthieu]

Hello,

 

Arrival this morning, an 8620.

 

The train that will be behind arrives next Monday.

 

What to take care of, lighting, seated travelers, weathering, driving team, etc ...

 

We are on the first day of the advent calendar, I would like each box to reserve this kind of piece : locomotive, wagon, building, etc ... 🙂

Edited December 1, 2021 by Matthieu