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

[brill27mcb]

Ooh! Nice to know about this Kato 8-wheel chassis conversion kit from Aru Nine. It might be useful to squeeze this chassis into narrow tram bodies...

 

Rich K.

[brill27mcb]

I am unable to find this Aru Nine A3077 Kato chassis conversion kit anywhere on Hobby Search. Does anyone know where they can be purchased, or are they long gone?

 

Rich K.

[ED75-775]

Latest arrival into the ED75 collection:

 

 

this MicroAce A2905 ED17, which I’d wanted for a while but had not been able to get through Tokonami-san as he’d sold out of them when I went to look at buying one. Neither PlazaJapan or HobbySearch had any either, so I ended up having to create an Amiami account to get this little fellow. From order to delivery it took six days, although that could also be in part due to the fact I picked DHL shipping, which *only* took four days.

 

It’s a nice little model, haven’t run it yet but this might be the excuse I need to run a few trains. And I may consider buying more stuff from Amiami in future too.

Alastair

[disturbman]

I have one. Love the little bugger. Nothing beats compact boxes on wheels.

[bc6]

@brill27mcb I got my Aru Nine A3077 Kato chassis conversion kit from RG ROKKO.

[SwallowAngel]

@Kamome Thanks for the Info, maybe I'll experimenting with the narrowed chassis myself.

 

It immensely bugs me that for both the DE10 and the DD51 Shorties no out-of-the-box chassis exists besides the scarce Bandai ones. I wish someone could produce an alternative, but unfortunately the chances of that seem a tad low...

[Kamome]

B Train stuff was everywhere at one point, now it’s much scarcer than it was. There were a good portion of B Trains running at JAM, especially on the mini layouts. Even the shorty locos with regular wagons looked quite attractive. 

[Beaver]

Well, the B-Train DE10 looks just like a small shunter in it's own right rather than being a caricature of something else. Call it DD10?

[Tony Galiani]

Kato KiHa JR Hokkaido Series 283 set - a sort of impulse purchase but an ideal model for a small layout as the prototype is only a three car train.  Sort of sad to see the reduced formations due to declining traffic - still hoping to get to ride these trains one day.  I have a number of Hokkaido trains but did not have one in this color scheme which I saw frequently in all the Hokkaido videos I had been watching.

Ciao,

Tony

[SL58654号]

I recently obtained my second EF65 in my EL roster - EF65 500 (3060-4) from Nikkyosha. 

Also, a real little gem, my narrow gauge Welsh Pony from the Ffestiniog Railway. Later I might get Palmerston.  

Also from Nikkyosha I obtained 3 passenger car lighting kits for my three SL Hitoyoshi carriages. I think they'll be a worthwhile investment. 

Edited September 4 by SL58654号

[SL58654号]

On 8/30/2024 at 2:57 PM, ED75-775 said:

Latest arrival into the ED75 collection:

 

 

Alastair

What's not to love about the English Electric EL of Japan? Now I hope someone will make the EF50 (8000). Nice obtainment Alastair. 

Edited September 4 by SL58654号

[tripel7]

When buying a complete starter set is cheaper than just the train and a power pack:

 

[Kamome]

Yeah did the same when I needed a second power pack and wanted the E233 Ueno-Tokyo. These starters are pretty good value, especially the “Best” regularly produced ones. Improvement would be if they’d include an asymmetric loop so that if you bought 2, you would have appropriate curves to make a double track rather than an over-abundance of R315 curves. I keep thinking of getting this set used from my local Book Off as it’s pretty cheap and I want an E353. Don’t really need the track or controller but price is not hugely different to buying the 4 car base set new. 

[bc6]

This is probably my smallest purchase to date for Japanese N scale trains lol.

They are JRF dry transfers for EH 200 locos although I'm not 100% happy with them as the line under the logo is too short. 

 

 

[Kamome]

These dry rub transfers are for the EF64 Hiroshima renewal livery. Hard to tell but they may also be a little smaller compared with the EH200 markings. 

 

https://www.tomytec.co.jp/tomix/products/n/9131.html

 

The EH200 has a double logo length line with the JRF logo on the left. Good to know these are available though. Who produces them?

 

As renewed locos no longer carry the JRF insignia, is it really necessary or did you purchase the recent EH200 and prefer the older version? I do feel the livery designs had this included insignia in mind so it does make the loco sides look rather bare. 

 

Another option, if you number your loco as EH200 901, since it’s recent inspection it carries no JRF or Blue Thunder markings. 

 

I read somewhere they started phasing out the JRF logo in 2016 although there seems to be some discussion on why this was. Some thought it there was a lack of recognition as the nation all know the standard JR mark but not necessarily JRF that doesn’t use the known JR logo in it’s make up. The F may also not make sense to many Japanese as the word for cargo or freight is Kamotsu. So perhaps JRK would have been more appropriate. Others assumed they either had to or wanted to come in line with all the other JR company logos. If you want to get more in depth knowledge on why it is being phased out, there is more detailed information here.

 

https://cargo-news.co.jp/cargo-news-main/2251

 

Anyway they went back to the standard JR mark with the addition of 貨物 (kamotsu -freight) with a small metal plate inder the driver’s side cab window. 

[disturbman]

8 hours ago, Kamome said:

Don’t really need the track or controller but price is not hugely different to buying the 4 car base set new. 

Though it's annoying, you can always sell the things you don't need online.

[Beaver]

17 hours ago, tripel7 said:

When buying a complete starter set is cheaper than just the train and a power pack:

 

Sometimes the starter sets are cheaper because the trains in them are low-fi versions with less detail than the standard release sold separately. Something to bear in mind....

[Kamome]

I know this was the case with the old D51 + brown coach set and the original EF210 and Koki 106 set, both from Kato. The older starter D51 had the motor housed in the cab like the older Kato SLs and the EF210 just lacked number choices to my knowledge. 

 

Are there other examples? The 2 starter sets I bought, E4 Max shinkansen and E233 were both identical to their base set counterparts. 

[bc6]

@Kamome Wow thanks for the backstory on the JRF logo i really appreciate it a lot. Youre right the transfer is for the EF64 but so far I haven't seen any correct logos for the EH200 I'm tracking down a source for some. I'm not sure who makes them however I will post an update when  I take a look at them again. I can always use the transfers in a truck or something else. I just wanted a logo on a EH200 as a legacy locomotive which would be cool. I think it would be even cooler to have a loco with regular JR logo now that would be sweet thanks for the nudge lol. I'm pretty sure I have several JR decals laying around. This makes sense why the JRF logo was removed from Koki as well.

Edited September 5 by bc6

[Kamome]

The JR logo on the new freight locomotives is a a small metal plate under the drivers side cab window, not a printed logo on the side of the loco.

 

You can see the changes on the EF510s here, be it some were on blue train service before being transferred. The red EF510-0 has the appropriate JR貨物 plate.

https://j-tetsu.online/2021/11/post-1864/

 

Not to say you can’t create your own livery. Seen some interesting “What if Kuroneko Yamato had their own fleet of freight trains,”like Sagawa have the Mc250s.

Edited September 5 by Kamome

[bc6]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, More modeling possibilities are on the horizon for me to explore. 

 

Thanks for the link. 

 

I think a fantasy livery would be awesome, I may get shunned by some but thats ok. 

[bc6]

I think this makes up for the dry transfer photo lol.

[Martijn Meerts]

On 8/27/2024 at 3:13 AM, mags_minibuilds said:

@bc6 I've assembled a couple of brass kits, watched numerous YT videos, read blogs and received tons of tips from @Martijn Meerts and @cteno4 so the book had a lot of similarities of what I already know. If I didn't have all that information, this would be the perfect book to get started on brass kits. The book is packed with many photos so it helps and there are a few techniques he demonstrated that I'd like to try. After reading the sections on painting, it reassured that my paint job is actually quite alright as the author seems to have the same struggles with paint peel and the nerve-wracking task of removing the masking tape and hopefully the paint underneath doesn't come off. Nevertheless, I do enjoy flipping through this book.

 

Good to know my info was of use, you're probably better at building / painting these things than I am by now 😄

 

[N-Osoi]

I got a nice little package from Japan today. Once again, I forget just how small N scale things are when disassembled 😄

 

I'm not sure if anyone has made any of the M Miniature-A kits here yet is I might give one a go early.

 

kitkat and Yamanote line for scale 

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Ah another 50 layout owner! I’ve got a few of the Miniature A kits but not assembled one. Will be interesting to see your experiences with it.

 

jeff