Rainichi! (Visit Japan!) New Layout

Pfunk Mar 2, 2022

  1. freddy_fo

    freddy_fo TrainBoard Member

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    No problem. If that works for you I think that will be cool as heck.


    I got into DCC after I already had a decent collection of DC locos. I bought one of those train sets that comes with a DCC controller to try it out and promptly changed my existing layout to it once I experienced how painless it was to use. The hard part was converting all my existing locos to DCC. I didn't get into software till I started updating my old locos which most got sound. I needed a setup that would allow me to upload sound files into blank sound decoders as well as configure settings from my computer but still no coding.
     
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  2. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    found some fun on my doorstep when I got home just now!

    It's the spring of 2011, and the lease on my Explorer is almost up. I can't wait to be rid of it, and all I can think about is buying a VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen. A white one. With a sunfroof. Yeah, I mean, it may be weird that I'm a single guy obsessing about a station wagon, but it's SUCH a nice car. I woke up so excited the day I turned the lease in, I walked a little over a mile down the street to the VW dealer and there it was, sitting right out front. I talked to the salesman, we got dealer plates and a set of keys, and....

    and it turns out I'm 6'2 and about 240 and in less than 3 blocks it sunk in that no way in frick I was going to fit in that car! (I know this because I bought a '74 914 Porsche when I lived in San Diego and the back of the steering wheel rubbed my thighs but I bought it anyways lol) I drove home in a used Honda Accord instead.

    This is a later model Sportwagen - which is even bigger and still tiny - but it just cracked me up when I saw it so bought it. And lemme just say, this Wiking is probably the nicest N-scale auto I've ever seen. WOW is it well made, the details and lines are insane.

    VW.jpg
     
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  3. Kisatchie

    Kisatchie TrainBoard Member

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    Hmm... you don't know
    what "insane" is until
    you've met Kiz...
    [​IMG]
     
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  4. freddy_fo

    freddy_fo TrainBoard Member

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    Is it a left hand drive though?:D

    Things have changed as the older wikings needed paint to get them proper. Very nice. I've been impressed with the Busch cars as well so worth checking those out too. Tomytech is a no brainer considering your Japan inspired layout but every bit as nice.

    I too am 6'2" but compared to some of the cars I've owned the mid VWs have seemed spacious. One car I owned was so compact that the outer armrest was the door sill and I'm not kidding.
     
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  5. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    ironically, I sold the Porsche after one summer and found an old DJ5 mail Jeep for $900. Was the inline 232 V6 and started and ran fine, but the poor thing was beat half to death - the fuel line literally came up through the floorboard and ran in-between the seats then through a hole drilled in the dash. The only thing we used it for was to drive to the bar and back, because you could slide open the driver's door and look down to see how close you were (or weren't :whistle:) to the curb. It wouldn't smog and because our apartments only had street parking, it got towed and impounded during an underway and I couldn't get it out.

    That was the end of the RH drive Jeep.
     
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  6. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    question time!

    My elevated city loop has 9-3/4" corners, and is all viaduct. I originally planned to have a Portram tram so tight corners weren't a design issue but I don't like the way they look up there, is just not a vehicle that would ever run on an el and it looks wicked out of place to me. I'm kind of in love with the 817 models, but am wondering if a trio of 65ft cars would corner through the loop without making contact with the sides, which is not unheard of with viaduct track.

    The portrams - whether the Tomy models like I have or the nicer Kato ones (like I *should* have bought lol) are low speed, so it wouldn't look out of place to have an 817 that isn't running at blur-and-breeze speeds, but I think it would annoy me a little too much to have it clacking against the track every few seconds.

    All my trains are either really long or really short in comparison, and even if I did have one similarly sized nothing is wired up yet so would just be a push-test through a corner to check.

    Anybody have any experience with such a rig?
     
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  7. DeaconKC

    DeaconKC TrainBoard Member

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    Okay, I have some 20-510 249mm/11" viaduct on my layout. I took some pics for you with 70' cars.
     

    Attached Files:

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  8. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Why the mags??
     
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  9. DeaconKC

    DeaconKC TrainBoard Member

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    Because I hit the wrong pic! Edited now. :whistle:
     
  10. DeaconKC

    DeaconKC TrainBoard Member

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    Oh, I forgot to add, the 70' cars do not touch the sides. They do fit [barely].
     
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  11. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    @DeaconKC yeah that's what I'm afraid of. If I already had the train that'd be one thing, but I hate the idea of spending $100 on a new train that won't corner, especially when I've built the city up around my track already.

    I have not ruled out the idea of still using the LRV up there, I will if I have to, but the power chassis for that model is getting so hard to find and is nearly the same cost as whole ready-to-run train set as-is. For that much, would almost rather just leave the LRV unpowered as scenery and get a better train to run.

    Mostly though, am in a holding pattern until I can get an order of new sticks and sheets to get back to work on the projects I already have in motion and my brain is finding other randomness to obsess over in the interim lol
     
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  12. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    Have you looked at these. Some of these are the Bandai B Train. Not over 34 ft long and will take 8.5 Rad curves and look good doing it. I left off the catenary rigs and they are now my mini RDCs. For the box type the Kato mechanism is a fit.
     
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  13. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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  14. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    I would like one of those converted bus bodies but the doors on your silver one are wrong and I can't find any others.
     
  15. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    I figured since you said Bandai B that you were talking about the shortys, but pics always help (y)

    I have seen them and it would solve the problem, unfortunately all the ones I've seen of Japanese protos look like caricatures of the train itself to me. I wouldn't be putting a shinkansen on this short track anyways, but I rest my case... https://www.plazajapan.com/4571324596372/ (sorry, at work and my phone is arguing with me about uploading photos lol)
     
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  16. John Moore

    John Moore TrainBoard Supporter

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    I have stayed with the boxcab type equipment which look better than the high speed types. I do not use the Bandai couplers but go with the Kato couplers and sometimes with a minor alteration MT1015s. Also the boxcab bodies take the Kato mechanisms since Bandai mechanisms are near to impossible to find. I have been reasonably successful getting the coupling distances closer. These are ideal for me since I operate tight radius unitrack ranging from 6 to 8.5 radius.
     
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  17. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    Oh, come on - right before Christmas?! :cautious: Since I can't get my hands on feather marks for a reasonable price, this new preorder has my eyebrows raised fo' sho https://www.plazajapan.com/4949727686431/ Maybe the presale won't fill up until after the beginning of the year. I doubt it but maaaaybe lol

    Might be about time to sell a guitar or two...
     
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  18. Pfunk

    Pfunk TrainBoard Member

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    ... we'll just go ahead and add bifocals to this list as of 11/4/2022. The year that keeps on giving lol

    And to add insult to injury, I've never really had much of an issue with the dilating eyedrops at the optometrist, somehow today I am nauseous as all get out and still seeing fuzzy 4hrs later. If this is an indication of what's to come as I get older, I would like to hereby make an official declaration that I am really not a fan!
     
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  19. mtntrainman

    mtntrainman TrainBoard Supporter

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    OHHHHHHHHhhhh...it gets worse..trust me !!!!
     
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  20. Stephane Savard

    Stephane Savard TrainBoard Member

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    Heh, I just got my first prescription glasses this week at age 45. Been using cheap reading glasses for the past two years, but my close sight is just getting worse and worse! Glad we have magnifying glasses for n scale!
     
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