I envy all of you that have actually been to Japan to ride the trains! I never thought that my love of trains and my love of anime would cross paths! I love Japanese cars, too, but that's another story for another forum...
Has anyone heard of Modemo and, if so, how do they run? I found this very cool electric railcar and was curious: Keihuku Electric Raillord Mobo 101 Series Standard Color (M Car) (Model Train) Item picture1
I have one of those. It runs very well and has a working headlight, but no tail light. I think its supposed to be run as a two car train (although the prototype does run with single cars. It is a considered tram in some ways, so there may not be a tail light was we know them on the prototype. Very nice model. I run DC by the way, so no DCC experience.
I haven't heard anything negative. They focus on trams and small sets (I don't think they make any named train type consists) but the modeling appears to be solid if that picture is any indication. Look at the silver step sill.
Thanks, guys. I like the style of this car, in the kind of the way the Kiha 58 does. It just strikes me in a good way! It's funny...in 25 years of being a model rail, foreign trains never interested me until now. And, the Japanese trains are so very cool that I'm interested in electric trains...that's a first!
885 Series I got the camera out and took pictures of some of my rolling stock. Please excuse the kitchen photo studio. This is the 885 Series and the train name is Kamome (Sea Gull). What is interesting is that both the prototype and the model tilt through curves. I'm sure the spirit of the Silver Pendulum is smiling somewhere.
The Kamome is another one of my favorite trains. At another forum we recently had a discussion about how similar it looks to the German ICE train: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8lHFJ2-yxA&feature=related"]YouTube - ICE 3 at 300 kmh / 186 mph[/ame]
Here's the prototype. (These pictures were slower to open than usual today.) Randen: Keifuku Railway, Kyoto (—’“d/‹ž•Ÿ“d“S—’ŽRü) : funini.com Randen: Keifuku Railway, Kyoto (—’“d/‹ž•Ÿ“d“S—’ŽRü) : funini.com Randen: Keifuku Railway, Kyoto (—’“d/‹ž•Ÿ“d“S—’ŽRü) : funini.com
I've ridden the Keifuku a few times, it's only a short line out into Kyoto's suburbs with a short branch off the main line, but it's an interesting mix of private track and street running with a compact two track terminal tucked between two buildings downtown.
After the club decided to use T-TRAK modules to take to train shows instead of N-TRAK I decided to use it for my home layout as well. My plan is to build corner modules with generic scenery and a staging yard at the rear, the front of the layout will be modules with either US or Japanese scenery depending on what I'm in the mood to run. I'm presently building a set of modules around a Walthers Santa Fe depot but I've been going over my Kato catalog and track plan book looking for ideas for an alternate set Japanese modules.
I love those Tomytec Japanese style buildings. Besides the Pagoda and the Shrine, I think my favorite is the fishing port because the sea wall reminds me of Okinawa.
I have a couple japanese prototype sets I picked up while stationed there mid-90s. I never ran them as I had no layout or local N club until last Christmas. I picked up a A/B set of Kato E-1 Max Shinkasen and Keihin Kyuko 600 (GreenMax) and 800 (Kato) series cars. I rode KHK almost daily for a while (while in town anyway) from Yokosuka to Yokohama or Tokyo. Unfortunately the KHK 600 only made it a single loop around the oval before the youngest wanted to look at it and dropped it, cracking the frame so the trucks won't stay in place. Until I can get home and get pics of the models: E-1 Max and a KHK 2100 series (update to the 800) Tetsu Uma- So you're probably a memeber of JRM here? The youngest loved looking at the layout at Timonium this weekend.
Are T-Trak those small square modules I've seen? I like Mystere's has made a very nice photography display and it's got me pondering the idea of a two sided diorama again. I just wonder how wide something like that would have to be to have two decent scenes.
I don't know how large of a layout you're thinking about but if it's a small on you could have a table that flips over, WP on one side, Germany RR on the other! Ooops, I meant Japanese!
The Australian T-TRAK standards use the alternate width of 310mm but like N-TRAK there's no reason they couldn't be wider as long as the tracks line up, modules are multiples of 310mm in length, I'll be mainly using double length 620mm modules. Australian T-TRAK website http://users.picknowl.com.au/~austnscale/austtrak.htm A picture's worth a thousand words. Some of our modules at shows.
