TaeOH - First off, welcome to Trainboard, there are a lot of great and knowledgeable people here and thank you for the compliment. It's funny you should mention it but I'm in the process of video taping the layout. Now all I have to do is learn how to download the video. Steve - I had another layout that I built in the early 90's and I had a lot of regular bulbs that I saved. So all I'm doing is recycling and trying to save some money in the process.
I look forward to seeing your video. The stuff I have seen on Youtube just gets me more and more involved in the hobby. I loved trains as a child, I am somewhat surprised it took me this long to get back into the hobby. I have had this partially finished room in the basement just sitting there for 10 years, bought time I did something with it.
I wasn't happy with the look of the yard so I started working on giving it a more "level look". I'm using foam sheets and cutting it so it's level with the rails. My feeling is that if workers had to work on the passenger trains in the yard, they would be able to get vehicles to the area they need to work on. Is this correct? Opinions please. Here are 2 photos of what I'm starting to do.
Bernard, I'm not sure what the issue is with the yard. What do you mean? Are you trying to make it prototypical to a Japanese yard or a proto lance creation? Yes, it is logical for the service people to have access but wouldn't that be at a different location than the main yard? That said - you could use part of it to create a service facility.
Steve, Originally the yard was all ballasted with a "slope". I realized that it would be hard for a worker to access the train but by putting in a road or concrete that is level to the rail it would be easier (Somewhat when a passenger is departing a train onto a platform or a level surface instead of getting off in the middle of a track)
It just hit me. Here is a view of what is between tracks at South Station: It makes sense to extrapolate that there would be some form of access methods in a Bullet Train yard. Based on the size and positioning I think these are intended for the commuter trains. The pipe might be for removal of the sludge from the toilets.
i myself love bullet trains and other high speed trains, and modern railroading in general. I also love the transition era. I'm torn.
Railroadman - Welcome to the forum! Good luck in whatever decision you make in what to model. Take a look at some of the Kato, Tomix or Micro Ace Japanese RR prototypes or look at the Hobby Search Hobby Search Model Train Store Steve - Thank you for the photos. It helps, I realize that I have to trim down the foam to the middle of the tracks.
Bernard - you are welcome. Railroad Man - Go modern and run excursions.- It's what I'll be doing when I finaly get finished.
I have the French TGV - which I don't care for and these: My diesel fleet is more extensive but I won't be running it much. On the GandG IV I hope I'll have enough storage / staging so I don't have to swap out passenger trains to the shelf. I would have loved the Con Cor Aero Train but it just was not in the budget. Instead i may do a version of: Using a Kato "critter" base and carstock or ? blue foam or ?
Steve - I see you have an O series. We are having a discussion on another forum about the N scale size of this early train. I also have one, do you find that is a bit larger than your typical N scale model?
< deep rolling chuckle > Could be over sized along with its Rapido couplers and who knows what all I love the cutie. Ok, yes, I'd love to convert it to non-Rapido but over all? it is very very easy to take out of the box and put on the track. Runs like a champ. Bottom line: Works for me.
Working on my layout has been spotty of late due to my work schedule but this week I was finally able to get Upstate and work on it plus it was raining the past 2 days so no guilt feelings about not being outside! So here is my update: On the layout I have two cities in the workings but I wanted to have a connection to the two areas so I thought, why not add a tram line between the two points. The other reason I wanted to do this is, I really want to work with code 55 flex track and what better way to experiment but doing a short trek between these two points. I remember Dave, (Ppuinn) in early post on this thread suggested that it is nice to conceal the train at times so taking his advice, I decided on making a mountain in part to block out a main line. One thing I have to consider is do I want to Tram line to be DC or DCC? The layout is DCC but the Tram line will be an independent line and I need it to have the capability to have an auto-return function, so on an other thread I will ask members here what they suggest. So here is my new progress so far. The first photos are of the construction of the Tram line with WS risers, then the building of the mountain. I use a combination of foam, newspaper, hyrocal and will add rock faces and scupt-a-mold for added texture. The first photo is to test out the track configuration to make sure that there is no problems with the type of curves I will have in the Tram line.
Greenmax has more regular sized motorized chassis. You can usually find them at Plaza Japan and other Japanese vendors.
Hey Bill - I have to say your Hokane Tozan layout post inspired me to add this dimension to the layout. That really was a interesting layout illustrating what you can accomplish in a small space.
Thanks Bill, I'll keep it in mind. Right now I'm watching my pennies and have a couple of the critters on hand. Still, who knows?
