Mitakihonmachi - Japanese plank in HO

[dullsteamer]

A while back I thought about building a simple display/exhibition layout based on Hokoku station on the Hakubi line during the late JNR steam era. I finished the basic structure and supports, and installed the subroadbed, ballast strips and point motors. And that's as far as I progressed, because the more I thought about it, the more I realised I didn't want to build 10 feet by 2 feet of steep-sided mountain and try to cover it with dense forest. Apart from the task of making a large number of realistic trees, or at least ones that satisfy me, I wasn't happy with the overall composition and/or visual balance that I'd so far achieved. The only composition I liked was a long way removed from the actual arrangements there.

 

So my thoughts keep coming back to Mitaki, a small station on the Kabe line in suburban Hiroshima:

 

 

It's an interesting little station with good scenic potential - a suburban street on one side, open ground on the other. I'd rather build structures than trees, anyway. I played around with track and simple structure mock-ups on the Hokoku base, and I think I can get a much better looking composition of the various elements without losing too much of the prototypes features. But since it won't be an exact copy of Mitaki station, I'm going to name it after the district it serves, Mitakihonmachi. An aerial view of the station is here:

 

So a few weeks back I cut up some 12mm birch plywood, removed the remaining bits of Hokoku, cleaned up the aluminium layout frame, and made a fresh start on the layout:

 

 

Today, having mostly finished doing the boring bits - making the base for the layout - I spent a bit of time placing track, trains and structures so I could visualise how it's all going to look. The platform will be long enough to accomodate a typical four car EMU such as a series 103 or 115 set, the short section shown here is just to establish how wide it needs to be. A few European buildings are standing in for more typically Japanese apartment buildings, again so I can establish the width of the street behind the station. 

 

 

 

 

Early days yet, but I think the concept will work. In one sense it's just a bigger and better "plank" than my previous effort, but one that can be taken to an exhibition and have running trains on it. At the moment it's just sitting on sawhorses in my shed so I can do the messy work on it, but it will eventually have integral legs with castoring wheels on one end so it can be easily moved.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited December 3, 2017 by dullsteamer

[dullsteamer]

Until at least the late 1980s Mitaki was an attended station, as the method of safeworking on the Kabe was single line electric token, and Mitaki was a crossing loop with token instruments housed downstairs in the station building, with accomodation on the second floor. The first photo I posted clearly shows the hoop for exchanging the token in the cab window. I haven't yet found a clear photo showing all of the station building, so I have to rely on written descriptions that state the building was similar to the building further down the line at Kake.

 

 

The dogleg in the street to get around the back of the building is still there today. The vacant plot is now the inevitable bicycle parking area.

 

Some time ago I experimented with making a building by starting with an inner structure made of clear/transparent styrene, which I then skinned with 80 thou sheet styrene to provide an outer shell with window reveals and doorways. I was happy with the result, so I'm going to use that method again to make the station building for Mitakihonmachi.

Edited January 11, 2018 by dullsteamer