Japanese HO, or at least 1/80th scale...

[dullsteamer]

I’m starting this thread to avoid hijacking someone else’s. 

 

My long-term plan is to build a permanent/home layout based on Mitaki station on the Kabe line in the suburbs of Hiroshima. But that project is on hold at the moment. As much as I’d like to press on with it’s construction, I can’t do much until I can afford to renovate the shed it will live in. And right now there’s no spare cash for that. But I’m tired of not having something to run trains on, or take to exhibitions. So inspired by an Iain Rice book, I’m going to build a cameo. It will be based on Bakuromachi station on the Sakai Line in Yonago, Tottori prefecture.

 

 

Before it was electrified it had a crossing loop - but to make it more operationally interesting I’m going to retain both tracks under the wire. The real platform will accomodate  a 4-car train, but I’m going to condense that down to 3 cars long. I’ve already got a suitable base, originally made for another unrelated project, which will accomodate the station nicely. I can’t plan accurately by drawing or using software, so I’ve spent the last day or two playing with track, trains, buildings and vehicles to get an idea how it will all fit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phil H. asked about the steeplecab electric loco and the three-wheeled trucks I posted previously. It’s a “near-enough” JGR ED25 that uses a Model Railroad Warehouse GE steeplecab body kit, running on a crude scratchbuilt frame, powered by two NWSL Stanton power trucks. The pans are from a Japanese manufacturer, Aclass, and the truck frames are from Darumaya.

 

 

The three-wheel trucks are a pair of Mazda T2000s made by Time, and a Daihatsu C08 by Tomytec.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited June 16, 2019 by dullsteamer

[dullsteamer]

All my trains will be in late JNR-era liveries. The modern E231 seen below is my son’s.

 

So now that I’ve primed and sanded all surfaces of the base I spent some time this evening playing with track, structures and trains. This is what I have in mind:

 

 

 

 

  

The WS riser is just a stand-in for the platform - the proper version will have tapered ends and be long enough for three cars. And as there won’t be any turnouts on the visible part of the layout I’m going to do something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and superelevate the curves. (I’ve been playing around with a couple of pieces of Kato Unitrack with built-in superelevation. The improvement in appearance is amazing.)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[dullsteamer]

Between work and feeling crook I haven’t got much progress to report except for this. I’ve made card mockups of the old and new station buildings to decide which one to build. Maybe I should do both and swap them around for variety.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 12, 2019 by dullsteamer

[dullsteamer]

I've made a start on the first building for the cameo. It's a building with a ground floor appliance repair shop and a residence above. It will be next door to the noodle shop at the crossing. These are the walls. As the building it’s based on is finished with tiles, I’ve used Evergreen 4501 1.6mm thick sheet styrene as the base material. Apart from looking good, it makes marking out and cutting the windows and doors very easy.

 

 

My plan is to complete all the structural elements of the basic shell, paint it, then add details like the window and door frames and glazing afterwards. That should ensure neat colour separations without needing any tricky painting or masking. I'm determined that this building will have a neat and tidy finish, so I'm hoping this approach will work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Lovemymodelling]

Hi 

Ive a huge 1/80 collection built up over the years all ready to run when TOMIX entered the market in late 90s , I haven’t bothered with the 285 or 681 as simply cost , I did get the basic 4 car 223 set as like JR West items, I’m hopefully going to commence on my layout this winter fingers crossed, 

[dullsteamer]

Sounds good. Any thoughts about what sort of layout you're going to build?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Lovemymodelling]

Hi,

hopefully a circuit around the spare room with a hidden fiddle yard, I’ve more locos than rolling stock so a small traction depot, there’s a pretty smart loco depot available on Amazon from a Japanese retailer as well as a few buildings, I’m still pondering over track , I like Shinohara but the old points aren’t really DCC friendly and no one knows if the business will continue to operate in the future, second choice is the new Bullhead track from PECO, the points are DCC ready and pretty prototypical looking too.

Now the colder days are here I can spend a few hours starting baseboards and track planning, thank god for  YouTube best reference material anywhere.

Pete