Mystery train identified

Awhile back I had posted about a brass set of Japanese passenger cars that I have and did not know anything about.  Thanks to Paul Ingraham of Sunnyvale, California I now know something about the prototype and the models.

Paul identified these as Endo models from the logo on the bottom of one of the cars.  He also knew that these models were of  Hankyu Railway cars.  Once I knew the name of the railroad and of the model company I was able to find out more about it on the web.

The Hankyu Railway is a non-JR private railroad that operates several lines around and between the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe.

This photo is of a Hankyu 6300 series train which is the closest to the models I have. 



From what I read on the web It seems that these had been in service from about the mid 1970's and taken out of service about a year ago.

I could not find any information about any Endo Models release of this model and indications are that Endo may no longer be making N scale trains.  Kato also has had a model of the Hankyu 6300 series trains and here is a photo of one of those.

A Green Max block of stores

Just to the left of the arcade entrance is a row of small shops.

I used 4 of the 6 shop buildings that come in Green Max kit # 33.  The taller building is from Green Max kit #46-6.  The buildings are attached to a styrene base that is removable from the module.




As this group of buildings is exclusively Green Max, I call it the Green Max block.  Just As I have done with the Musashi-Koyama station and the arcade entrance, the assembled basic structures will be set aside and I'll move on the the next block of buildings.  Later I will paint and detail each block.


Green Max kits have been around for a long time.  While they are models of Japanese buildings, American modelers have used these to model American buildings back when there were not so many choices for buildings in N scale. 

There was a time when it hard to find Green Max kits in the US, but thanks ebay it is much easier now.  There are a couple of good sellers in Japan who regularly carry them.





One can get very creative with these kits.  As these buildings will only be seen from the front, I used blank styrene for the back and side walls.  The walls from the kit will be used to make more buildings.

Progress on the arcade

Happy New Year,

After almost 2 months off from this project while I was catching up on some DCC decoders installations I've returned to work on the model of the entrance of the Palm Arcade which is a major landmark of Musashi-Koyama.

I've built the entrance as a combination of two modified Tomix corner buildings and several scratch built structures.

The various structures are each attached to a .020 styrene base with screws so they can be removed for painting, detailing, and any future repairs.

The basic arcade structure is complete and ready for paint.  As I do all of my airbrush painting outside in the garage and its still a bit cold and wet out I am going to set the arcade aside for the time being and move on to the next group of structures which is going to be just to the left of the Palm arcade entrance.