dullsteamer

Kato has an HO scale E5 Shinkansen in their range. It's conventional 12V DC but can be fairly easily converted to DCC. http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10236910 Zoukei Mura made a Series 0 Shinkansen in HO. https://www.loco1hobby.net/en/zoukei-mura/1462-zoukei-mura.html Cheers, Mark.

Not that I'm aware of. Sankei produce a couple of small Buddhist shrines in HO, but if you want a model of a Shinto shrine you have to go with N scale. http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=117&cat=train&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=Shrines http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=rail&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=Shrine Cheers, Mark.

The KF-class 4-8-4 built for China by Vulcan Foundry, and now resident in the NRM. Cheers, Mark.

Mostly 1/150th. But Kato do produce Shinkansen platform parts in 1/160th. Cheers, Mark.

Or, if you have the money: https://www.imon.co.jp That's correct. Mark.

Excellent choice of location! And depending on which era you model you'll have an wide choice of interesting trains to run. Incidentally, I've always thought the station and yard at Fukaura looked remarkably like something designed by a railway modeller. Talk about compact! And with so many features in a small space, and the hillside right behind it as a natural backdrop - almost too good to be true. Some nice steam era photos here: http://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/1121222/blog/34519860/ http://tsushima-keibendo.a.la9.jp/JNR-gonou/gonou.html All the best, Mark.

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.

Whatever you choose to do I'll be interested, regardless of scale. As mentioned, there's a huge range of J-trains, structures, vehicles and accessories available in N scale, so you shouldn't have much difficulty finding something that appeals to you. If I was starting out modelling now, and wanted to model a big chunk of railway with an emphasis on running lots of trains, I'd definitely be working in N scale. Likewise if my main interest was the colourful trains of the modern/contemporary railway scene, or the Shinkansen network. But HO is what I'm used to, and I prefer to model a small portion of a railway in obsessive detail, and focus on the operations of a single location. HO lends itself well to that style of modelling. I'm also interested in the so-called transition era, which was just as interesting in Japan as it was in the US, though much later. It's a time when there was a fascinating mix of steam, diesel, electric locos, and old and new multiple units. There was also carload freight, interchange with private railways, and brake/guards vans on freight trains. As for cost, I don't personally regard Japanese HO as expensive, but then again I didn't plan on having a huge fleet either*. I've found that the price of Japanese models compare favourably with models of Australian prototype, and the quality is always as good if not better. Anway, welcome to the Japanese modelling fraternity, and good luck with your new project! All the best, Mark. * I didn't plan on having a big collection of Japanese trains, but various manufacturers insist on producing models that I just can't resist...

There's always been a lot of Japanese HO models in 1/80th and 1/87th scale available. Apart from Tenshodo RTR brass you also had similar RTR products from manufacturers like Endo, Imon, KTM, Toby & Miyazawa, plastic/diecast models from Kato, MicroAce and Tomix, and kits from Adachi, EchoModel, Endo, HobbyModel, Modemo, World Kogei and others. But until the internet became commonplace not much of it was seen or sold outside of Japan. Not only has online shopping made buying Japanese models easy, there have been many additions to existing ranges, and new manufacturers have entered the market. Kato, MA and Tomix have all added new models to their range as well as reissuing older items. New entrants such as Aclass, Dentetsu Workshop, Neko Publishing, and Tramway offer both RTR and kits. Even Bachmann have made models for the Japanese market through their affiliate Kairyu. For anyone thinking of modelling the late Showa/transition era of the JNR in HO, now is a great time to get started. All the best, Mark.

The best place to start would be here: http://vicsig.net All the best, Mark.

Very dramatic! All the best, Mark.

Fair enough. Point taken. Cheers, Mark.

So was the post I was replying to. Sauce, goose, gander...

Two different devices made by two different manufacturers. As far as I know SNCF used both, as I've seen Haslers fitted to French locos. Cheers, Mark.

Theology - debating the size and shape of unicorn horns. Aren't magistrates equipped to judge others? Isn't that what juries do? Mark.

Hasler speed recorder?

Yes, I noticed that the Belgian EMUs have Scharfenbergs, while the locos all appear to have hook drawgear and screw couplings, so I can imagine the fun you'd have trying to attach them. On my railway we have Scharfenbergs on the MUs and knuckle couplers on the locos. There's an adapter/transition coupling in the emergency equipment locker on the MUs, so it's not too difficult to couple them. I feel sorry for the poor folks who were involved in this incident. On my railway the worksites have a protection officer and lookouts, the lookouts are not permitted to perform any other task whatsoever. Again, my heart goes out to those involved. All the best, Mark.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morlanwelz_train_collision_and_runaway Cheers, Mark.

Does anyone know what actually happened here? I'm at a loss to understand how the runaway occurred. Were they being hauled by a loco or another EMU? I ask because I've had some experience of hauling accident-damaged MU stock - if the brakes were cut out we'd run a temporary brake pipe and attach additional vehicles at the front and rear as cover to provide braking in the event of a breakaway. So this accident has me puzzled. Cheers, Mark.

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.

There's two Robinson 2-8-0s at Dorrigo, they're on the opposite side of the yard on the former potato siding. See the J&A Brown listing here - illustrated with my photos: http://www.australiansteam.com/nswindframe.htm Cheers, Mark.

You're probably thinking of JGR No.12 at Meiji Mura: http://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/japan03.htm Cheers, Mark.

This engine was probably not fitted with air brake when built, so mounting the compressor later would be a matter of finding a convenient place for it where it would be accessible for servicing. Both the steam and air ends of the compressor have lubricators which must be filled regularly, and there are also drain cocks on the steam end that must be opened when starting the compressor to clear any condensate. Many railways used collars to lubricate the piston rod as it passed through the glands, so these have to be changed regularly as well. On this engine the compressor is a long way forward so it doesn't interfere with access to the steam delivery pipe from the regulator to the valve chests. On US engines the reason for mounting the compressors mounted on the smokebox is the same, ease of access - even on coal-fired engines. The almost universal use of Master Mechanics or Cyclone self-cleaning spark meant that the smokeboxes weren't opened often. It was a fairly common arrangement to fit Okadee hinges to the smokebox front plate, allowing the entire unit to be unbolted and swung open. Cheers, Mark.

The mystery object is an air compressor, but more likely one made by Knorr or to a Knorr design than Westinghouse. It's a tandem compound compressor with low and high pressure air cylinders. A similar compressor is shown here: http://www.bremsenbude.de/seiten/luftpumpe08.htm Air gets hot when it's compressed, hence the cooling fins on the air end of the compressor. Many locos also have radiating pipes to cool the air before it reaches the reservoir. All the best, Mark.

Definitely C56s. I think they have tenders,they're just hard to see due to the tele-lens distortion. Cheers, Mark.