Finishing the Green Max stores

One of the mini-projects that has been going on for a long time is the block of Green Max stores just to the left of the arcade entrance.

When I left off on this project more than a year ago the Dry Cleaners with interior details and lighting was done and I had started a Book Store that would also be detailed and lighted.

For the Book Store interior I printed a floor similar to how I had done with the dry cleaners then added a couple of book cases, a counter with cash register, and a couple of figures.  I also printed some book cases on the interior walls and added lighting similar to the Dry Cleaners.

The tall building I am using is from Green Max kit 46-6.  I gave it a base coat of Floquil Oxide Red with an airbrush then hand painted all the details.  With all the windows that this building has that took a while.

The store fronts on these taller Green Max building kits are the same size and interchangeable with the ones in the set of small shops.  I used one that had two doors so one could be the lobby of the upper floors and the other for a celluar phone store on the ground floor.

Here is the completed block of Green Max stores,mounted on their styrene base.  I have put labels under each one showing what they are.  Some of them may be familiar from other posts. This scene is now ready to be added to the module.



This is only one of several long uncompleted projects related to these modules which I hope to complete in the near future.

How narrow can a building be ?

The scheduled expostition for the AsiaNrail layout and the Musashi-Koyama modules has me working to finish a few more of the buildings on those modules and I'll be posting about that soon.  Working on buildings I remembered a real interesting one we saw during our recent trip and I would like to share that now.

Anyone who has scratch built or kit bashed a structure to fit into that odd small space on their layout or module might wonder if they are making a structure that is unrealistic.  Well maybe for American prototype that could be a concern but as I am continuing to find out buildings can be quite small or narrow in Japan which is great for those of us modeling Japanese prototype.  Check out the photos below that I took early one July morning in the Namba district of Osaka.

End View

When we first approached this structure while walking down the street, I thought it was some sort of a wall.

It's actually narrower than the narrow streets.

Side view

Once we were along side of it I saw the windows and realized that this is actually a long, very narrow building.  Most of the building had 3 levels.

After seeing this I think we can all relax and build whatever we want, there's probably a prototype for it somewhere in Japan.

The Shinano Railway

During our travels in Japan this summer we visited friends in Togura, Nagano Prefecture.  To get there we took the Nagano Shinkansen from Tokyo to Ueda, then transferred over to the Nagano Railway to get the rest of the way to Togura.  The next day we took a Shinano Railway train from Togura to Nagano.  I liked this railroad's vintage but updated equipment so I did a little research on the web after returning to Tokyo.

The Shinano Railway is owned by the Nagano Prefecture government and was created in 1997 when JR abandoned  65 km of the Shin'etsu line between Karuizawa and Shinonoi.

The trains they run on this Railway are 115 and 169 series inherited from JR and run in 3 car sets.  Most have been repainted in this color scheme.

The 115 series dates from the 1960's and has been used on many JR lines with over 1900 units being built.

Togura is not what you would call a major station but it is a terminal for the Shinano Railway where some of the trains are parked so our stop there allowed me to see a good selection of their equipment.

Some of the equipment was in a different color scheme which I later found out was the original JR scheme for the Nagano area.  It appears that the Shinano logo is a patch over the JR logo.

Here's the logo on one of the repainted trains. Notice the character through the window, the train behind this one was a special paint scheme but I could not get a good photo of it.  It's also shown in the first photo with the stars on the end.

Modeling these trains

I have been looking for some shorter passenger trains to run on the AsiaNrail layouts that there is an actual prototype for.  And I make it my policy to only buy models of  Japanese trains that I have actually ridden on so when I got back to Tokyo I went shopping but did not find what I was looking for.

Tomix # 92415 is a 3 car set of the red Shinano Railway 115 that came out a couple of years ago but is sold out now.  When I got home I found one on ebay but the price was way over list and more than I was willing to pay.

Kato 10-585 was released in August 2012 and is still available from several sources on line so I ordered a set on Amazon. It comes as a JR version but I may make a decal of the patch logo I saw on the units in Togura and place them over the JR just like the prototype did.

Hope this gets here in time to run on the layout we are doing  in mid September.

Next exhibition of the AsiaNrail layout

Paul Ingraham and I will be running the AsiaNrail layout on the weekend of September 14th and 15th at the Los Altos History Museum as part of their annual Train Days event.  The Musashi-Koyama module set featured in this blog will be part of this layout.  This layout will feature both point to point and continuous operation.

There will also be several other layouts at the museum representing several scales.  They try to have a layout for each scale and this year we are the N scale layout. Our layout will be upstairs in the Museum building along with the museum's permanent O scale layout.

It's been awhile since we've setup and run the layout at a public show and we are really looking forward to it.  If you are in the area that weekend we would love for you to come by and say hello.  If you have a short Asian prototype train bring it along.

The Los Altos History Museum is located at 51 South San Antonio Road in Los Altos, California.  Hours for the show are 10:00am to 4:00pm.  Parking is free and a small donation is requested by the Museum upon entrance to the show.

Click HERE to link to the museum web site for more information.

Recent trip to Japan

                 HOT - HOT - HOT !

Nona and I spent almost 4 weeks in Japan in June and July during what ended up being record high temperatures and high humidity.  While the dangerous weather did somewhat slow our activities we still managed to do quite a bit.



Besides spending time in and around Tokyo, we visited Nagano, Osaka, Atami, Izu, and spent almost a week touring all over Hokkaido.  Of course we rode lots of trains, and I was able to do a bit of shopping at a few of Tokyo's hobby shops. We've only been back a few days and still catching up on all the things that fall behind when you've been gone for a month. Over the next few weeks I'll be posting on some train / model subjects related to this trip so stay tuned.

A new larger train room

More than a month has passed since our return from New York.  I suppose because I had gotten into the building mode with the work I did on that trip,  I embarked on a project that I have been considering for some time.    The garage had been underutilized since we park our travel trailer that we bought a couple of years ago in front of it.  I've had my eye on making about half of the garage into a train room with the other half continuing to house the other functions that we have been using the garage for.

The finished train room will be about 21 ft x 10 ft.  This is almost double the size of the spare bedroom I am now using.  I will be starting a new around the walls american prototype layout with space to set up modules in the middle of the room.  The layout will be high enough to have space under the layout for separate work benches for Model building and for Electronics / DCC.  There will also be a proper spray booth that is vented to the outside.

This is where this project is right now.  The concrete floor was so uneven that I decided to build a raised sub floor.  The framing for the wall and ceiling is in.  It has been a few years since I had done a large build like this and was shocked by how much lumber prices have risen.



The hope is that by having the "clean" train room and the "dirty" workshop next to each other I will gain some efficiency over the way I am doing things now.  Also it will be nice not to have to bring the modules through the house each time they go to a show.

Traveling but never far from trains

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here.  We did a cross country road trip from California to New York and back that covered almost the whole month of April.  While I wasn't able to work on any of my hobby projects while away, I was able to enjoy some prototype railroads both past and present.

The primary purpose of this trip was to visit family in Ithaca, NY and to make some repairs to their house after an upstairs water pipe had burst during the winter and caused some damage to a downstairs room.  That's why we drove, so I could bring all the tools I would need.

Their property borders on what used to be  a Lehigh Valley Railroad line.  From what I have read, it was most likely abandoned around 1976 after Conrail took it over.   Many miles of the abandoned right of way in this area of New York state have been preserved with plans to develop a system of  walking / bike trails that will connect some of the state parks.

This is the view of the house from the RR right of way to give you an idea how close it is.  That's Lake Cayuga in the background.

This is the right of way where there had been a Lehigh Valley track between Ithaca and Geneva that ran close to Lake Cayuga.  I walked about 1/2 mile of this route and could not find any evidence that this had once been a railroad.




In the city of Ithaca itself the old station still stands and appears to now be used as some sort of financial institution.  Next to the station are several LV passenger cars and a caboose that appear to be in good shape, and an old engine of some type that is not.  Also near the station building next to a road bridge over a canal is thru girder railroad bridge that appears to line up with where the tracks would have been near the station.  For photos check this link: http://www.abandonedrails.com/Ithaca_to_Geneva

On the trip back the weather was better and we took some extra time to make a couple of sight seeing stops.

I had seen the ad for the Golden Spike Tower in Model Railroader magazine and that was my pick for a place to stop.  It is just off I-80 in North Platte, Nebraska.  That's our 13 year old Chevy Silverado in the foreground that took us on this long road trip with no problems.

This view of the locomotive facility is just a small part of what can be seen from the tower.  There are both enclosed and open observation decks with many displays posted to help explain what is going on.


During our visit, there was a retired UP employee available to answer questions.  There are 2 hump yards that can be clearly seen.  It was all very interesting and I'm glad we stopped by.  If you have a chance to go here, I suggest bringing some binoculars and a telephoto lens for you camera for seeing / photographing up close.  For more information about the Golden Spike Tower visit http://www.goldenspiketower.com/

Hopefully now I can get back to making some progress on my modules and other projects.