The railroads of Musashi-Koyama

During our visit to Japan in 2011 I started to notice that the trains of other railroads besides Tokyu were running on the Tokyu Meguro line.  The reason was that after the Tokyu Meguro line had become a subway at the Meguro end of the line, it was connected to the Tokyo Metro Nambaku line.  The other end of the Tokyo Metro Namboku line is also connected to the Saitama Railway.  Many of the trains provide through service on all three of those lines making it more convenient for passengers.   There is also through service going onto the Toei  Mita line.

A passenger waiting on the platform at Musashi-Koyama may see trains with any of the logos shown below on them.  From left to right - Tokyo Metro, Saitama Railway, Tokyu, and Toei.

Train room update

Have not been doing much with any of my Japanese module projects lately as I have been working to complete the new train room that I started last May and posted about in June.

As can be seen in this photo it's coming along. Recently I put in 3 LED lighting fixtures on the ceiling for room lighting.  They are the most practical LED lighting I have seen yet.  This photo was taken at night so no light was coming through the window and I did not use Photoshop lighten it.

There will also be additional under cabinet lighting and I'm planning to use LED for that as well.  Also recently I picked up a new compressor, proper drill press vise, and a nice butcher block workbench top all at bargain prices.  Before that I was able to get a gently used Micro Mark large spray booth and some N scale train display cases also at a bargain so upgrades to the new train room are coming along indeed.

Also a new feature I have added to the blog is the digital clock seen in the upper right corner that shows the current time in Tokyo.  It's provided free by 24TimeZones.com.  They have quite a few variations of clocks to use on web pages or blogs.

New look for Green Max kits.

On this most recent trip to Japan in July I did get to do some hobby shopping and of course I had some Green Max items on my list.

I had seen this new apartment building on the internet and was able to pick one up at TamTam for about 2200 yen.

This new building seems like quite a departure from the traditional Green Max building kits but they did do a great job on it.


As I shopped I noticed that there were almost no Green Max kits left on the selves in the familiar boxes with the drawing on the front and the instructions on the back.  The new boxes are standardized green with a sticker indicating which kit it is and with most having a new part number.

As an example, here are the old and new wall and gate kits.  The contents are the same, just new boxes and part numbers.  And there're still made in Japan.

Some of the smaller kits are now not in a box at all but instead are in a hanging bag type of package.







I am not sure when this change started but I think the first kit I purchased that was not in the older style box were the modular building kits and that was sometime in 2010.  I'm sure the reason they are doing this is cost.  Fewer boxes, just a few standardized sizes and different stickers for different models.

I had scanned many of the boxes of my kits as I built them and I've started a new page called Classic Green Max boxes if you want to look back at those.

Street side exhaust fans

I had noticed them before on previous trips to Tokyo but I had never given them much thought.  During this last summer's trip it was different, I learned to hate them.  They assaulted my wife and I every time we walked between our hotel and the subway station.  We would try different routes but it seemed around every corner there would be at least one more waiting for us.

I'm talking about the air conditioning exhaust units that are commonly seen on the streets of Tokyo. Millions of these things blow a stream of hot air across the streets of the city I'm sure making it a little hotter than it already is.  Any pedestrians walking past get the full brunt of the hot blast.


The largest and most modern of buildings have central units on the roof top.  But depending on the building layout when air conditioning was added to an older shop or apartment, there may have been no where else to put the exhaust unit execpt right out in front of the place.

A detail we can model

I had remembered seeing something like this in one of the kits I had built but had not used.  When I got home I was able to determine that the part I was thinking of was from Green Max modular building kits 2101 and 2103.

I felt that the unit was too deep so I cut the back off with a hobby razor saw indicated by the blue line in this photo.

After painting and weathering I decided to place this one in front of the Izakaya.

I'll want more of these so I'll keep an eye out for what is available.  Otherwise I might make a rubber mold from the one I have left so I can make some cast resin copies or perhaps even try to make my own masters of some similar units.

2nd Exhibition - Los Altos Train Days

Over this past weekend the Musashi-Koyama modules were part of the AsiaNrail layout setup at the Los Altos History Museum for their annual Train Days event.  This was the 4th Train Days that I have been involved with, the first 3 being part of the Ntrak layout and this year with the AsiaNrail layout.  Being only about 3 miles from my house, it's my closest train show.  This was only the 2nd exhibition for the Musashi-Koyama modules.

Besides the AsiaNrail layout, they also had Tom Knapp's Nn3 layout in the museum exhibit room with us, plus outside in their large patio there were G scale electric and live steam layouts, an O scale layout, and a static display of 7-1/2" gauge steam locomotive and rolling stock from the nearby Portola Valley & Alpine Railroad.

Our layout consisted of a single track central loop with through staging yard and three junctions that connected stub ends.  Here is a view of the central loop part of the layout.  Besides the continous running of the loop, we also ran point to point operations between the stubs.

My Musashi-Koyama module set was part of one of the three stub ends.  Single track entry into the modules from the left with a crossover to access either of the station tracks.

My E257 Azusa-Kaiji was one of 5 Japanese trains that I ran on the layout.  We had many different trains running on the layout, even a 100 Series Shinkansen and a Caltrain because so many visitors requested those.

Here is a view from the far end of my stub line.  Before the next show, I will be installing some plexiglass screens along the front edge as some of the details on the front seem too tempting for small hands.

My Tomix model of an 8800 set and Paul's new Kato model of a JR DD13  parked at one of the other stub end yards.  This module has several stub end yard tracks and also has a passenger platform seen in the background.

Paul's Treat Street module was at the end of the third stub.  This module is based on scenes in Korea and features a model of the Sungnyemun Gate.

As the sun was going down, the last few pieces of the layout were being loaded into Pauls van.  The whole layout easily fit into this van and my pickup.






As we were taking down the layout the museum's staff gathered all the layout exhibitors together to a drink and a little celebration and thanked us for taking part in their event.  They announced that they had nearly 3000 visitors to the exhibit over the weekend.  That was more then had attended the Great Train Expo in San Jose the weekend before.  I was at that show with the Ntrak group and had noticed the attendance was very light.

The Los Altos History Museum is a community based free admission museum and they depend on donations and fundraising events like Train Days for their funding.  They were quite happy with the results of Train Days 2013.

Quick Construction fencing

It seems there is always lots of construction going on in Tokyo and the N Scale Musashi-Koyama modules are no different.   I needed some fencing that looked like things I had seen in Japan on construction sites.

I had seen this product on ebay but was not sure how good it was.  After checking it out first hand at a hobby shop in Akihabara during our recent trip, I picked up a package.  I don't remember exactly how much it was but I think is was in the area of 500 - 600 yen.  There was a choice of several colors and I went with the orange which is Casco part number YP-301.

This is what the package of fence looks like.  There are actually 2 sheets with 6 sections of fence each in the package.  Each section is 72 scale feet long so you get a total of 864 scale feet.

The sheets are about .010 thick and are printed on one side.  Because the material is clear the fence part shows on both sides but the writing only on the printed side.

Here is some of the fence sections after I used a ruler and sharp razor blade to cut them apart.  I found it helpful to leave the clear ends on in case I needed to splice the sections together.  Even after being cut into the strips the material seems rather sturdy.

So here's some of this fencing installed on part of the module.  I used the Tap Plastics product E6000 that I mentioned in the May 2012 post My new favorite adhesive to attach the material to the module.


I found this fencing product to be a quick and easy way to put up construction fencing around the job sites on the module.

The Hara Model Railway Museum

During one of those hot days we spent in Tokyo this past July, we took a trip to Yokohama and visited the Hara Model Railway Museum.  I did not know about this place before going on this trip, but one of  Nona's cousins recommended it and he had written down the information for us.  It was so hot during the afternoons that we were spending that part of the day in our hotel room just to stay cool.  Going to Yokohama and spending some of the afternoon in an air conditioned museum looked like a good alternative.

To get to Yokohama, we rode the JR Shonan-Shinjuku line from Ebisu station.  This is a relatively new service and it was the first time we had ridden it.  As this train stops at Ebisu Station that is where we caught it because that is a smaller station and much easier to deal with than Shinjuku.

Turned out to be a pleasant walk from Yokohama station to the Mitsui building where the Museum is located.  After leaving the station we walked across this pedestrian bridge to the other side of the channel.

After crossing the bridge we went down to a river level walkway.  That took us past the Nissan building and then to the Mitsui building.  When we got to the Mitsui building we saw this sign.

Once you enter the lobby of the building, this escalator leads to the museum itself.

Unfortunately the museum does not allow any photos which is a shame as the displays are are really photogenic.  There are museum visitor guides in several languages including English.

There's even a small Tenshodo shop in the lobby of the building near the bottom of the escalator.  The selection is nothing like the store in Ginza but they do have a few things. It seems to serve as the gift shop for the museum.




The museum maintains a website in both English and Japanese that includes a copy of the museum guide, photos, and a map showing the path we followed to get there shown on the map as "The Hamamirai Walk".

Hara Model Railway Museum English web site

Sorry for no photos of the layouts or displays but hopefully this information will help you if you are planning on being in Japan anytime and want to got see this museum for yourself.