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.

Railfanning in the desert

This has nothing to do with this project.  I am in a motel room hundreds of miles from home and being able to work on this project. 

Yesterday I had a little spare time from what business brought me on this road trip.  I drove out to Banning, California.  Banning is on highway I-10 about 20 miles west of Palm Springs.  It was the home of one of my grandmothers and I had spent a lot of time here as a child.  Driving around the town many memories came back to me.

The Southern Pacific railroad went through Banning but the passenger trains did not stop here.  My mother and I would ride the Greyhound bus to get here from Los Angeles.   I liked to wander the town with the skate board that I would carry on the bus with me.  It was down hill from grandma's house to the SP line and that's where I would go to watch the trains.

These memories returned to me as I drove and I found myself at the San Gorgonio Road grade crossing when the gates came down as a train approached.  I turned my truck onto the old frontage road that runs between I-10 and the tracks and then onto a dirt road and sat for awhile.  There is a signal here and watching that one can get a good idea of when a train is approaching.  It was about one every 10 minutes.  In the half hour I was there I saw 4 trains, they were all Union Pacific now.  I also noticed that the rail ties were now concrete.

• East bound - Trailers on flat cars.  3 GE engines pulling
• Westbound - Containers, mostly 3 unit well cars, 3 GE engines pulling with 1 at the back pushing.
• Westbound - Unit hopper car train,  good mixture of hopper car types with many rotary coupler type cars in the mix.  I think this was a train of empties as there was no pusher.  There were 3 GE engines pulling.
• Eastbound - Mixed train, pulled by 2 GE engines.

Over 40 years ago I had sat there on my skate board watching trains.  In those days they where mostly EMD engines but I do remember a few GE's as they stood out.  I even remember seeing a U50 once.  This was a great trip down memory lane, I wish I had brought my camera.

Starting the arcade

It's Thanksgiving Day today and I've started on another one of the key parts of the scenery for this module set.


The Palm Arcade is one of the best known covered shopping districts in Tokyo and it's main entrance is just outside the Musashi-Koyama station.


Here is a view of this entrance from the station.  The orientation of the module scene will place this entrance just behind the station.  Besides the station itself, this is a key landmark.




I've started to assemble the arcade entrance using a couple of modified Tomix buildings on a separate base like I have done with other groups of buildings on this module set.  I'll update and post pictues in the near future.

Mystery Train

Nothing new to report on the Musashi-Koyama modules as I have been working on some DCC decoder installations.  On a short break from that I was looking through my train collection and came across an odd set of Japanese passenger cars that had been given to me years ago and that I've never been able to identify what they were.  So I created a seperate page with photos on this blog in the hopes that someone will see them and let me know something about them.

Japanese Mystery Train Model

3 Types of Track

First an update on the station.  Today I painted the roof of the station building, the roofs of the platform awnings, and the concrete part of the platforms.  A friend in Tokyo is checking for me on the proper colors of the platform supports and the outside walls of the station before I paint those parts.

This evening I put the work on the modules aside for awhile so I can catch up on some DCC decoder installations and get some things ready for a train show on Thanksgiving weekend.  As I have enjoyed making regular updates to this blog,  I wanted keep this up by going back to something I skipped over earlier and that would be track.

Peco code 55

To

M/E code 55

Within the 6ft of double track line I am using 3 types of track - Peco code 55, Micro Engineering code 55, and Kato Unitrack.  The way this came about is the AsiaN Rail standard uses Peco code 55.  I was already familar with it as I am using the wood tie version on my home layout.  On this project I am using the concrete tie version.   Thing is I wanted to have a couple of cross-overs so this module could be a passing siding or stub end station if it were on a single track line of AsiaN Rail.  I decided to try out the Micro Engineering code 55 turnouts on this small project because I am also considering them for a future large layout project. I got the cross-overs made up to my specification by someone who was selling on ebay.  So far, just with test runs they work as advertised.

As mentioned in prior posts, I am using steel wire connecting rods inside plastic tubing to make the linkages between the turnouts and the Tortise switch motors.  The tubing sets into the 1/8 inch cork that covers most of the area between the tracks and the skyboards.


Then I decided to use the Kato adjustable length sections for the connecting tracks at the joint between the two modules to make setup quicker.  The photo below shows this area of track without the connecting tracks or the platforms.



Peco code 55

to Kato Unitrack