quinntopia - An N Scale blog

Alternate Video Location (FLIRT Review)

2012-01-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

This is the same video posted below, but its hosted on Vimeo rather than YouTube. Vimeo allows you to download and does not have the same content problems that YouTube has. If you already viewed the YouTube hosted version below, then you can ignore this (Its the same video).

Locomotive Roster: Liluput "FLIRT" ET6.04 RRX; Liliput L163989

2012-01-24T23:13:00.000-08:00

A nice 'surprise' at Christmas this year was the arrival of this beautiful model of the Eurobahn Rhein Ruhr Xpress (RRX) FLIRT (Fast Light Innovative Regional Train) from Liliput (i.e. Bachmann). The DB version was released just about a year ago, with an SBB version released last Spring or Summer, leaving me to think that this special livery produced in coordination with Modellbahn Union was going to be forgotten! However, I got a pleasant email from the shop in Germany where I ordered it almost 18 months ago that it was being shipped to me...in time for Christmas! Whoo hooo! 18 months is a long time in anyone's book to wait, but I have to say, it was well worth it!

I completed my 'video review' (posted above) which also includes my attempt at installing the decoder (more on that below), but I also wanted to share a written version with photos and such in case the old YouTube connection isn't working for you.

Impressions:
Let me first say that this model is fantastic looking. Beautiful printing, lettering, and details. I don't know enough (or anything really) about the prototype to comment on the fidelity of this to its 1:1 inspiration, but given the apparent attention to detail on this model, I have to expect that its reasonably accurate.

What I hope is apparent in the photos is the striking livery of this set in the Eurobahn RRX livery. The dark grey contrasted with the off-white, and orange highlights really stands out. The interesting 'digital' design also really nicely complements the sets appearance and I think is one of the best examples of 'design' in contemporary train set livery.

Roof top details also provide a dash of color and some interesting 'texture' to the overall appearance of the set. But its the already installed interior lighting, automatically switching white/red LED lights combined with the overall detail and finish of this model at a pretty amazing price that really sets this model apart for me!

Decoder Install:

There was one small "hick-up" I experienced with this model concerning the decoder installation. I believe it was said nicely by "Putzi" on the Model Rail Forum where the statement was made that the decoder installation is more of a 'medium' difficulty than the 'easy' one I was expecting! Absolutely correct! And if you've seen the video (and if your in this hobby, I'm sure you can commiserate!) you'll understand a little more of what I'm talking about. Although its a basic NEM 651 decoder install, getting to the socket is the big challenge!

Honestly, I probably would have broken something if I didn't have this link to a tutorial on the install.

Once you find a nice, protected place to turn this long set on its backside (the cars are all connected - and its heavily implied in the instructions not too disconnect them!) you will need to remove the screw under the 'head' of the cab to remove the front cab 'head' section. Oh...which side you ask?

Hmmm... I happened to guess wrong and went through a lot of unnecessary effort to open up the side that did not have the NEM 651 socket! I did later find out that Haltiner Online blog does show you the clue to discover which side has the socket (there is a silver sort of rectangular box on just one end, this end has the socket)

I had some trouble removing what's referred to as the 'head'...until I flipped it around so it was standing right side up then it came straight out.

Your not done yet! Now you need to remove the body shell in pretty much typical fashion. Although like a lot of the modern models, the plastic seems far tighter than it really needs to be and trying to carefully get the plastic seperated from the chassis is something I could do without!

The easy part...swap the 'dummy plug' in the socket and add your NEM 651 decoder! Whallah! Digital joy is now yours!

Some more cool things about this set:
It might be considered a nuisance to have to keep all four of the cars connected all the time. But (and I think most of you will agree with this) the good part is that this allows for all the wheel-sets to have power pickup! Personally, I will deal with the cumbersomeness of lifting all four cars connected together any day if I could get more power pickup!

You know what else is great about this model? The price! I paid the pre-order price of €155 (figure $200 USD), which is about half of what you would have to pay for anything even remotely close to this from any of the other European manufacturers. What a value! The prices seems to have gone up to around €180 - €200, but still a great value in my opinion.

Finally, in terms of operation...smooth and quiet. Obviously I haven't had it long enough to see how it holds up over time, but its beautiful to see in operation and nice to be able to plant a passenger set on the tracks with all the lights installed! Wunderbar!

So, can you tell that I'm thrilled with this set? I wish I could say every purchase I have had in this hobby was just as rewarding (and hopefully other FLIRT owners have had similarly positive experiences!).

I'm also curious to see what other liveries Liliput eventually (hopefully?) produces. It appears that the prototype is quite popular in many European countries and there is a huge list of great looking color schemes to produce for years to come. This was a very smart move on Liliput's part and I hope that their overlords at Bachmann are rewarded by this investment and continue to produce even more N Scale surprises in the future!

Kato "5th Avenue" Building Modifications

2012-01-16T16:42:00.000-08:00

Finally completed is my efforts to kit-bash three of the new Kato buildings released last year! I completed the "Broadcast Building" last Spring and the "Office Building" just last month (December), and now the final building in this trilogy, the "5th Avenue" building has been converted into a fashionable department store! The original building is below.

While at first glance this isn't a particularly extensive change (thus I call it a 'modification' and not a kit-bash!) the work was actually quite complex and required a lot of effort to complete. This is mostly due to the high number of SMD LED's used in this building (about 20) which each need to not only be wired, but the path for all the wires to get to the bottom of the structure needs to be set so that power can get to them!

A department store seemed like a good idea (they don't need a lot of windows like an office building), and that corner just BEGS for a sign! This is the same idea already done by others, most notably by the "great Scaper's" conversion of this building to a movie theater.

In addition to the lights, signs, and minor interior details, I also painted the building a light brown/tan color, and gave it a bit of a dark brown wash to help make the building 'pop' a bit more (and of course, the take aware as much of the original plastic 'patina' as possible, although these buildings are provided already painted by Kato!). The crane on the roof and other details got some paint as well!

Below you can see one of the LED's being inserted through the shell for one of the building's signs. The l.e.d.'s are from LED Baron. I glued thin sheets of black styrene as the 'back boards" for the signs. The signs themselves are water-slide decals printed on a color laser printer.

I attempted to run most of the wires to the floors and stairwells through the central cavity, however its just not possible to do this with the wires used on the building exterior, so they actually exit the building on the back side and reenter on the ground floor (not pictured). I covered this external wiring run with some styrene and painted it to match the building.

Fortunately there is little need for a lot of interior details so only a few floors got some basic application of wall-paper and figures. I did glue together all of the floors (except for the ground floor, which was built from scratch to allow it to sit flush on the layout) to add in the reassembly and re-insertion into the exterior shell.

And after completion, the building can now join the rest of the city...and the slow march to bringing light to every building of Quinntopia continues!

Another view of the city, this time showing the previously mentioned "Office building" and the 'flatiron scratchbuild' on the same block as the new "Printemps" department store.

And finally, the last of the Kato buildings is done! All in all these buildings are fun to work with, but all of the interior floor pieces also make them difficult and cumbersome! Also, having to working the shells all assembled adds a little to the difficulty! However, I do think I may need to add another building logo at the top...it just appears a bit too plain right now. Some jobs never get finished!

So why "Printemps" for the building? My formula is to basically find interesting stores, buildings or brands that reflect the same countries that the trains represent - and where possible generate good memories of my visits! So while Printemps is a distinctively Parisian store, it works with the Dutch Blokker, the English HSBC tower, the Japanese Uni-Glo store, Canon building and Sony scratch-build, (also a Japanese Mos Burger which shares a building with a Norwegian Elprice) and the German (basically!) Faller and Kibri building.

Fixing a Loop Problem

2012-01-12T20:42:00.000-08:00

An area of my layout fairly unfinished is the new passenger terminal area. As you can see in the photo, there's not a lot happening in this area. I had an idea for this area, which I'll explain below, but it wasn't really something I was excited about. As you can tell, there's a lot of space surrounded by a circle of track, and that's my challenge.

One of the things I've noticed in a lot of layout designs is that they attempt to hide their loops from view. In a way, I don't like to NOT see the trains that I enjoy running, but on the other hand, the tighter than prototype radii aren't really that visually interesting. The other problem, and I think the real issue I have with this approach, is that you end up fitting buildings or other scenery inside of a circle, which isn't realistic at all - particularly when your trying to do a lot of urban environments like my layout.

My original concept for this area was to have a road from the backdrop area cross the tracks near the back wall via a bridge, and then decline down to the track grade, where the station and other urban elements would be. Unfortunately (and like my downtown area), this puts all the buildings, roads, etc...at the same grade as the tracks, resulting in a 'looped in' area of buildings. I already have this 'feature' on the downtown section, so I wasn't thrilled with repeating this.

My second idea was to elevate the station to be at the same grade as the background buildings, which elements the awkward decline after the bridge to the statin area, but would require a retaining wall of sorts between the track and the elevated urban area. The disadvantage with this approach is that the urban area is still stuck in a 'circle of track' although it would be a bit more improved given the retaining wall.

What I think I like the best (and hinted at above) is to cover most of the loop...this removes an uninteresting curve view of the trains, but has the benefit of allowing me to do a much more interesting urban area in and around the passenger station. The track will be open and easily accessible from the side underneath this area as well, so cleaning and maintenance will not be a problem.

The big drawback with this solution is that it would be very difficult to access a switch on the far side of the layout that leads to a siding along the back wall (since it would be covered with the elevated streets and buildings). I believe that every turnout should be easily accessible as possible, and even with some creative engineering, getting to the switch for cleaning or troubleshooting would still be a hurdle.

The solution to the switch location problem is...move the switch! In fact, there is enough space (and I have enough excess track sitting around) to actually double-track the whole curve and allow access to the long siding (and make it LONGER!) by placing the switch (potentially a double crossover) up to the front of the layout. The red line below shows the new radius....

This solution I think is the best of all worlds. I'm not thrilled with adding too many switches in highly visible areas, but I do like the fact that I will have a very long siding now, and I will have a good footprint to work with for the area surrounding the passenger terminal.

This will be the final part of the layout to get some finishing done to it, and I'm excited to get to work on the passenger terminal because I think it will be interesting to work on. Its funny how the right 'solution' for a layout sometimes requires that you do nothing for awhile until you get to the point where you know what you want to do!

Locomotive Roster: Kato TGV Sud-Est; Kato

2012-01-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

Some may call this cheating since I already discussed my TGV Sud-Est from Kato back when I had it digitized last May, but I never did a proper 'review' of it and I thought it was a set that deserved some additional coverage! It also happens to be one of my favorites, so its not surprising that I like to talk about it more! It also provides a good excuse to share a few more photos of this angular, iconic, orange beast on the layout!

On the viaduct....

Passing by the yard....

At the throat of the passenger terminal....

Of course, the video above goes into more of a traditional review if your interested in that sort of thing! Thanks for reading!

Kato Office Building Kit-bash

2011-12-30T20:25:00.000-08:00

My holiday project this year (well, one of them, this is about the only one I got finished) was to kit-bash and convert the Kato 23-438 "Boutique and Office Building". I've had two of these buildings for a year and a half and it was past time to get them done!

The idea was just to increase the height...nothing too fancy. It did require losing two of the bottom floors...

And the removal of top fascia (not sure what its called) from the other building...

These buildings come built, so rather than chance doing more harm than good, I left the building sections together for my kit-bashing and in fairly short order had the basic look of what the building was going to look like.

While each floor of this building is provided (albeit without any detail), the bottom floor was another challenge. Typically, I'll just toss out the bottom floor, but this time I tried to preserve some of the important pieces (mainly the 'walls' that hold up the floor above it, and the nice looking stairway feature). My method was to grind the heck out of it on my belt sander! Luckily, this un-conventional approach worked! Its a bit crude, I admit, but now I have pieces that I can remount onto a smaller, thinner sheet of styrene so that the ground floor of this building sits level with the rest of my structures.

For the intermediary floors, I decided that the bottom four floors would be 'retail', while the remaining upper stories would be offices. Below is another application of using home made images (actually, gathered from the old internet) to be glued to the 'walls' or strips of foam core depending on where things need to be placed. Here are the images I used for this structure (same as my 'Kehl/Blokker' building project from earlier this month).

Once the images and various pieces of interior detail were mostly in place, I added the light strips. For this building, I used the SMD on light strips available from many sellers in China. Their cheap and relatively use to place (although you need to cut them and solder them to use them in shorter sections) .

I wasn't sure about how to proceed from here...do I glue each floor together and then have a complete interior section to slide into the exterior shell? Should I add each floor one at a time? Use adhesive or not? Ultimately I decided on the first option, and for the most part it worked out. Below you can see the result before installation.

After sliding the interior floors (with all the LED's already wired and ready to go...you can see the leads at the bottom of the structure in the below photo) I had to replace the building 'glass'. Getting the interior floors into the exterior 'shell' was a bit of a tight fit, and some of the floors needed a bit of reduction with the Dremel. The exterior sections have bracing on the inside to help form a stronger bond between the two sections, which however reduces the space where the floors would go!

So..wallah! Complete (pretty much)! The top floors are offices for the "Weyland-Yutani" corporation, and they even have their corporate logo on the top of the building! Interior details are a mix of homemade cubicles and bits collected over the years.

The lower floors are retail space for "Saturn" (a real retail chain that I ran into in Hamburg, I liked the look of their logo and the store I visited sort of reminded me a bit of this building), so all the original "HWV" branding that Kato nicely provides was, unfortunately, removed.

Installed on the layout, this building sits next to the 'Canon' office building, representing the modern high-rises that have taken over this part of the city (with only the church and its small plaza across the street the sole reminders of the older time sof this area of downtown).

And therefore, my work for 2011 is done! You can see the last of my Kato buildings just to the left of this one in the above photo. That's the next project and will be my first for 2012!

Finally, Happy New Year and Happy Trains!

Locomotive Roster: NS Koploper; Minitrix 12749 and 12865

2011-12-26T20:12:00.000-08:00

Taking a small break from reviews of my French fleet of trains, we'll now turn our sites to the northeast of France to the Netherlands! In particular, Minitrix's model of the Nederlandse Spoorswegen "Koploper" Electric Multiple Units! Actually, I believe the official designation of these trains is ICM (for Intercity Materieel), but I think most people refer to them as "Koplopers".

If you've seen any of my videos or photos on this blog, then you will have seen these trains appear quite a few times. I have two versions, the 12749 in the traditional blue and yellow of the NS from 2004:

I also have a slightly older model from somewhere between 1994 and 1999 in the light blue KLM advertising livery which is also packaged in the older Minitrix boxes before the Marklin acquisition:

Despite the fact that both models were produced between 5 and 10 years apart, they both appear to be identical except for their paint schemes and the packaging.

What surprised me was that the KLM model (when it was produced is not quite clear to me, but the packaging very clearly makes it certain that it was pre-Marklin acquisition in 1997) has an NEM 651 interface. This seems amazing as we're talking about mid-1990's production with a plug and play socket for a decoder! If that's true, then this must have been one of the very first models to be so equipped!

I suspect, though can't confirm, that the recently released (and still available) version of this train in the Olympic livery (model 12184) is basically the same as well.

Despite being an older production model, in some ways it lives up to contemporary standards. The details and printing are crisp and clean, the models feature white and red lights for both directions and, of course, the NEM 651 interface for easy (usually) conversion to DCC.

What's not so good is that these units appear to use an older type of can motor (although it does have a flywheel) that seems quite noisy compared to more modern production. Additionally, only two axles are powered. While these are provided as 3 car sets, you may not need too much traction or power, but I expect that on a significant grade, these might struggle a bit (I have 3% grades on my layout and have not noticed any problems yet).

There is more detail and additional information on these two sets in the video above. Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas from Quinntopia

2011-12-24T15:17:00.000-08:00

Its not really a white Christmas here in Quinntopia, but the Tomix Nanbu-Jyukan's looks so cool in the snow (no pun intended).

Christmas Eve in Quinntopia is much like anywhere else...the streets are still busy with last minute shoppers...

Parking is scarce on this chilly afternoon as those final gift selections are made....

Some crazy people ignore all of this, and spend their Christmas Eve creating a quick winter diorama with flour and some old track. A non-running Minitrix NS 1100 was originally the subject but, alas, without cantenary, this pictures' quite sad.
So the brightly-colored, diesel-powered motor cars of the Nanbu Railway are the chosen power to take everyone back to their homes. They show up nicer in the photos and, apparently, even some wild horses will stop and stare!
This post makes little sense, but then neither does a grown man like me playing with toys! But what better time of year- and what better way to spend the years in between- than playing with toys...and sharing with friends!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Kibri 7402 "Bahnhof Kehl" Kit bash: The "Kehl Building"

2011-12-19T17:30:00.000-08:00

I've been working (for what seems a very long time) on a kit bash of one of the coolest looking older structures out there. The focus of this kit bash is Kibri # 7402, which is called the "Kehl Station." The above photo is what I won on eBay two years ago, and then last year I picked up an un-built kit as well.

The kit in the the original box looks like this - which seem to be quite rare and hard to find (it wasn't very easy for me to decide to finally use this kit, but I decided I don't wan't to become too much of a collector rather than a modeller!):

Although the original kit is composed of a very long station and a tall office tower section, I was mostly interested in the opportunities that the 6 story high rise section of this station provides. I was fortunate to find an unbuilt version of this kit and a built up section of the office tower which are the basis for the scratch-build.

Kibri produces this same station in HO scale, and also produced a similar station with the product # 7400 (see box below) which has a much smaller office tower.

Although the original kit is actually one very long station, I was mostly interested in the opportunities that the 6 story high rise section of this station provides.

So I started with the painful (and not recommended!) task of trying to dissassemble the old kit. Lots of pieces get broken (the corner edges, the window frames, your patience, interest in the hobby, etc...) which later had to be repaired or covered up. When I was done, the parts looked like this:

I then had to figure out a plan to do the best job of 'merging' the old pieces with the un-built kit: This requires a lot of carefully cutting (using both a razor saw or hobby knife) and careful gluing.

For the ground floor I need to do something different as I didn't feel the original office tower ground floor would look right for a separate building. I re-purposed some of the pieces from the un-built Kehl station kit and was able to use them to create the ground floor windows and doors:

I decided to take a bit of a short cut with this building and not add interior details for any of the upper floors. The ground floor however would need a nice looking shopping look. I decided to create my own using strips of foam core and some self-created images and graphics of grocery store shelves. If you'd like a copy of my shelves and office backgrounds, its available here to download in pdf form.

Additional preparation was required for the store and building signs. I typically use a combination of LED's, strips of clear, thick acrylic plastic (a pain to cut!), self-printed water-slide decals and even laser printed color transparencies! Whew! A lot of work, but the extra touch of having illuminated signs is important to me (if your curious about some of my LED wiring techniques, check this post or this post). The below shows the vertical sign with two SMD LED's on the top and bottom almost ready for attachment to the building.

I added some extra interior bracing to make the building as square as possible, and used some very dark window tinting materiel for the windows. The below shows the back wall.

The below photo shows the front and back sections almost ready for final assembly. Note the rather quick and easy lighting method used on the building section shown on the right. Its merely a long strip of SMD LED's that come pre-wired on an adhesive strip (available on eBay for decent prices). As it turned out, its a bit dimmer than I wanted...my original fear was that it would be TOO bright, so I added piece of plain white paper behind the tinted windows to block unsightly views into the building shell and 'dim' the light a bit. It dimmed it too much. It still works, but a minor disappointment in retrospect!

And...wallah! The completed "Kehl Building"!

The store on the bottom floor turned out really well I think ("Blokker" was my choice....based on a prototype out of the Netherlands. I liked the name and the logo!). Which is interesting, as this was realtively easy and inexpensive to pull off (the figures in the store are some of the cheap Chinese ones mentioned here).

And here it is on the layout...I have nearly a full street lit and complete now! You can see how relatively dim the lights are for the upper stories, but it works.

This wasn't the original location, but I think it works well on this corner.

A close-in shot from another side:

Okay! Another building done! Whew! This took a while, but its always a nice feeling of accomplishment when its placed on the layout! But now I can move onto another one!

Thanks for reading!

Locomotive Roster: SNCF BB 15000; Minitrix 12134

2011-12-15T08:35:00.000-08:00

At the risk of starting to be predictable, here is yet another video review of another French locomotive. This time around its the iconic 'broken nose' of the BB 15000 series from Minitrix.

Not only does this locomotive have that iconic "Nez Cassés", it also features one of the most interesting and dynamic liveries ever to grace a train. The paint scheme (and locomotive as well) was designed by Paul Arzens, who was an important industrial designer and a true ground breaker in that field. Apparently the idea for this paint scheme is to incorporate the idea of a sprinter at their running blocks before they start their run. Somehow it really works for me!

These models from Minitrix are still easily available and are a great value. You can often find them for around $100 USD and feature terrific operation, great detail, and easy conversion to DCC through the NEM 651 interface.

This design also made it across several borders, including the NS Class 1800 (which I covered here).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this video review! Please feel free to leave a comment to share your knowledge and correct my ignorance, or just say 'hi'! Thanks for reading!

Miscellaneous Details from China via eBay

2011-12-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

Most of us modellers are always looking for cheaper solutions to accomplish more with limited funds, and a lot of new stuff to seemingly allow this seems to be offered from China these days on eBay. No matter what country you are from, these inexpensive alternatives from China seem to be available to every country.

I've bought a few of these myself over the past year or so, and I thought I would share my opinions on them with everyone else.

LIGHTS:
I've bought three different types of lights from China, one of them by accident! The three lights shown below are all from China, the two on the left being LED's and the light on the right using traditional incandescent bulbs.

The dual light LED lamppost below was something I mistakenly ordered (don't ask!). It might be a little obvious in the below photo, but they are much too large for N Scale. They are LED's (the bulbs seem to be 3mm LED's) are a nice warm white, and have the resistor already soldered in below the base of the lamp post, so they are ready to connect to your 12volt power supply. These were purchased from Xinsai Brakepads88 store on eBay, and they are labelled as "H12 75mm warm white LED" lamp posts. For an HO layout, I think this would suffice. Quality is okay, nothing special. They cost around $1.50 USD each.

The below streetlights are the T92 HO and N Scale 45mm LED street lights. These are pretty good for N Scale (Potentially a bit smaller than some other traditional brands version of street lights) but would be way too small for HO scale. These feature a white (blue-ish white) SMD led rather than a bulb, and look really nice. Unfortunately, you'll have to solder the supplied resistors to the 'bare' copper wire (which then connects to the negative power of your 12v DC power), so a little more work is required with these. I ordered these from seller everestmodel, and they cost about $1.50 each as well. I like the look of these a lot, but next time I will order the 5cm versions for a little bit more height.

The platform style lights below use traditional incandescent 'grain of wheat' type of bulbs rather than LED's. Interestingly, the entire assembly is spray painted with black paint, so when power is first supplied to the bulbs, a bit of smoke rises as the paint on the hot little bulbs burns off! The quality on these is not that great..the bulbs are soldered to a flat piece of metal that acts as the lamp post cover, and the connections are weak. I would avoid these. I've installed some of these on my layout, but they are place holders until better alternatives are found. These are sold by cnmodelnt and labelled as L327 5.8cm 12v lamp posts.

Here's a photo of the above lights installed on my platform. They look okay...the bigger challenge for me is getting the darned things to all stand up straight! Arg!

TREES
One product I've really enjoyed from cnmodelnt is their Dark Green trees! Below is the D9035 (9 cm) and the D7027 (7cm) trees in dark green. The 7 cm version are about $0.50 a piece, while the 9cm is closer to a dollar. The 7cm trees are okay for a small, growing tree, but seem to small for my tastes for something meant to represent a more mature forest. The 9cm version is much better at representing a more mature forest area.

The below photo shows the 9cm version next to a train so you can some idea of the relative size. Not too bad. As trees go, I think these are pretty good, but their general uniformity might look too fake if not broken up with other trees of different size and color (representing different species for example).

STATUARY?
One thing my urban environment has been lacking have been statues! I know a lot of modellers used various figures from war gaming, and this was my intention until I came across these. Also from cnmodelnt, these are labelled as DS04 Resin Sculpture Statue figures for HO and N. As the below N Scale figure shows, they may be a bit on the large size for N Scale statues, but I think they will serve just fine. The below photo shows them painted in a primer coat of black, awaiting some final coloring by hand before they are added to the layout. Again, these ran me about $1.00 a piece ($13.99 for a pack of 14, with apparently no duplicates) so a pretty decent value I think.

FIGURES

What about the little people? You know, those little plastic figures to help populate the layout? With quality figures from Woodland Scenics or Preisser costing quite a bit, populating your little metropolis can be quite expensive. Fortunately these cheap figures from seller wehonest are about one tenth the cost ($0.10 a piece) can help to fill in those empty sidewalks. I bought a package of 100 for $9.99 labeled as having 19 different poses.

For comparison sake, the three figures on the left in the below photo are from Preisser, while the figures to the right are the inexpensive Chinese imports

Close up details on the Chinese figures reveal a rather disturbing level of facial disfigurement - this couple was made for each other!

This chap has what appears to be one of those samurai pony-tails. It looks pretty spiffy with that magenta jacket, I must say.

And for comparison sake, the rugged, handsome profile of this gentleman from Preisser:

Obviously, the quality of the painting and details are nowhere near the above mentioned Woodland Scenics or Preisser figures, but they are acceptable in my view for populating building interiors or scenes in the distance where details can't be seen anyway. And at $0.10 a piece, this is certainly a much funner option than the inexpensive, but unpainted, bulk packages from Preisser! So I'm very glad for this cheap, efficient option for population expansion!

That about sums it up! Hope this was in some small way a helpful guide to help you with your layout scenery decisions!

Minitrix Point Motor / Switch Machines Manual

2011-12-11T17:43:00.000-08:00

Some months back, one of the readers of my humble blog had some questions about Minitrix switch machines (or point motors). At the time I thought it might be helpful to post the manual that comes with the switches and switch machines to help others. So finally, after much procrastination, I finally scanned in the manual and am posting each page below.

The pages are not numbered, and the order can be a little confusing based on how its all laid out, so I've taken the liberty of attempting to put each page into what I think is a logical sequence! All of the diagrams and illustrations have German text, but translations in English and French (found on page 7) and Dutch and Swedish (found on page 8) explain those diagrams in those languages.

If this was helpful to you, please leave a comment so I can understand if posting this information was valuable to someone!

Page 1 (German):

Shows the electrical connections of the switch machines/point motors; How to remove the contact springs to eclectically isolate each arm of the switch and how to isolate and power sidings

Page 2 & 3 (German):

Shows the different combinations of Minitrix track pieces for various switches/points/turnouts.

Page 4 & Page 5(German):

Shows connecting track pieces for combinations of Minitrix's curved turnouts:

Page 6 (German):
Although technically the last page, this contains the last of the 7 different sections described in German. This page shows how to attach and remove the switch motor from the turnout (for both regular and inverted use):

Page 7 (English and French):

Translation of sections 1 through 7 in English and French.

Page 8 (Dutch and Swedish):

Translation of sections 1 through 7 in Dutch and Swedish.

Page 9 (German):
Illustrations and warning about proper use of the polarized frog:

Page 10 (English, French, and Dutch):

Translation of the above page from German concerning the warning about ensuring that the polarized section of the frog is always powered for the direction of travel or damage can occur:

Locomotive Roster: SNCF A1A 68000 ; Mabar 86803

2011-12-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

Continuing with my reviews of my N Scale French locomotive fleet, here is the A1A A1A 68000 diesel locomotive from Mabar.

Mabar may be yet another new name to persons outside of Europe. They appear to be a Spanish manufacturer which typically focuses on the Spanish market and Renfe but have recently released some French models (Similar to Star Train). The prototype of these diesels on the SNCF have apparently reached the end of the line, with just a few remaining examples providing power to various infrastructure and work related duties (I believe they have all been retired however).

While the prototype might be vanishing, Mabar has produced a fantastic model! The detail, operation, and quality of these locomotives are incredibly impressive! If this is typical of Mabar's standards, then the Spanish model railroaders are truly fortunate!

The AIAAIA 68000 is very similar to the BB 67300 model (shown above and below from Minitrix) with the most obvious difference being the extra axle in the bogies.

The Mabar model, however, outshines its Minitrix cousin with a level of detail (separately applied grab irons, LED lighting to the above the cab window light) beyond the BB 67300. I love seeing this locomotive next to its fellow diesel locomotives as shown in the below photo!

Of course, more detail in the video (above). Please feel free to add a comment or add additional information!

Locomotive Roster: SNCF BB 26000 ; Piko 94133 Piko 94136

2011-12-01T04:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a review of my models of the SNCF BB 26000 from Piko!

This locomotive - famous in France - is my first locomotive from the resurgent Piko! Piko is probably more well-known in the Americas for its line of older, inexpensive building kits, or for its rather extensive line of G-scale accessories. Its probably less well-known outside of the continent for its ancient forays into N Scale locomotives in the ancient days of the 1960's and 1970's. Only recently has Piko re-entered the N Scale locomotive and rolling stock with entirely new models.

And they are very good models - which may seem surprising as Piko had its origins as a state-owned enterprise of the communist government in the old East Germany back in 1949! Of course, those days are long gone, and I'm glad to say Piko quality is really outstanding!

The models I have from Piko are two versions of the BB 26000 - commonly known in France as the "Sybic". That fancy sounding name is really just a shortened version of one of this locomotives key features "Synchronous Bicurrent".

The model in orange (TGV Orange I believe?) is Piko 94136. This is actually my second one as I previously had the other locomotive in the red/silver "multi-services" livery. At first, this locomtive (in terms of style) did not really interest me. But as I saw more photos of the Sybic working in its natural environments I became more and more interested in it.

While not as flashy or iconic as its 'broken nose' cousins, it has a definite edge to it and now looks almost classic against more modern Traxx and Taurus electrics.

The 'multi-services' version (Piko 94133) has a more modern paint scheme. While not as interesting to me as the orange TGV scheme, I still find it quite nice!

I go into much more detail (of course) in the video review, but there were a few thoughts I wanted to get 'on paper' as it were!

Overall, a really nice model that (so far) has been a flawless operator!

The Harbor and the Smit Rotterdam

2011-11-24T12:07:00.000-08:00

One of the features I wanted to add with my 3rd revision to the layout, was a small harbor area. I think its part of a common temptation all layout builders have to want to add some water feature to their layouts!

The actual bench work on this took place well over a year ago. In the above photo you can see the extension of the layout which was to create the 'cut' in addition to more buildings. The area in the foreground is where the harbor would now be located. Below you can see basically the same area from the opposite direction.

There were a lot steps to create the water area and how it interacts with the land and city. Building the shore with sculpt-a-mold, adding gravel, Woodland Scenics talus and sandy-looking ballast took some time. Then painting the sea color. I purposefully chose a muddy-green/brown look for the water which seems more correct for a sort of 'still water' near a wharf.

The water application was really easy using Woodland Scenic's Realistic Water. Just pour a few thin layers at a time and you have water! I spent a lot of time trying to ensure the 'bottom' was level and leak-free before painting it or pouring the Realistic Water material.

I had looked at buying various commercially available quay's and wharf pieces, but ultimately went ahead and scratch-built my own using styrene and sintra.

The ship that I ultimately decided would be cool to be anchored in the harbor was this rather large model from Heller of the Smit Rotterdam. It was fun to build a maritime model (I've never built a ship model before!), and of course I tried to add enough lights to make it look right!

There's still lot's of details I need to add, in addition to weathering. I also want to do a bit more cosmetic work on the edge of the layout where the 'water' meets my fascia so its not so obvious, but this is something for the future.

So this was my first real 'water feature' attempt and I'm pretty happy generally with how it turned out. Ignoring the fact that it probably makes no sense at all for a ship like this to be docked in a situation like this, I still like how it looks and adds a bit more interest to the layout I think.

Train Show! The Great Train Expo in Puyallup!

2011-11-20T17:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I made the drive an hour south and attended the Great Train Expo in Puyallup Washington (a bit south east of Seattle). I haven't attended this show in several years, but I have to say it was huge! The venue was great as well...a very nice, clean and open center at the state fairgrounds.

The video captures much of the site and sounds, although it focuses on several of the large N Scale layouts (so apoligies to those in other scales!).

There were plenty of vendors at this show as well....particularly (and somewhat typically) if your into 3-rail O Gauge and old tinplate/toy trains, but I thought N Scale was very well represented by the retailers. In fact, like the UNW show I attended in February, N scale seemed to be a very dominant scale!

Of course, other than a few exceptions, most of the materials are all North American/US models, so at least my wallet didn't get too much damage, although I did pick up a TCS decoder and some miscellaneous scenery bits.

Bottom line, a really great show! I don't have any idea of what the attendance was, but it seems like these shows get bigger and bigger each year!

Locomotive Roster: Düwag Tram; Kato 14635

2011-11-17T15:43:00.000-08:00

Another video review...the time we'll review a much slower and smaller model than the ICE 3, the Kato Duwag tram!

I'm going to leave most of my comments and insights for this 'review' to my video, but here are a few photos of the tram on the layout:

Playing with trains

2011-11-11T22:38:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I spend all my time working on the layout that I don't stop and take time to just run trains. So that's what I did today! The above photo shows a new addition to my fleet (review coming at some point in the future) which also represents my first Italian locomotive!

Here's another shot:

An old friend, the Minitrix Class 1800 is shown here approaching the Hack Brucken (bridge), and the prefabricated Faller (?) marshes down below. It turned out quite nice after all!

Here's the same locomotive passing over one of the Busch laser-cut paper underpass model. This was a pain to install (easy to build), but its coming along. I still need to do some work on that roadway obviously.

And finally, I love to watch the CC72000 bring a rake of coaches alongside the Kato station platforms 'downtown':

That's all for today! Well, not really....I also attempted to repair, fix, or finish about a hundred little things that were left unfinished earlier or were not done propertly the first time around, but too tedious to write about - much less read about!

Locomotive Roster: DB ICE 3; Minitrix 12197

2011-11-08T19:21:00.000-08:00

You'll notice something a bit different with this review post, a video review! I've been inspired by a couple of video channels on YouTube to do something a bit more productive than blowing up buildings, so I'm going to try and do a bit more video! So a tip of the hat to EWS 60008 and NGaugeUK for their instructive and enjoyable N Gauge reviews! Of course, I have more of my overly verbose commentary and thoughts on this model below for those of you who prefer the written word!

A very recent addition to my fleet is the Minitrix 12197 8 car ICE 3 set. This set was a complete impulse buy that I picked up at H.P.A. Schellhaß in Hamburg, Germany. It was hard to pass it as it looked great in person and - being in Hamburg that day, I was surrounded by ICE 3's!

This set is probably one of the best values that Minitrix has produced in years. You get an 8 car set (2 power cars and 6 coaches) for around 199 Euro or $280 USD. That's not a bad price for European trains.

The biggest drawback with this set is that it lacks of any sort of lights in the power cars. Not sure why this was the economy measure that Minitrix chose to go with...it does make me wonder what the additional cost of all of those PCB boards and wire adds to the cost of locomotives today. But really, a locomotive without lights seems quite odd when all the others are lit.

So one of my first projects upon returning home was to install some LED's in the cab cars/power cars. I'll quickly add my process to how I did this in this post.

Step One was to get power from the axles to the interior of the locomotive. To do this I used some extra brass strips that are typically used to add lighting to passenger cars. These worked perfect for this job as the below photo shows. The axles on the bogies are insulated, so be careful to put the insulated sides back in together on the same bogies, and have them on the opposite side on the rear set of bogies.

The brass strip now conducts electricity up through the pole shaft that holds the truck in place. This shaft is held in place with a locking washer that can be (carefully!) removed (with some pressure). Below is a photo of the shaft with the locking washer removed.

I applied a piece of copper tape to the floor of the chassis, re-attached the locking washer and - viola! - I now have a contact pad to connect my decoder to (well, I have one pole, I repeated the process on the other side of the car for the opposite electric current). You'll notice in the below photo an area in the front that is quite open: this is where the LED would go. I used red/white SMD LED's from LED Baron.

I initially installed an 850ohm resistor, thinking this would be more or less adequate to protect the LED from the track voltage and dim the light enough so there would not be too much light 'bleed-through'.

Well, nice idea! But 850ohm was not enough for these LED's and my track voltage (17v). Here's a few shots of what it looks like with way too much luminosity! :-)

It almost looks like the front end is on fire!

You can be sure that the train would be very visible if the prototype was that bright!

I eventually went back and installed 1.5k ohm resistors to replace the 850 ohm. They helped, but there is still too much light (and the truth is, the white plastic is pretty thin!). I may someday add in more resistance, but at this point I can almost live with it.

A final comment on the lighting of the power cars; I also recommend adding some additional weights to each of the power cars if your going to be using the power contact method I describe here. I put in a couple of tiny lead model weights, and it helped with consistent power pick up immensely!

Okay.... what about the model?

Really great model. One feature it does have is the NEM651 socket for easy installation of a NEM651 decoder for quick and easy conversion to DCC. I have to say there was no problems with installing the decoder at all! I hope this represents some improvements with the NEM651 sockets from Minitrix as they tend to be a bit fiddly.

I was also pleasantly relieved to find that opening the shell to install the decoder was not a war of nerves to see if the shell would come off before the plastic crumbled from my attempts to remove the shell. I'm sure we can all agree that removing locomotive shells should be easy, not too easy, but certainly not something that makes you panic!

In operation, the motor has the high quality, low noise, smooth running I've come to expect from modern Minitrix stock.

All in all, I'm really pleased with this set. A great running set, with simple to install DCC, and fantastic operation and at a relatively good price for an eight car set!

For some nice photos of the Arnold version, check out "Spur N Modellbahner's" post here.

Video Tour of Quinntopia

2011-11-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

A video tour of the layout known as "Quinntopia"! No monsters, explosions, or fast edits on this one....rather a calm walk-through of my modest attempt at building an N scale layout! Hope you enjoy this!

Modern Flatiron Scratchbuild - Complete

2011-10-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

The best part of a scratch-build has to be the final steps when all the wiring, pieces, and (most of all) the wild guesses about how it will all work come together (or not!)!

So I here I present to you the (almost) complete "Canon" building (formerly known as the 'modern flatiron building')

Pictures say more than words.,,,most of the finish work involved adding pieces of trim around the back side windows and over the corners of the building.

I am really pleased with how this one turned out...if fits the strange shaped area I had and nicely integrates with both the modern Kato buildings and the other structures in downtown. The only thing I might do is add some resistance or something to the entire structure as (you can probably tell) the LED's are quite bright!

The interiors, as I mentioned in the earlier parts of this project, are composed of some manufactured detail bits, as well as pieces of painted foam core and bits of styrene with some simple printed backgrounds on the walls. The interior figures are all the very cheap Chinese made ones found on eBay.

With this project done, I have to start thinking about my next project. I really enjoyed this technique and would encourage anyone to do the same. Using the transparencies for the windows along with bits of styrene is really quite simple but gives a great effect.

That's all for today! Thanks for reading and please feel free to leave a comment (and for you other bloggers out there, I'm always interested in other work as well, so please feel free to share your blog!).

Modern Flatiron Scratchbuild - Part 3

2011-10-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in part 2, the next part was to add the interior details to each floor that I expected to add lighting to. I did this using a combination of small pieces from Luetke Modellbahn, home-made office cubes, and bits of painted foam core. I've found that even painted pieces of foam core can 'look' like furniture if the angles are square enough!

After finishing the details, I attached my lighting strips and carefully glued each floor section to the interior. The challenging part is to ensure that I place the floor section correctly the first time as I only have a little over 1mm on either side. If I miss, an unsightly (and impossible to fix) glue stain will result. Fortunately I make it through this part withing any major errors!

I then soldered the leads from the LED strips to two brass wires that extend through the building. This was a very easy way to solder in so many light strips and I'll probably use a similar method to this again.

I then attached the lobby section to the bottom of the building and after the glued had dried, I then applied the back wall (after checking to ensure that everything seems to be in square and all the lights work!

The next steps are to apply the remaining sides, the top pieces with a back-lit logo, and I'm getting pretty close to completion!

Modern Flatiron Scratchbuild - Part 2

2011-10-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

I made good progress earlier this week, but things slowed down as I had to apply coats of primer and surface color with a spray can to many of the materials.

As you can see in the above photo, I applied my transparency sheets (printed on a laser printer) to the acrylic, and then glued my strips of styrene (already painted) on top of that.
Below you can see a more finished look, along with the ground floor, to get an idea of how its going to look:

I also did a little work on preparing the interior details for the lobby - mainly the 'back wall' where the elevator banks would be. I decided to do something a bit different and used some 'rock face' material for the wall to give it a bit of architectural texture!

I referenced waiting for paint to dry above, and the below photo of the 'back wall' illustrates what I was doing. The material is clear acrylic, so I need to spray it with a coat or two of primer to ensure its opaque, then apply the surface color. An area was masked out for the application of more windows that will appear above the rooftops of the adjacent buildings.

While waiting for paint to dry, there is plenty to do, so I also soldered the leads onto the LED strips that I'll be using for the interior lighting.

Next I believe will be additional detailing on the floors, and then installation of the floors and the lighting. I also need to figure out the wiring for the building top logo. After that, I should be pretty close to gluing it all together and seeing what I've got! Stay tuned!

Modern Flatiron Scratchbuild - Part 1

2011-10-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

A current project I am working on is a building to fill a problematic gap right in the front of my downtown. The shape of the block requires sort of an asymmetrical "flatiron" type style which is not really something you can get commercially.

I've been thinking up and collecting ideas on how to scratch build modern buildings (my last scratch-build was almost 2 years ago) so I've been a bit anxious to try out some of these techniques!

Basic Structure:

Clear Acrylic Sheets and Sintra:

I started off by getting my dimensions for this unusual location, and eyeballing what the best height would be. I then set about the tediously slow process of scoring clear acrylic sheets with a hobby knife to cut these sheets to the right dimensions (the clear acrylic can be found in most home improvement type stores).

The key I've found with getting good, straight edges with acrylic is that you don't actually want to 'cut' all the way through...that seems to either lead to a devastating crack or an uneven break. The trick is to score it just enough so that you can snap the piece along your score line against a solid table edge or something. Its not easy, and is the most aggravating part of the project!

Windows and Exterior:

I'm using my new Kato buildings (shown in the top photo) as a guide for floor height, which is about 22.5mm or 7/8". I decided to use Evergreen Plastics 349: .040x.250 (1mm x 6.3mm) as the exterior material to go between the floors. At 6.3mm width, they are just wide enough to cover the 5mm foam core sections which will be the interior floors.

I'm not sure if this is making any sense, so maybe the pictures below will make it more clear what I'm talking about!

Given that I have my 7/8" floor height, I went into Intaglio (basic drawing program) and created a grid for the exterior window frames. The vertical distances are 10mm, which gives a pretty good indication of windows. I printed this drawing onto transparency paper using a laser printer and - wallah! - I have my window frames! This is a much easier way of adding window details than trying to cut precise little pieces of styrene, etc... Its a technique I read about a couple of years ago in Railway Modeller.

The Evergreen styrene strips will go on top of the transparent materials (which will go on top of the acrylic sheets. Everything is going to be glued together in the space which will be covered by the styrene strips.

For the styrene strips themselves, rather than making the angle two pieces, I decided to try and keep the pieces together and try to avoid a problematic seam on the corner. I scored the back of the styrene, painted, and then used a bit of heat to make the bends.

Ground Floor and Base:

For the ground floor/lobby, I decided I wanted it recessed from the rest of the structure (which seems like a typical design), but nearly double height. Again, I used the 'ground floor' height of the adjacent Kato building so that they would consistent with each other. The base itself is a sheet of styrene (Sintra is too thick for a floor), which I then applied some styrene "L" pieces to hold the plastic windows (which will be the support for the entire building) solidly in place.

I decided this building would consist of a high level of 'black and white' contrast. Most of my buildings are grey, so a bit of a contrast was in order. I decided to color the ground floor in what I hope looks like a black granite or marble material. The entry way carpets are just electrical tape.

Interiors:

Finally, I also started working on the interior floors. These are mostly cut from foam core, with additional vertical sections to which I glued a homemade interior wall patterns. A picture does a better job of explaining this:

Next up is applying the transparent window sheets to the acrylic shell, then applying the exterior styrene pieces on top of that!

Earth Defense Organization - The Explanation

2011-10-06T18:46:00.000-07:00

This last video was a lot of fun to put together, but I also thought I would explain some of it a bit more.

The background:
First, as a child, I was deeply impressed by Gerry Anderson's series UFO and Space:1999 (I love the models, and still do!). It wasn't easy to be a fan either as this was before the days of cable and the shows were never really broadcast consistently here in the US. I also used to love Godzilla movies. My favorite parts? When the Japanese Army would race to downtown Tokyo where Godzilla (or one of his friends) was wreaking havoc on all those beautiful building models!

In fact, the "Earth Defense Organization" is actually a bit of an homage to SHADO, although I was originally going to call it the "Quinntopia Xenomorph Self Defense Force" (for which I even created a logo!) which was influenced by the Toho films! The motto in the banner at the top is Latin for "Destroy All Monsters". A good motto! But "QXSDF" was too hard to write!

A couple of years ago I got a Minitrix Class 47 in a lot of various pieces I won off eBay. The Class 47 was in bad shape (including missing the buffers, which is somewhat painfully obvious in the video), although it did still run. It sat in my 'project drawer' for a number of years.

I've always loved model tanks. So when I discovered the Roco Minitanks (and Arnold) flat cars with various Leopards, M115's, Unimogs, etc... I tried to get as many as I could find whenever they would show up.

The final element: the 'monsters'. These are some Warhammer 40k Tyranids that had been hanging around, and I thought they made effectively scary creatures!

The setting was mostly on the layout for the train stuff, but I created a special diorama just for the building explosion scenes (I was NOT going to light fireworks on my layout!). The below diorama was put together in about a day!

Yes, real fireworks were used! I wasn't sure what the effect would be....but I had expected things to catch on fire (which they did!). So I had one shot to get it right, otherwise I would have to find another junker building to sacrifice!

The Class 47 was always designated to be the first locomotive for the EDO armored group, but a color scheme was a challenge. I considered solid black, olive green, and other options, but ultimately went with a grey camouflage pattern that I created by cutting random shapes from masking tape.

There's a white stripe around the sides that turns to red at the ends. This was a fun little touch that I leveraged for an earlier paint scheme idea and gives the loco a dash of color.

The stop motion sequences with the cars were actually a bit easier to pull off than I had imagined, although it is somewhat tedious and takes a lot to master!

The bottom line, I think, for model railroads is that "when you control the railroad, you control the world" which is what can make this the world's bestest hobby ever! Thanks for reading!

When Hobbies Turn to Nightmares

2011-10-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, this post isn't really about our hobbies becoming nightmares (well, not literally), but this new layout video I created...well, I think if you watch it, you'll understand!

There's a large 'back-story' on this video that I'll go into in another post.

But seriously, when the Planet Earth is threatened, who do we call?

Scenery Update

2011-09-29T09:54:00.000-07:00

As a follow on to my 'Landscape Repair' post earlier this month, scenery work on this area continues to a point where I'm starting to feel good about this end of the layout!

I used my home 'built' static grass applicator (you know, the conversion of those electric bug zapper things) with traditional flock powder on most of this area of the layout. Its not a perfect applicator (in fact, it stopped working about halfway through, which means I need to get another bug zapper!), but I have found that after applying the long strands of flock, a dusting of flock powder over the top fills things in nicely.

Although I did use a combination of some of the 'sheets' of foliage materials available as well. The hillside on the left of the below photo uses some long-grass material that comes in sheets, and on the right is some of the foliage sheets I've used in the past (sort of giving an 'ivy-covered' hillside look.

The below photo shows the results of the fake 'electro-static' grass applicator combined with traditional flock powder and some very fine grey ballast material for the gravel road (I forget the brand, but the standard Woodland Scenics ballast is way too course for gravel roads, but this material is almost a rock 'powder' and works well for dirt roads, etc...). The photo may be too small to tell, but if you click on it, you get a larger version.

N Scale Nostalgia: Busch Stadtbau System

2011-09-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Back in April I did a post on the old Arnold Universal Structure kit. Similar in concept - although radically different in execution - is the Busch Stadtbau System from Busch.

There is a whole series of different kits in the Busch Stadtbau system. The above photo shows the 0937 high rise of office building (and one of my favorites from the series). Bob/Scaper has graciously posted images of the old catalog photos showing the many kits and options available. There is also a site that has some limited archives of old catalogs (interesting in and of itself- although it appears to get good size images you need to order a CD) where, as near as I can tell, the last year that this system was offered seems to be around 1975. If this is true, that means that this system has been out of production for over 35 years! Which isn't really too surprising given how hard it is to find even previously built pieces from this series!

I've been fortunate to pick up a couple of unbuilt kits from this series, but I've not yet decided if I want to build them. For one, they're overall rarity brings out the collector in me (or at least, the 'preserver'!) which compells me to leave everything it the box! Additionally, I don't really have room on the layout anyway!

On the other hand....these buildings could be the basis of a really cool 'utopian' city....I imagine an entire city modeled in this modernistic style would be really cool!

Well, I'm undecided....but at least for now, I'll hang to the too few examples of this fascinating system I do have and keep them for posterity! :-)

Just for fun, below are some scans of the instructions for the 0937 building.

I hope you enjoyed this final 'nostalgia' post for a while. Its hard to believe that N gauge is over 50 years old...it seems to me there's some interesting history out there and I hope you enjoy some of this as much as I do!

A Hospital In Quinntopia!

2011-09-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

I won this scratch-built N scale building off of Yahoo Japan using a service that manages the fulfillment for non-Japanese bidders some time ago. If you aren't aware, there is an interesting, although small, group of folks in Japan who make and sell modern buildings on the Yahoo Japan site. Some of these appear to have the quality of archetectural models and the biddding can go quite high. If you have an interest in modern N scale buildings, its actually quite fun and inspirational to see what they are making (although as I look today, I don't really see anything interesting....they seem to come in bursts so keep checking!). And, as I mentioned, services like I used can actually allow you to bid on them if you are so inclined!

While I liked the modern lines, it lacked detail and, of course, interior lighting. So it has sat on the shelf for a long time until I could find the inspiration to customize it for Quinntopia.

The lighting method is identical to various techniques I've used in the past. And as I typically do with my building lighitng projects, I selectively black out some windows, add shades/drapes to others, and interior details on a select few. Below you can see some of the interior detail. You may be able to make out a bed and various bits of plastic meant to simulate dressers and other items.

I added a back lit "Emergency" sign on the ground floor - which does not show up too well in the photo- and a backlit "H" sign for the top of the building. Nothing too fancy!

This project kept me busy for probably a total of 12-16 hours altogether! There was a lot of prep work in getting foam core cut to make the interior floor sections (where needed as I didn't need to create floors for every floor), painting, collecting or making the right interior detail pieces, prepping LED strips for installation, etc...

Like several recent projects, this one that was sort of 'half-started' when I originally got it, and I've been determined over the summer to try and finish many of my half complete projects! This is one of the last, so I'm looking forwards to some more kit-bashing in the future! The one unfortunate thing with this building is that I literally have no place to fit it currently on the layout, so there are no photos of what it will look like in its natural environment!

Landscape Repair

2011-09-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

The above photo more or less shows the state of one end of the new viaduct after my demolition last year to expand the layout to "Version 4".

In the below construction photos from last year, you can see the original alignments, and the start of the new 'hole' to get the Red Line to cross under the elevated viaduct track in a straight direction.

Below is the ultimate alignment of the track - and the complete loss of all the supporting fascia for the viaduct!

A more recent view, with no progress on fixing the viaduct, showing the addition of a siding and turnout to the inside track.

The first step to repair this section was tto fill in the previous 'hole' where the above mentioned 'inside track' used to circle back and then continue along the back side of the freight yard. Sheets of Styrofoam are used to give the basic foundation.

After the glue set on the Styrofoam (be sure to use a Styrofoam safe glue!), I started to apply Sculpt-a-Mold, with a bit of black acrylic paint and a touch of yellow oxide mixed in- just to take the 'bright white' look of the plaster away in case some of it gets exposed.

I used a kitchen spoon to apply until most of the Styrofoam is covered....

Once I get the shape looking right, I smooth out the Styrofoam with the spoon, re-used some of the plaster rock castings from the original cut, and let it dry.

Once dry, I used my homemade 'static grass applicator' (I used the electric fly swatter method that you can find on YouTube and various modelling forums), although the static grass doesn't always give complete coverage, I like to sprinkle a touch of standard, dark green flock over the static grass while the glue is still wet.

I used Sintra once again as a modelling material to create the viaducts taking careful measurements to ensure that errant pantographs don't get caught on the arches!

The (more or less) final look below (before the addition of some details and being painted and weathered)...a huge improvement over the unsightly mess its been for the past year, and a much nicer look than it was in the older "Version 3".

TomyTec Showa Office #61 Modification

2011-08-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

I've finally completed my modifications to the TomyTec Showa Office building. The modifications were fairly straight forward: Doubling the height, adding lights and interior details.

As you can see from the above photo, the building actually doesn't have windows (i.e. see-through, clear plastic!), so I had to mill out sections of the black painted plastic that passes for windows and hope to come up with a method to reasonably replace these sections with something that would be clear!

Ultimately I was able to fit some nice thin sheets of plastic into the areas where the solid plastic used to be, and used strips of very tiny styrene to make the window frames.

I added a small restaurant on the ground floor of the building. This is actually based on a prototype I ate at in Paris. Nothing spectacular, but the garish sign (difficult to make out in the photo unfortunately) looked right for the sort of 'greasy spoon' I was looking for!

The restaurant booths and tables are from Luetke Modellbahn.

The slim, narrow shape of the building fits perfectly on the 'southern' end of Downtown. While I only knocked out the solid plastic to create a couple of floors with lit windows, I think its enough to be convincing!

All I can say is summer is coming to a close...and model train season is almost here again! Whoohoo!

Locomotive Roster: NS Serie 6400; Minitrix 12517

2011-08-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you get lucky.

That's the way I feel about this little locomotive. I spotted this model in a Minitrix catalog from 2004 or so, and tried to find one. No luck. I've come to the conclusion that Minitrix does not produce its Dutch models in anything near the volume of its German ones (no surprise there!). So I kept looking. After two years I finally picked one up from a seller on eBay from Singapore.

A European locomotive that most Americans would have some comfort with in terms of appearance, the NS Class 6400 looks similar to its 'cousin' the Mak G1204, albeit the prototype 6400 class is a bit longer (1.4m) than your standard G1200 and is a diesel-electric rather than a diesel-hydraulic.

NEM 651 Blues: Unfortunately, the so-called convenience of the NEM 651 socket is under-minded by whatever silly design Minitrix decided to use. After fiddling around trying to figure out if my Sprog II was broken, the decoder was bad, etc... I ultimately discovered that the culprit once again was the decoder socket. So I removed the NEM651 socket and soldered the decoder directly to the pads. Problem solved.

The good news is that its a smooth running, quiet little locomotive.

And, I have to say, I'm really glad I picked up one of these diesels in the classic Nederlandse Spoorswegen grey and yellow (everything is red these days apparantly).

Despite the decoder socket problem, a great find and a nice little engine from our German friends at Minitrix! Just go fix that decoder socket, guys, and I'll continue to be a fan!

The video at the top is a new one with just one locomotive (and a much slower pace than my last one!), the train the 6400 is pulling are the coal cars that I weathered in my last post as well.

Weathering: First Contact

2011-08-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

Weathering of rolling stock is yet another aspect of this hobby which interests me. But putting a brush to these beautiful looking cars and locos also terrifies me! Nevertheless, the amazing results that you can see of weathered rolling stock have motivated me to give it a try.

This forum is quite inspirational. Some really breathtaking realism is on display there. The below video is one of the finest tutorials on weathering I've yet seen.

So I designated some Roco hopper cars for my first victims that are:

relatively cheap,
markings from Era 3 or so, and
look way too clean for both their purpose and age

Here is a 'before' shot (taken a couple of years ago, but its the best photo I have of the cars before I started weathering them):

And here's a shot of the same hoppers (in the same location), after the weathering.

Okay, a little hard to tell given the different lighting between the two photos, but scroll below for some better shots.

Overall, I would rate the result and experience a 6 out of 10. I didn't necessarily follow all the steps and advice (and there's a lot of different methods to weather, so it can be a bit overwhelming) but used what I had read or watched along with the materials I had on hand to try out some techniques and do the best job I could.

The first step was to apply a lighter shade of the 'red-brown' of the cars to give the paint that aged and sun-faded look. This is such a common feature of rolling stock and locos that it was something I was very curious to test. I mixed some Tamiya Red Brown's with some Tamiya Buff to get a color that was similar to the cars. I then mixed a bit of Tamiya's Clear Gloss with the mixed color. The reason for this was to dilute the amount of pigment in the paint with the clear gloss so that when I sprayed the color it would give a nice even, yet somewhat transparent, tone.

After applying this coat with my airbrush, I then used some rust powders to rust some of the parts where rust would occur. I then attempted to use Testor's Dullcoat to lock in the powders and remove the glossy sheen from the previous airbrush coats.

This is where things did not go as well as I would have liked. I'm not clear on what happened, but the Testor's Dullcoat did at least two things that I did not like:

It seemed to have caused the earlier Tamiya colors to fade and run.
Even worse, it would not cover the cars evenly. I tried to apply with several light coats, but I consistently would get 'pock marks' of areas where the Dullcoat did not adhere and the glossy undercoat was still visible. Not a good look at all. You can see this 'pockmark' effect on the right side of the car below.

I'm blaming the Dullcoat at this point, but I do suspect that there may have been an issue with applying the Dullcoat (laquuer?) over the Tamiya acrylics (particularly the Tamiya 'clear gloss') that may be the culprit.

Fortunately, this is 'weathering' so there is a bit more tolerance for these sort of glitches than in any other type of finish application!

From this point, it was part 'damage control' and part experimentation. My primary media at this pont was rusting powder, which I used to rub into any of the pockmark or pits in the laquer, and a wash of Burnt Umber, Brown, and dark Grey (oil paints with lighter fluid was my wash solution). I continually applied various combinations to try and get a look that appeared right.

When I was satisfied with the look, I applied a final coat (I hoped) of flat acrylic paint. THIS time I used Mr. Hobby "Mr. Super Clear" flat acrylic. I'm not sure if Testors was the problem in the original coat of clear acrylic, but Mr. Hobby did a great job and I'll be coming back to this brand again (not as easy to find as the ubiquitous Testors brand, although I'm seeing it more often in some local hobby shops).

Finally, I used my airbrush to add a bit of 'brake dust' at the bottom of the cars. I expected the airbrushing of the brake dust to be fairly straightforward and problem free - just a matter of ensuring not to apply too heavy of a coat! Unfortunately, I neglected to properly dilute my paint before painting (and didn't paint in the best of light!) so I got a few 'dots' where there should have been a nice even gradation! Arghhh!!!!

Fortunately, these were easily cleaned off with a bit of acrylic thinner and a cotton swab. Taking off just the poor airbrushing was simplified due to the application of the Mr Hobby flat coat prior to airbrushing!

The final result, taken outside, is below.

So, I learned a few things - but also have more questions and much to learn! The result turned out better than the process, so I'm pleased. I was also probably a bit lucky as well! The rule about using this with relatively cheap pieces of equipment is a good one however, and I'll continue to 'test' out some weathering before moving on to the much more expensive locos!

A New Station

2011-07-22T23:26:00.000-07:00

I've long admired these relatively simple, yet classic, French railway stations. I picked up a kit on my trip to Paris at Transmondia and was able to steal some time this summer to get it done. The model is from a French specialist company called ARA productions, and its a model of a PLM (Paris-Lyon Mediterranean) prototype. Its a combination of molded plastic and laser cut for the details.

My construction method for any kit isn't particularly fancy or special. I have started to do some basic best practices as with any kit. For example, washing the plastic parts, filing edges to ensure they are square, etc... One unusual bit of preparation I had to do with the kit was to flatten out the warped one-piece plastic roof section. To do this I placed the roof section on a block of wood, covered it with a piece of aluminum foil, and then lightly pressed down on the roof under the foil with a clothes iron on low heat. I was fortunate that this measure worked to take the warp out of the roof!

As I'll be adding interior lighting, its essential to give the insides of the building a dark undercoat (I used a black primer) and then another coat of a more neutral (and appropriate) color for the interior walls. This prevents any light from seeping through the plastic.

I also paint all of the walls and detail pieces separately before construction. I find this makes painting and detailing a lot easier, although it does become harder to cover up extra glue blobs after construction as it'll require paint touch ups! I'm not sure if the colors I used are prototypical, they are however the same as what I saw another modeller do with a similar structure in a French model railroad magazine (actually, my wife noticed the buildings in the photos and asked why I don't have any 'cute' buildings like this! So it had to be yellow and green with white trim after that!).

I didn't take any photos of the assembly process, but it was pretty straight-forward (in fact, the instructions were all in French and the illustrations were pretty vague, so it was a little bit of a puzzle!). I added several SMD LED's....two under the passenger canopy, two at the front door as entrance lights, and I replaced the bulb and shortened the staff on an older Viessmann light for the side of the building.

Above and below you see more or less 'finished' shots of the assembled station wired up with lighting. I'm quite pleased with the look as it fits this area of the layout quite well (yes, no skyscrapers or urban sprawl on this end of the layout!) and makes for a nice 'rural scene'.

Adding this station into this long neglected section of the layout has also 'forced' me to reckon with the lack of scenery, which I've also been getting a bit done during the busy summer days! More on that in a future post!

As always, thanks for reading!

Buildings from the UK

2011-07-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

One of my discoveries on my trip to Gaugemaster in the UK last Fall was the line of various buildings and accessories produced in that market. Despite the 1:148 scale of N Gauge in the UK, I can't find any discernible issues with using these buildings along with normal 1:160 (the reality is, the degree of accuracy of scale seems to vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, from model to model, and depending on the time period).

So here's a quick post of a few neat little buildings I picked up.

The Hornby Corner Terrace Pub. Can always use a pub, right?

Hornby Modern Petrol Station:

Graham Farish "Low Relief Factory"(behind the Petrol Station there!):

And this two-story office building from Graham Farish:

The interesting thing about these buildings (which all come in the 'finished state' you see above) is that they are made out of some ceramic type of material. I'd think it makes it impossible to kit bash these structures, but it does also give them a nice patina as well. I did find that you'll still need to put a coat of paint on the interior walls to stop light bleed-through if you care about that sort of thing.

Here's a view of how I used a couple of these (plus a scratchbuilt 'false front' 'Michelin' warehouse):

That's it for today! The slow hobby days of summer have struck, so little to talk about on the layout at the moment.

Hamburg Hobby Shops

2011-07-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

And so I finally arrive in Germany, home of Marklin, Trix, Kibri, and so many famous brands across the world in the hobby of model trains, and of course, I find model trains (and train stuff!) everywhere!

My visit to Hamburg was primarily to see Miniatur Wunderland, which was just as amazing as it looks. Of course, there was time allowed to visit some local shops which are so conveniently located right outside the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), shown in the above photo.

One comment on the train station...there's a book shop in the arcade of shops within the station. On the second floor of this book shop was a site that confirmed to me that Germany's love of its trains is not an illusion to us outsiders. In this normal, mass-market bookstore there were at least two very large walls filled with model train and real train magazines. It was quite amazing to see more train - related books in a general bookstore than you will likely see in any major hobby shop anywhere. The scale and enthusiasm for this hobby is just amazing there! To be fair, I was also somewhat impressed on how frequently I saw train and model train related magazines in other European countries, but the quantity and scale in Germany was just incredible!

Back to the hobby shops....The two hobby shops I visited are shown in the map below, and they are both within very easy (probably less than 10 minutes to get to the furthest) walk from the train station.

Modellbahn Kiste

Exiting the station towards the East, a short walk up Kirchenalle talks you to the first shop, Modell Bahn Kiste. A nice little shop with some N Scale, and some interesting used N Scale items on sale. They apparantely have another shop in Hamburg further to the north which I did not get too but seems to be the bigger of the two. The shop staff was very friendly, and spoke good English and is a great shop to visit!

H.P.A. Schellhaß
Another five minute walk up Kirchenalle (look for the 'lollipop' semaphore type signals both shops display) is H.P.A. Schellhaß Modell & Hobby. This store seemed to have a bit more N Scale stock, and I picked up a Minitrix ICE3 while there. Again, the gentleman who was running the shop was extremely friendly and spoke good English, which of course was great considering my limited knowledge of German (and confusion after just coming from France...you know, you just get the "Merci" thing down and then you need to switch to "Danke"!). Fortunately, Europeans seem to have a sixth sense of being able to determine whether or not you are an American before you even say a word!).

So after visiting these two shops, Miniatur Wunderland, and of course the 3 shops in Paris, you would think I would be done, right? No, after all, this is Germany, where your normal expectations about the relevance of this hobby get blown away. On the other side of the train station (exiting from the West), there's a considerable shopping area populated with larger department stores and the like. By chance, we stopped into Karstadt Sports, which seemed like a typical store for athletic or sporting accessories. And it was, except for the "Spielwaren" in the basement. Here I found a toy store in the lower floor with yet more model train accessories and items....literally a third hobby shop within easy walking distance of the station! Amazing! Can you imagine model trains being sold at this sort of store in the US? Not me! Again, more friendly staff were available to answer questions and exchange friendly discussion.

Each shop was a pleasant visit...the only disappointing thing is that with the Internet, its not as if you will find things that you could not otherwise easily get. But for me, these visits are not about finding something not available to me otherwise, but its about the experience....an opportunity to share a part of this hobby with people from across the world. It makes this hobby, a truly global hobby, that much more enjoyable for me.

Paris Hobby Shops - Part 2

2011-06-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

This year I was again fortunate to visit Paris, and visit some shops I had visited last year - and a new one! I posted about my visits to some of these shops in a post I wrote last year, located here.

The Rue De Douai Shops
If your traveling to Paris and are looking to stop in at a few hobby shops, you can't find a better destination than the shops along the Rue de Douai. With 4 train - focused hobby shops right on the same street (Les Cheminots plus the 3 related stores of Transmondia, Trans-Europ, and Deco-train), a model car store (Asphalte) and Au Pullman only a 5-10 minute walk away, its probably one of the best 'per capita' hobby shop visits you can make on your travels! If your doing the tourist thing, hop off L Open Tour bus at the Moulin Rouge and walk down one block to this great little street!

This year I got to have a nice visit with Stephan at Les Cheminots. Its really great to talk with about the hobby with the proprietors and fans in different countries! We had a great chat, and I picked up some great items.

He was also generous enough to let me take a few photos of just a bit of their N gauge stock!

Opherline

Across town (but surprisingly fast if you use the Metro) is Opherline. This shop may be across town, but its very easy to get to from the Metro (take Metro Line 6 to the Quai de le Gare stop) and the arrangement and selection is well worth the effort! Unfortunately, I didn't take as many photos, so this one exterior shot will have to do. They do have a lot of inventory all nicely displayed in large glass cases however!

Here's a shot of the Quai de le Gare station on the Metro line...an easy 5 mintue or less walk to the Opherline store.

If you have extra time to kill, the shop is right next to the entry tracks for Gare d'Austerlitz where you can watch as an always interesting line up of electrics move passenger trains in and out:

That was the hobby shop experience in Paris this year (for some other shops, again, check out this post from last year).

It quite surprising in a way....Paris is really quite nicely endowed with several good shops! Compared to New York City or London, there's a lot to choose from!

Adding a few people, cars and other things

2011-06-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

My relatives from Norway are in town, and my niece eagerly and happily took to the idea of adding all of my figures, animals and other details that have been sitting in boxes!

Since there is not much time to spend on the layout during Summer months for me this was a nice break to get out into the train room and see the joy that others can get from all this effort!

The truth is...she had much better ideas for what do with all my figures than I did! This little scene-of which I had no idea what to do - was all her idea! I think she did a fantastic job!

Travel Report

2011-06-11T06:08:00.000-07:00

I'm back after a 10 day trip through Europe! This was a real special trip as my son and I went to Paris to meet my parents there for a their first visit to Europe, and while there, we decided to make this a 'guy's trip' and try to do as many things we would never really have the chance to do if my whole family was with me (meaning train stuff that the girls might normally not tolerate too well!).

Here are a few photos of some of the things we saw on our trip....

Some of the best parts were the 'train-spotting' or 'rail-fanning' that we were able to enjoy together. This was a real high point for both my son and myself as most of these trains we've only ever seen in photos or catalogs!

We shot photos of trains leaving from Gare Saint-Lazare for a while and then went over to Gare du Lyon and checked out all the TGV's....

The below TGV - IRIS 320 - is obviously special in some way....great looking colors! I believe it is a test vehicle, perhaps one of my friends from France can clarify.

There's a smaller station just South of Gare de Lyon for the 'auto-trains', and there were several of these rather 'vintage-looking' electrics at Gare de Paris Bercy:

Several days later at Gare de L'Est, I was really excited to get a chance to see one of these beasts! Given that the working years of these locomotives may be in short supply, I knew I may never get a chance to see one of these 'in action again'!

After Paris, we took the TGV to Cite du Train in Mulhouse for a visit at train museum there. It was well worth the trip and the amazing amount of classic trains and the overall presentation was absolutely fantastic!

After Mulhouse, we took the train to Basel, where we were able to see more SBB FLIRTS than I had thought possilble, for our connection to Zurich

We only had a brief connection in Zurich before boarding the City NightLine train to Hamburg, where we arrived the following morning:

Hamburg was not only a destination for us to see the DB in action (my first visit to Germany), but it was also a chance to see Miniature Wonderland (sorry for the poor photo below, this is the best shot I have of the exterior!).

Of course, there are hundreds of more photos of all of these things, but I wanted to share a few of the highlights. And yes, I of course did spend too much money on 'souvenirs' at the various train shops I visited while on my travels (more on that to come in later posts), below being the main acquisitions:

More High Speed! New Old TGV Ready to Go!

2011-05-27T23:29:00.000-07:00

I picked up this older KATO TGV set a while ago and decided to have a pro install the decoders and upgrade the lights to DCC. Sometimes this is absolutely the only way to go! As you can see from the photos, it looks great (as always from Kato), but thanks to Alex at DCCTRAIN it runs better than it ever did. Here's a video from Alex of this TGV with the new decoders, LED's, and some good advice about decoders that I thought was interesting to share.

His point about how quiet it is spot on as well. I tested this in conventional mode before sending it and it was, as to be expected, a typical loud 1990's era motor. I don't understand the science of how back EMF makes it quieter, but it does work.

The strong angular lines are fantastic. I have to say, of all the great looking high speed trains out there, this older, classic design is probably my favorite. Even the somewhat garish orange color is awesome...it just says "notice me! I'm fast!" rather than the more mundane and sedate silvers and whites that seem to be the trend these days.

Here's a final shot, in front of the new little field I mentioned earlier. Have a great weekend!

Kato Broadcast Building Modifications

2011-05-25T20:56:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to mutilating one of those wonderful new modern buildings Kato came out with last year. The first victim of my three from this run from Kato was what they call the "Broadcast Building", item 23-436. Although apparently in Japan its referred to as the "Sumitomo Mitsui Bank", which I like better.

I wanted to customize the building, but didn't feel like doing a standard 'double up' just to make it taller. My impression of it is that its a decent looking modern building, but lacked windows.

Therefore, I decided to cut a big hole and add windows.

And here's the hole:

And here's the finished product....yes, apologies, I skipped some steps in the process. Here's what I did:

Disasembled
Painted - exterior with a new beige/tan color, and interior with a thick undercoat of black (to stop light leakage) and then a coat of light grey
Painted three different tones of greys to the 7 floors.
Added furniture and details to 5 of the 7 floors (using some of my Luetke Modelbahn furnishings and some homemade cubicles)
Added LED strips --- these are much easier to use than soldering/wiring individual LED's, although they came with a rubbery 'waterproof' cover that I couldn't remove. It was strange, but ultimately had no effect.
Added extra signs and LED's for the exterior advertising signs. Mostly using the method explained in this link.
Created a new ground floor -- the ground floors that come with Kato's buildings are terrific, unfortunately, their sidewalk doesn't integrate well with any other manufacturers sidewalk, so I had to sacrifice it.
Put it together!

So here are some photos of the interior details and the corporate plastic people forced to work into the late hours....

From the outside, you can pity the sad, alienated corporate stooges sitting in their depressing cubes.

And here's a view from a ways back set into its natural setting:

Now I need to find some more buildings to cut up and some more plastic people to force to work! Har!

Adding a Field (and other random stuff)

2011-05-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

People need to eat, so I planted a field of food stuff.

This is one of those very nice, but also somewhat expensive, sheets of material that are coming to the market from Faller, Heki, and the rest. This is the F-180471 field from Faller. Advertised as HO, but really, who's telling? Those HO guys just don't have the same healthy crops us N'ists do!

I planted this on the corner...actually, its the very first corner that you see of the layout when you enter the 'train room', so it has to be something that looks 'right' but also not something that takes too much attention. Here's a shot from the other side of the corner.

The nice thing about this field in this location on the corner is that its still a decent place to set down your controller, train box, or whatever else you happen to be holding but can't find a third hand to hold it.

I've also been playing around with an old Minitrix Class 47 I picked up off eBay a couple of years ago and which has been gathering dust for two years. I have some 'free-lancing' ideas for this, so I stripped the paint (which was also a test for some other things I want to try and do in the future). Note to my British friends: The original Minitrix BR blue paint was pretty rough looking and couldn't be saved. Please don't hate me.

The above is after the second coat of 'stripper' (I used Testor's ELO stripper, which seems to work nicely). The yellow paint was really difficult to remove, but after 4 coats of stripped, and rupping with an old tooth brush, I finally got it down to its pristine shell.

I also 'chipped' it as well. I used the directions from the folks at the Modellbahn Team Koln Bonn with some help from Google translate to ensure I was getting it 'right'. I actually think I've seen enough of these older non-DCC circuit board types that I can almost do a DCC install without instructions anymore. Now that's an achievement!

So back to painting...I fired up the airbrush and had some specific ideas for a paint scheme I wanted to try out. Here's the first coat with Tamiya 'sky':

And after a coat of "Euro Grey" and red, this is what I wound up with:

Yeah, I didn't like it either...so it was back to the ELO for another round of paint stripping. We'll see what happens next.

Speaking of digitalization...another locomotive that I've had forever was one of those little 0-6-0 tank engines (a BR 89) that come with those super-cheap starter sets. I was surprised to see a couple of tutorials on how to add a decoder to one of these, and I also really wanted to give it some lights. It seemed impossible given its small size, but I gave it a shot. Surprisingly it worked! I had to mill out some openings in the lights, and only the two bottom lights will be lit, but this was an excellent application of the tiny SMD's I got from LED Baron. The worst part of this has been trying to find a place for the bloody resistor! Man, those things are huge when you try to fit them inside these little locomotives!

That's all the updates for now. I've also been tinkering away on one of my Kato buildings, which I'll probably share later this week. Summer is coming, so blogging will slow down as outdoor activities become a reality once again. And thanks to everyone for all your kind comments on my video. Its great to get that kind of encouragement, and I hope to pass it along to you!

Layout Overview Video

2011-05-07T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well, its been well over a year since I've taken video of my layout. The reason is that I've been working on it with the whole 'version 4.0' expansion! With most of the work done (not all), I thought I'd put together a video of the layout and some of my trains!

Locomotive Roster: JR Series 285 "Sunrise Express"; Kato 10-387

2011-05-03T21:46:00.000-07:00

Good morning train lovers of the world! To break up the recent stream of French locomotives, here's a fantastic-looking train from Japan! The Kato Series 285 Sunrise Express! So grab some coffee, plant yourself in a seat, and hang on for an early morning, caffeine-fueled double-deck rush across the Japanese landscape!

One thing I like about this train is those crazy looking windows high up on the cab! Neat!

Allright onto serious stuff....

This was a relatively easy DCC install, and rather than show you the details here, I'll just refer you to this great post on the JNS Forum from Inobu who provides instructions on how to install the decoder on the nearly identical chassis/motor of the JR 500. I used the standard Digitrax DZ125 which not only seems to be working for me lately, they are quite cheap!

As with many (most?) Kato train sets, the motor car is usually one of the center cars, which means you'll also need to install function decoders in the cab cars to get the lights to work properly. I haven't done this yet, so rather than directionally controlled white/red lights...I have full time orange lights.

This is another exceptional model from Kato. I love the 'tinted windows' and the near flush appearance they have. I got excited about this model seeing a video of the prototype, and I have to say the model has all the drama and uniqueness of that video experience I originally saw!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so rather than me telling you how great it looks, here's some photos....

I'm tempted to make one modification...the original video (see below) clearly reveals that the bogies/trucks are not the pristine (and shiny!) light grey that Kato provides them with. They are a noticeably red/brown rusty color. And i actually think they make the model look a lot nice. I'm tempted to weather up the trucks/bogies to get this same look.

I'm also a bit on the fence about installing interior lighting....it always seems a bit disappointing with all the flickering and such, and the lighting always seems way too bright for the prototype.

Ironic huh? A guy that puts lights in all his buildings and runs trains from all sorts of countries is now worried about being 'prototypical'?

Video proof that even Japanese trains can use a little bit of weathering:

N Scale Nostalgia: Arnold Universal Structure Kit

2011-04-29T23:06:00.000-07:00

I was fortunate to get an un-built version of this old kit from Arnold. What I like so much about this kit is how ahead of its time it was (and is!)!

The above and below photos show the various pieces that come with the kit. Essentially the system revolves around the clear plastic boxes,and the various fascia you would glue to these 'boxes'.

The included instruction sheet provides some ideas of what a finished model could look like:

On the reverse side is a more detailed breakdown of various combinations.

The below scans from the 1968 (really!? That long ago!?) Arnold catalog and illustrates the different options of the 0679 Universal Building Kit. Note that the copy in the catalog acknowledges that it took nine (9!) kits to make the model shown on the page below!

While the below page from the same catalog isn't specifically about the 0679 Universal Kit, it does show the very 'modular' thinking at Arnold at the time. Some interesting models were clearly created from similar components as the 'Universal Kit'. Not sure of the architectural style that these would fit into....I think we all can definitely recognize the style as that proto-futuristic mod-style from the '50's and '60's (which I find quite interesting in retrospect!)

The bottom line? What a cool idea! Greenmax has certainly been the only modern attempt at something 'modular' that can be customized by each builder (I'm ignoring the transition era brick DPM modulars on purpose), which is too bad since I think modern/retro-modern architecture really lends itself to this modular component style. I for one would be happy to see the 'new' Arnold (under Hornby ownership) release these kits again!

Viaduct and Roadway Bridge

2011-04-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

I've been focusing my scenery efforts on specific areas of the layout. The purpose is to try out some new techniques in a smaller area so its not too overwhelming!

These photos show the work I've been doing on an area that extends from the edge of the city along the backdrop to a road bridge that crosses over two of the lines and then meanders off to other regions of the layout.

The photo above obviously shows the rough start, while below you see the beginnings of the stone viaduct that I began to create out of sintra:

The stone viaduct section of the bridge, now with its walls, connects to a more modern structure to cross over the 'main line' to get to the edge of the city (None of my cities / neighborhoods have names...something I'm realizing could be useful!):

"Sculpt-a-mold" is applied below, and the contours of the hill begin to take form:

After the plaster, the fun part! Adding the greenery! You will notice the viaduct now has a 'stone face'. I didn't save the packaging, but I believe this was Noch 57218 "HO Cobblestone Streets". The texture is actually pretty nice and looks pretty good. I also like the fact that the material is self-adhesive!

Lights are added to the bridge, signals were also added to the siding under the modern section of the bridge.

Locomotive Roster: G2000; Mehano 55546

2011-04-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a locomotive that has been one of the nicest surprises I've ever had in terms of train acquisitions! This is the G2000 Locomotive from Mehano...technically Mehano Prestige (as it says on the box).

The locomotive comes in a somewhat large variety of liveries...primarily all from modern private railway firms on the Continent. There's something about black that I like on a locomotive, so went for this MRCE version.

So many nice things about this locomotive....the details, the running qualities (quiet, smooth, etc...) excellent use of white SMD LED's for the lights. Overall this thing just oozes quality. From what I understand, that's quite a difference for Mehano, who has historically had a reputation of lower quality product. Not in this case!

Removing the shell to install the decoder was a bit trickier than most locomotives. The cab ends need to be removed first, and then the rest of the shell can be pulled out of the slots that hold the engine cover shell onto the chassis. This was a very anxiety producing experience! The fragile handrails along the sides are also in the way of you getting a good grip on the shell to press in on the bottom of the shell where the slots are. May be a good thing to remove the handrails (which also hold the detailed walkway pieces on) before attempting to remove.

Once removed, the NEM 651 socket is very obviously right on top. Fortunately, one of the standard plugs without a harness can be used (I was a bit concerned that there wouldn't be enough room and would require a work-around, but no such problem). I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the decoder was able to be read right after installation. After so many annoying Minitrix NEM 651 decoder issues (that is, the poor contact the Minitrix sockets have with most NEM 651 decoders - requiring careful modification of the decoder or soldering), its nice to see a design that really is plug and play!

Again, the detail on this model is just superb. The close up below shows the diamond plate pattern on the walkway and the excellent printing of all the lettering.

And of course, a 'drama' shot.....

Another close up of the cab/front:

Bottom line? Excellent job, and a decent price! Whatever demons Mehano may have once had with quality in the past, this model clearly illustrates a radical change for the better! Its so convinced me that I will now be looking specifically for other Mehano models in the future!

Faller 2293 Kitbash Complete!

2011-04-11T00:49:00.000-07:00

I've been planning this building for well over a year and started construction last August! Finally I can say its done! It started off as 4 old, used built models, and 4 new-in-box models:

I detailed my early dis-assembly and cutting of the original kits in my first post on this building last August, so we'll skip ahead now to where I am creating the new building structure with styrene strips. I've always really liked the looks of this building, but the shortness of the floors compared to my other buildings really bothered me, and was a reason I never intended to use any of the original structures on my layout. The styrene would replace the 'blue' building sections and those sections would be about twice the height of the original building. I used my handy 'chopper' tool from Northwest Short Line to get precise cuts of each piece of styrene. Wow, does this tool ever come in handy for these kind of projects!

The below photo shows the dramatic increase in the height of each floor when you compare the 'old and new' next to each other!

I had some difficulty trying to determine what the best colors would be for this building. Even if I wanted to maintain the white window frames, the old plastic had yellowed quite a bit, and plastic always looks better with a coat of paint! Below was both my 'jig' to hold two sections of windows together to create a the double-length windows. This was probably the hardest part...trying to glue the tips of the frames to another section proved somewhat frustrating, and did not always turn out well.

The cut and assembled styrene and the window frames were glued to sheets of clear acrylic, which would be my base for the model. The square was used to ensure that each layer was square while I was gluing these onto the acrylic.

With the face of the building complete, it was time to add one of the side walls. You can see the building starting to take some shape in the below photo.

Again using a square and as carefully as possible, I was able to attach the windows and building exterior to the new side wall. At this point I still wasn't' quite sure what to do for the ground floor, or the top, but I had several ideas....

Once all the windows were in place windows that would remain transparent were covered with tape, while the rest of the interior of the building would get at least one coat of black spray paint to stop any light leakage - except from the appropriate windows.

After the paint has dried and the tape is removed, you get something that looks a bit like this (on the inside surface)!

I had decided to do a kit-bash of the ground floor of the Tomix high-rise for the ground floor of this building. I like the columns and the recessed glass entrance. Using my razor saw (a new tool that is really quite awesome for these sort of things), I was able to get something that was about what I wanted.

The final version turned out quite well I think. A few signs or posters on the columns would add a nice bit of detail. The columns were painted blue...partly out of homage to the original blue and white Faller 2293 kit.

What always takes considerable amounts of time is the planning, preparation, and installation of interior details. As this building is planned to be in the foreground area (and therefore highly visible), the interiors needed some detail. About half of the interior floors were salvaged from an older building project.

The other half of the floors were detailed using primarily the 'office furniture' materials from Luetke Modelbahn. Difficult to make out in the small photo below, but if you click on it you will get a larger version.

A close up of one of the floors and the interior:

In total, I ended up with twenty stories....one of my larger buildings! The logos on the top of the building are from the original Faller kit. Again, in homage to the original, I wanted to try and capture some of the elements from the original kit in a subtle manner.

Overall building exterior color selection was the most agonizing part of this project. I wasn't inclined to paint the whole building 'blue and white' like the original, but I was also tempted to try and give the building a color scheme a little more different from my other buildings. Ultimately, I went conservative and used Model Masters "Camouflage Grey" for the main color, with dark bronze metallic spray paint for the window frames.

2011 Wish List

2011-04-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

My last post was really 'catching up' on a few 'wish list' items from the past year. This post is more focused on new releases. Its also a wish list assuming I had relatively unlimited funds! Hopefully a few of these are on your lists as well or, maybe better, this is a list which might even have some new item you weren't aware of!

ACME ETR 610

One of the pleasant surprises in the past several years (which I also mentioned in my last post) was the entrance into N Gauge of 'newcomers' to the scale...surely a really positive sign for the health of the scale! A.C.M.E. is another one of those. They have announced production of this somewhat unusual and intriguing looking trainset for both Swiss and Italian prototypes. Although this was apparantly announced for 2010, so perhaps it belongs on my last list.... Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Kato/Lemke/Hobbytrain BR 193 Vectron Electric Locomotive

This is a tough looking electric from the folks at Siemens! I like the looks-and I like Lemke/Hobbytrain's typical quality/price! Not so sure I'm that thrilled about any of the three paint schemes its coming out it currently. I may wait until a real paint scheme is produced.

Mabar SNCF A1A A1A 468010

Mabar is another smaller producer filling niche's ignored by the big companies. The 'blue version' of this locomotive was recently released and looks stunning! So why do I want a certainly more conventional green 'Fret' version? A photo I recently saw of the model in this scheme looked just as stunning....and its a paint scheme I don't have yet!

Piko SNCF BB 525630 Ile de France

Yet another locomotive from Piko in SNCF colors! Thanks Piko! Finally it looks like a locomotive in the livery of Ile de France (now all I need are some of those double-deck coaches to go behind it (VB2N?)!).

Rocky Rail SNCF "Prima" Electric Locomotive

Rocky Rail has apparently worked out a deal to have Mehano produce this modern French locomotive (something I believe I read somewhere but can't find the source for...sorry!. That is convenient for me because I like the sleek yet strong looking lines on this engine! There are similar diesel versions of this locomotive - apparently over 1700 have been produced and are used worldside. The locomotive is made by Alstom, EMD, and Vossloh. American modelers will note that this locomotive is in the same family as New Jersey Transit's PL42AC diesels.

MicroAce Kiha261 "Super Tokachi"

I have to say, I kind of have a liking for colorful, modern DMU's, and Japan has quite a few of them. I also kind of like the whole 'cab over' ends that are quite popular in Japan (and are the distinctive look of the NS Koplopers).
Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Kato/Lemke M6 Duwag Tram

Even more trams from Kato! As I've still to get the older versions of the Duwag tram I mentioned in my last post, I shouldn't be including these much more modern version, but what can I say? There's something really appealing about trams. The fact that these are relatively modern, but not too modern, means they could easily fit in any 1970's to present urban landscape....

Fleischmann Rh 242 Electric Locomotive from Sweden

This class of electric locomotives seem to be everywhere these days, but Swedish locomotives in N Scale? Not so much! This one is going to be tough on the wallet...so unless I'm really lucky this year, or Santa is feeling really generous, its hard to see my shelling out this much for a locomotive right now (yeah, and the USD to Euro exchange rate is not helping a whole lot!). However, it does come equipped with DCC and SOUND! Some of the newer private roads in Europe have liveries that are, well, let's just say it makes the old state-sponsored paint schemes look attractive! This paint scheme is interesting. Very bold and strong in my view, even more so with the lines of the engine. I'm liking it!

Minitrix Class 150 Z
This is a 'wait and see' since I have to 'wait and see' what the model ultimately will look like. From photos of real prototypes, and HO models (ugh!), there are some great looking steam engines from the SNCF (and some great ones in brass as well, but those are well outside of my price range!). Minitrix also has some nice goods wagons/freight cars in its catalog this year, beyond that, I don't see a lot from them this year.

There is also some rumor that Star Train may release a large French locomotive of the 141 R, but I couldn't find any information other than a mention on a forum.

Trucks and Cars from Herpa

A bit more realistically (from a budget perspective) are some of the new truck releases from Herpa.

Not just trucks, but these little coupe's look pretty spiffy as well:

Photos courtesy Herpa.

If your looking for things in more of an agricultural line, the company Mo-Miniatur Modelbahn makes a nice assortment of farming tractors and the like. Of course, if you've seen my layout well, you'll understand why they wouldn't quite fit on Quinntopia!

Cars and Trucks from Minis
Some really nice looking VW's from Minis (via Lemke)

Always something interesting to add to the layout...I sort of like this truck with trailer for some reason.

Photos courtesy of Lemkecollection.

TomyTec Car Collection Vol 14
Can you ever have enough cars? Well, maybe. Its hard for me to pass up on TomyTec's cars. In terms of price and quality they are hands down the best in N scale (well, the 1:150 kind anyway, which is hard sometimes to tell the difference with anyway).

I think that's about it. I expect there were quite a few things that I missed that I'll kick myself for not adding to this list. I'm in 'wait and see' mode for the new yellow and gray Star Train Class 1300, and I can't afford the current versions of the SNCF BB 12003, and I'm tempted to get an older model of the FS E.424 (Italian railways) but there is only so much time...and money of course. But its fun to look, right? I hope you enjoyed taking a look at a few of the things on my wish list this year. Next post...back to layout updates!

2010 Wish List

2011-03-28T00:20:00.000-07:00

I thought it might be fun to write out a 'wish list' of those items announced for 2011. However, before I did that, I thought I would write out my 2010 list first since I realized that before some of the 2011 items are released some of these 2010 items are still in production (or I'm procrastinating and/or running out of money!). I like the idea of creating a list as it'll be interesting to look back on this list a year from now to see how much of this I actually got- and what I chose to purchase instead.

At some point in the future, I'll talk about my 2011 release hopes, but for now, here are the '2010' items I'm waiting on or that occupy my wish list!

Flirt RRX Eurobahn from Modellbahn Union (via Lilliput)

A surprise announcement from Lilliput (a Bachmann brand) which typically only produces HO and HOe models, is this really great looking EMU. The version I have on pre-order is the RRX Eurobahn version (shown in the photo above, courtesy Modelbahn Union). Initial reviews of the already released Duetsche Bahn version have been very positive.

X73902 in Alsace Scheme from Arnold

A neat-looking modern railcar from France. I like the interesting color scheme that is used in Alsace, although there are other version in equally interesting liveries. Not yet released, although various sources seem to indicate it should be here by this summer. We'll see. Arnold (now reborn after the requisite bankruptcy maneuverings under the Hornby brand!) had a lot of interesting releases in its catalog last year, although I have to say I wasn't as impressed with the 2011 announcements).

Series E259 Narita Express from Kato

The new look of the Narita Express is pretty cool, and the translation into N Scale looks just as cool. I expect more of the usual great quality from Kato which, naturally, is at a price point putting most European models to shame. Photo courtesy of Kato.

Duwag Tram from Kato

More Kato making this list is a good thing! I like just about any one of these neat little trams. In fact, that may be my problem...choosing. The fact that its Kato - which means good quality at a reasonable price - also helps!

BB 26000 from Piko

Piko, a brand known in the US mainly for its line of G Gauge trains and accessories has also recently stormed into the N Gauge scene with a surprising diversity of French models. Hah! Caught you napping Minitrix/Fleischmann! These orange-painted electrics seem quite numerous around France, and I've found photos of these faded machines hauling freight and passenger trains to be quite appealing.

BB 66000 from Piko

As I mentioned above, Piko has been busy producing French locomotives! The color scheme on this locomotive is somewhat reminiscent to me of the Great Northern Railway's "Big Sky Blue" scheme, which is another reason I really like it. I don't necessarily find 'hood units' the most interesting, but this is a good looking model of what appears to be a staple of the SNCF diesel fleet (and it will look good next to my CC 72000 can BB 67000 I'm sure!).

I think that about wraps up the 2010 items....at least for locomotives. There's a list of freight wagons and passenger cars that I also have my eyes on, in addition to details and automobiles, but there is only so much time and, importantly, money (!!!) so we can't have it all! In fact, that is not really the point, but it can be fun sometimes to dream!

One other observation....I noted above a couple of items from Piko (their first N scale locomotives in, what? 20 years or more?) and from Lilliput, which are - by any measure - positive signs that new manufacturers are stepping into the market! Add to that some of the potential new releases from A.C.M.E., Mabar, Rocky Rail (Mehano) and Star Train and you would have to be somewhat optimistic for N scale in 2011. Its a good time for N Scale!

Locomotive Roster: SNCF CC 72000; Minitrix 11125

2011-03-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

Of all the diesels in all the world, this big, six-axle monster from France has to be my hands down favorite. Not as well known as its similar looking electric cousins with the famous 'broken nose' of the SNCF, I first came across this class in the 2001 Minitrix catalog...unfortunately this was well after this model had been produced and would only be available on the second-hand market. Nevertheless, its extremely distinctive styling (especially for a diesel) and dramatic paint scheme impressed me and I hoped that one day I would have a chance to get my hands on one.

Fortunately, Minitrix re-released this locomotive as part of a digital set in 2006, and I was able to get an 'open box' version from this run. On the down side, Minitrix is using the same mold for this model from the 1980's (based on what I've learned online- so it must be true!), so some of the casting and details are not up to the higher standards of today. On the other hand, especially considering how old this mold is, there's nothing too embarrassing about it (like some of the models from the 1970's would be) and it actually stands up pretty well (if you don't get too close).

The CC 72000 is a cool locomotive. They were produced between 1967 and 1974 by Alsthom. They seem to be still running today, although it seems clear that they are entering the end of their service life (remarkable to me that they are still in service....If I picked a US counterpart...say an Alco Century 636...most of those were retired back in the 1980's! Okay...you could say Alco isn't a fair choice, but this wasn't really a mass-produced locomotive along the lines of the thousands of SD-40's made by EMD in those days. So I think is pretty amazing they're still running at all!). I also note that they produce about 3400 horse-power, which is certainly respectable from a diesel of this era!

But what I really love is its looks! How does the model hold up?

Well what is most obviously wrong to me is the size of the headlights...which seems like a typical over-sized element on many N Scale locomotives (although newer production is getting better). Even more 'wrong' - especially to those of use spoiled by today's LED's- is the really archaic method it uses to light the two front lights. An incandescent bulb rests horizontally parallel to the front of the locomotive...which means that you get more light from one of the headlamps than the other. Kind of makes the engine look like it has a 'sleepy eye'.

Minitrix has really invested in digital, and nice to see that they retrofitted this model with a new board to allow for a decoder (as mentioned above, this locomotive had the decoder pre-installed). Operational it isn't as smooth as newer, high efficiency motors-nor as quiet. However, its not bad either...certainly not as noisy as some of the 'coffee grinders' that I own!

Cosmetically, the hand rail under the nose also looks too thick and too shiny compared to the prototype. Its a relatively minor flaw, but is somewhat distracting. At some future point a bit of weathering will solve this I think. The third lamp (top) does not light up. Not sure if this reflects the reality of the prototype, or the reality of Minitrix production and cost-efficiencies!

Don't get me wrong....this is one of my favorites, and I would gladly get another one (In fact, I already have...the newly released version in the "En Voyage" scheme is now in my possession!)! It seems strong too...it certainly seems to be able to pull a lot of cars which complements the solid feel this model has!

With a line of grain or passenger cars behind it, this locomotive really looks good making the rounds of the layout. Tough, yet sophisticated - with a hint of classic 1970's design in its striking paint scheme- one of my favorites!

Backdrop Part 2

2011-03-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

After some good feedback-which confirmed some of my own concerns-I did some 'editing' on the backdrop today (and other stuff, but no pictures of that for now!). I had too many mountains so I leveled out one half of the backdrop, airbrushed a bit more Tamiya "Sky Grey" and some other grey tones to add more of a misty blend to the hilltops and mountains in the distance. Again the photo looks a bit more 'blue' than it does in real life, but it has the atmospheric, misty look I was going for!

The black plastic on the layout is to protect track and stuff from overspray.

Backdrop...and New Additions

2011-03-12T20:10:00.000-08:00

I completed my 'stormy sky' backdrop last month and today I decided to add in the mountain landscape. This was a nice break from ballasting and wiring!

Painting backdrops is somewhat counter-intuitive as objects further away are 'lighter' than the landscape closer to you...

I go back and forth on how well I've done on this...sometimes it looks a bit too....turquoise? And than sometimes it looks perfect. I'm not sure (sitting here looking at the photos also makes me think the color is not quite what is actually on the wall either). I may airbrush a bit more Tamiya 'cloud gray' over the landscape further in the background to get more of 'misty' look and have it so that the mountain range furthest away is almost impossible to differentiate from the sky. More to come.

On some other fun news....I've been looking to find a Nederlandse Spoorswegen Koploper for a long time. As it would turn out, I was able to find not only one, but another version in the same week! I found two great gentlemen on the Dutch Marketplaats site (forget eBay if your looking for model trains from the Netherlands...clearly all the Dutch use Marketplaats instead...which is hard for us non-Dutch speakers as the process is different than the universal eBay experience!) who were willing to package and ship to the USA! So not only did I get a traditional Koploper in the NS colors (and its the recent version with the NEM 651 interface), I was also able to get an even more rare (at least to me) version in the KLM colors!

I installed the decoders in the two Koplopers today, in addition to finally getting my Graham Farish Class 150 Central Lines DMU working (more on that later) and digitized, which you can see in the below photo to the left. Of course, the two EMU's in the center are the Koplopers.

Yes, with trains on the layout...trying to take a break from switch-wiring, ballasting, and some of the more challenging tasks associated with layout building, and taking a little time to enjoy the trains!

Whoops! Another Quinntopia Mistake!

2011-03-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Hopefully my mistakes can help others avoid repeating the same thing! The photo above shows some straight track sections between the leads/turnouts for the freight yard and the passenger terminal / locomotive facility. These straight track sections are new, as they replace a couple of switches that I previously had installed between the curves. Knowledgeable track-planners and layout builders will have spotted my error where the previously installed turnouts were located in the image of my original track plan below....

The problem with the above alignment has to do with physics or something. It doesn't matter though, what does matter is that the placement of the left hand turnout was a derailment magnet for many locomotives that should have been going straight through. Diverging was better, but a switch needs to be reliable in both directions. Fortunately, this switch was redundant and unnecessary so I could remove it. It did require that I re-ballast and repair the area (also means I have to patch my brand new control panel already!). Ahhh....such are the joys of layout building. I remembered reading about this type of placement after a curve following the 10th derailment (and checking the alignment of the points, etc...), even though it was mainly my Class 03 and Class 44 that were derailing, my Tee and Class 66 also had problems.

Speaking of the passenger terminal...here's a shot of the stub end itself with a few members of the fleet lined up....

The 'platform' in the above folder is just a sintra template until I can build - or buy - real 'platforms. I'm thinking of building most of them myself, although I expect I may buy some butterfly platform covers. This is fun stuff!

The locomotive facility is basically a two track stub...haven't decided if I'll add a 'shed' yet...that can wait. For now its just nice to have a place to park locomotives 'out of the way'! The area behind these two locomotives is plain....lots of scenery still needs to be done of course!

And finally- after over a year- cars have returned to the streets of Quinntopia! People haven't made it yet...I'm still concerned that I need one more final vacuum with the shop-vac before I start applying people! Although I had the streets lettered and decal-ed since the Holidays, I needed to add some 'weathering' to the streets to give them a more realistic look. It turned out okay, but its good enough for now....sometimes its nice to stop a project at a certain point and move on to something else....I can always do more street weathering at a later time.

Just a quick update today! Happy Training!

Locomotive Roster: SNCF CC 7100; Star Train 60129

2011-03-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

The Alsthom CC 7100 was the worlds high speed record holder for just about 50 years. Yes, this somewhat unassuming (what we would almost call a 'boxcab' in the US lexicon) set and held the world high speed record for a locomotive for 50 years. Yes, its true...I read it on the internet.

This model is from a 'new' name in the N Scale business...Star Train. Well, in truth, they only seem new because many of us are not in Espana modelling tren miniatura, in which case you would know that Star Train is the model train division of the Spanish toy company Soldat. At least that's what I can determine...its really something of a mystery. As I peruse the internet trying to track down who this company is, everyone from Roco and Mehano, to Hobbytrain seem to be involved (or rumored to have been involved) in the production of this locomotive. In fact, I was surprised at how big model railroading-even N Scale- is in Spain.

This is an SNCF locomotive of course. The model is really well done, and its the somewhat surprising yet consistently good quality of these smaller producers that amazes me (by 'smaller producers', I'm thinking of Piko's N Scale offerings compared to traditional giants Minitrix, Kato/Lemke and Fleischmann). Colors, detail, printing and all the castings look correct (to me, I've never seen the prototype, but what I see looks convincing),

The paint is actually really well done....it may be hard to pick out in the photos, but between the silver trim work that extends the length of the locomotive, there is a neatly applied strip of blue (like the prototype). Again, really nice work by Star Train on this model. It also features reversing white/red LED lights, although this is one area where I think the model falls a bit short...the LED's are the older 'blue-ish' type and are fairly dim. They are on in the above and below photos, so you can get an idea of just how 'dim' they are.

My model came pre-installed with a decoder from CT Elektronik, so I haven't had to yet open it up and look at the guts (this is a feature in my book!). The locomotive runs really nice and leaves little to be desired. I like it so much that I am tempted to get the similar Dutch versions of these locomotives, but there are budget limits and with so many other interesting trains available these days, I may have to limit myself to just this one.

In with Mulitmaus, out with the Mobile Station

2011-02-27T18:30:00.000-08:00

A nice package arrived - in fact a somewhat delayed Christmas gift - in the form of this Roco multiZENTRALEPRO system! My new DCC system is here! The main attraction for me to this system is the wireless hand-held (not infrared, with which I had an unfortunate experience years ago). It was also a consistently highly regard from other users of the original Multimaus (which is important) as well as including a lot of other features that would allow me to grow beyond my original Trix Mobile Station set up.

These sort of decisions are not easy....the cost of the system is a huge factor, in addition to the 'opportunity cost' of not choosing another systems that - in many ways - have other advantages (for example, I looked at Digitrax, which would be a lot easier in terms of support here in the US given its wide adoption, and also considered the command stations from EsU and Viessmann, as well as the new Mobile Station from Trix, among others). Well, I've made my choice!

The Multimuas Pro (seemingly identical to the traditional Multimaus except its wireless...and blue) is packed with the multiZentrale (the actual command box), a disc with the Rocomotion software (which seems to be a port of the Railroad & Co. software, which I didn't know) a couple of cables, and a manual.

The multiZentrale (err...command box) seems small based on all the functions we've come to expect from these little boxes, but I suppose that's the way things work in the digital world. This Roco system is also compatible (as far as I know, I'm still learning so I'll find out) with Lenz's X-Bus system, which seems to offer a lot of interesting expansion opportunities. I also like the fact that it has a dedicated 'output' for a separate programming track which will come in handy. Programming with the Mobile Station was an exercise in futility (I've been using a Sprog II for programming duties to avoid the MS)

Unfortunately both the main and the programming output jacks require some sort of proprietary jack, and only one cable is provided for output to track, so I'll need to go and buy another cable that will work if I'm take advantage of the convenience of the programming track output. Strangely, the cable Roco provided is very specifically designed for the HO gauge track, which seems sort of narrow-minded on their part. Easy to fix with a snip and a little soldering. It also comes with a USB cable. If your like me, you probably have a billion of these already from all the other computer junk we've all been buying the past several years!

Of course, the real star of the show for me is the controller. This is a huge shift from my Mobile Station, and is a radical departure from almost every other DCC controller/throttle out there. Yes, you could say its toy-like, but I actually like the color. So far, it seems to be the most ergonomic controller I've ever seen...can you say one-handed operation?

A new controller also means getting used to the menu structure and navigating my way through the various options. So far, it has felt quite comfortable. There was a moment of tension as I finally got to the point with everything connected and my first locomotive entered to see if it all works...and I let out a huge sigh of relief when it did work! So far, no signal issues and really exciting, almost liberating, feeling as I can now walk completely around my entire layout without having to leave my controller on the other side of the room (or plug my controller in once I get to the other side of the layout). One of my debates about this investment was some question about how much I really needed a wireless controller for such a small layout....well, I have to say, I'm glad I made the jump because this wireless operation is pretty awesome!

This system also features turnout control and route control options (and with the Rocomotion/Railroad & Co software, PC operation!), which were interesting to me for potential in the future, but I just couldn't 'get' the idea of having to switch back and forth between 'engine' and 'turnout' modes. That opinion has changed given my brief experience with this unit and I can totally imaging converting my turnouts so that they can be controlled with this unit.

While I wish that the display offered a bit room for more than 5 characters for loco identification, I suppose that will be something I can live with. I do like the fact that they are very large and visible characters! The dial, with its 'center stop' and forward / reverse controlled by turning the dial either left or right is something I'll have to get used to. The other strange thing is the power requirements (18-24VDC; 16-18VAC)...seems a bit high for N Scale, but since I'm also able to use my Trix transformer to power this system (it does not come with a power transformer), I'm not as concerned as I should be since this is the amount of voltage that I've been using for several years (still seems high....glad I put in a bunch of extra circuit breakers!).

So, despite a somewhat hefty price, I have to say I feel pretty happy with my investment. I've only spent about 90 minutes or so running trains (mostly discovering that all my ballasting and rail-painting has still left a lot of residual gunk on my rails, so more cleaning is clearly needed) but it was a very fun 90 minutes. More on this in the future!

Learning to Love Ballasting

2011-02-22T21:21:00.000-08:00

Yeah, not really. I thought I would enjoy ballasting but the anxiety with what it might do to my precious turnouts sort of ruins the whole experience for me.

The good news about 'being at the ballasting stage' is that I'm not at the stage shown in the photos above or below! Nope! The layout is wired and we're down to the scenery portion of our hobby.

I also learned an important thing about ballasting that I know I've read a dozen times, but somehow interpreted and applied incorrectly. We've all heard that you need to 'wet' your ballast with some mixture of water and dish soap...this is to help the glue actually flow into and around the ballast instead of 'balling' up on the surface. For whatever dumb reason, I always interpreted this as combining the water, soap, and glue in one mixture, but its actually two separate applications! Duh! I have to say, the wet water applied to the ballast before dropping the diluted glue onto it makes a huge difference. I really need to pay better attention.

And its taken a while...the above photos were taken SIX MONTHS ago! Wow. I wonder if this extension was a great idea...the money, time, and now additional track and switches to maintain...I seriously do hope I made the right choice to expand this much. There is a part of me that is saying 'should have kept it simple!'!

What I will have - when its finished - is a decent sized passenger terminal so I have a place to park my Thalys and other passenger trains. On the other side of the terminal, near the turnouts, is a small two track engine servicing area so I have a place to park locomotives no longer in use. You can pretty much picture the Baden-Baden passenger station that will go in the foreground at the stub ends of these tracks. Of course, more urban environments and streets in from of the station as well.

Backing up a bit, you can see most of the layout, and the portion of the layout I've traditionally used for photos...downtown is just out of the photo on the left, and the freight yard can be seen on the left as well, before it curves around my "U" to the passenger terminal.

Most of my switches seemed to have survived the ballasting process mostly undamaged....save the occassional random ballast getting stuck in a nook or cranny where it shouldn't be. I've got one Unitrack switch that may need to be replaced, but was able to repair a Minitrix polarized frog turnout where the power for the frog wouldn't switch and would cause a short when either the points touched the rail, or a car went across it. I'm kind of happy that I was able to fix that!

So the layout progress rolls on....I'm actually looking forward to the next stage...scenery is one of the enjoyable parts, and I even built my own 'static grass' applicator from an electric fly swatter to do some fancy flocking work. Woohoo!

Locomotive Roster: ACTS Class 66; Kato 10820

2011-02-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

Time to take another look at one of the trains in my collection...the Kato ACTS Class 66! I'd never seen one of these before I noticed this available at the usual N scale on-line retailers....what struck me was the color scheme on this particular model...bright green and gray? Very modern and very interesting in my opinion! I also like the Dutch slogan on the side of the locomotive ("vervoer dat spoort" which Google Translate interprets as "transport line" which sounds somewhat under-whelming).

When the locomotive arrived, I thought I had made a terrible mistake...this engine is under-sized! What did Kato do?!!! Well....nothing. As I've since discovered, the prototype is noticeably and significantly shorter than a 'standard locomotive'. According to Wikipedia, it measures 3.9m / in height, compared to an SD-40-2 which measures about 4.8m/ 13'7" or a more plausible comparison to a NS 1600 class or BB 15000 which measures 4.3m / 14'. It still looks quite strange behind some rolling stock, and definitely looks a bit weird next to other locomotives.

Another interesting thing....this is a Japanese made model of a Dutch prototype based on an English version of an American-designed, Canadian manufactured locomotive. In other words, this is a locomotive created by EMD (or whatever they are called now) for the UK, and now proving quite popular all across continental Europe!

Conversion to DCC was as easy as it gets. A very straight forward removal of the shell reveals the hefty metal chassis and the NEM 651 socket (NOTE: Please read the comments if you are looking for additional information on the decoder install for this locomotive...as with many things in this hobby, not everyone has the same experience! Some others have shared their problems which are good to note!).

After removing the 'dummy plug' that sits in the NEM 651 socket, the appropriate decoder (I used a Digitrax DZ125IN, which is small enough not to be an issue) is then easily inserted and VOILÀ! Your digital! No problems or hassles at all with this install, and took all of less than 2 minutes! It would be nice if Minitrix's NEM 651 plugs were so easy to use! I think it would also be nice if Kato (clearly having some knowledge of the NEM 651 standard) were to start adopting it for its US models which (as far as I know from observing) often require a full board replacement and are specific to various models. Let's not even talk about Kato's Japanese offerings....

One area where the locomotive does not live up to some of the standards that have been set by other European manufacturers is that the printing on some of the small letters and numbers is not quite as crisp compared to what you would find on a Minitrix or Fleischmann model today (and others). Nothing that can be noticed with the naked eye in normal operation, etc... but it is a somewhat more apparent in some of the photo close-ups. I'll be the first to admit that this is rather on the picky side of things.....

In terms of operation, however, Kato seldom leaves anything left to be desired and that is true with this locomotive! It is very smooth running and seemingly will have a lot of pulling power (have not really put it to the test on my 3% grades....yet).

The lights are provided by LED's, which are an appealing white color - and not the irritating 'blue white'-but a nice solid white color (not "sunny white" either however). There are no red lights for the reverse direction. I don't know how I feel about that myself, but I thought I would mention it.

In sum, there's never any buyer's remorse with these Kato engines....a great price for solid value! I only wish that Kato would produce more locomotives rather than continue to produce so many that have already been well-covered by Fleischmann and Minitrix!

Train Show! UNW Model Railroad Club Show in Seattle*

2011-02-06T20:00:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I once again had the opportunity to attend one of the larger train shows here in my neighborhood. The United Northwest Model Railroad Club has an exhibition/swap meet show which seems to get bigger and bigger each yea. While the show itself gets bigger, I was pleasantly surprised to see an even bigger- in fact, dominant - exhibition of N Scale layouts.

I don't know if these means that N Scale is growing in popularity, or that the smaller size and convenience of the various N Scale module systems just makes it naturally a lot easier for layouts to be created and set up for events like these, but there must have been around 6 or 7 good size N scale layouts, to perhaps 2 or 3 each in HO and O.

N SCALE LAYOUTS:
I'll attempt to show a few pictures of the layouts that I came across in more or less the order in which I saw them. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take notes so I can't credit the various clubs or individuals that were behind such great works.

To start, love the beautiful track work on this layout. Truly humbling!

Something that's hard for me to do on my home layout is to use the zoom on N scale from a distance. A little blurrier than I would have liked, but I still really like this scene!

Another shot of the same area from a different angle:

A different layout, this time with a Pennsylvania GG1 racing towards us....

I got pretty excited with this layout....I was fortunate enough to see the "Little Joe's" in operation in their last year of service on the Milwaukee Road, so this really beautiful model in N Scale really caught my eye!

It wasn't just electrics on this layout...a nice roundhouse full of steam!

A really nice section where the main lines go through a valley / cross bridges....the below photo only gives a small impression of this marvelous work:

OTHER STUFF:
Of course, in addition to the N Scale Layouts, there was lots of other stuff.

This layout / diorama has been present each year. I don't know quite what to make of it, but it seems to be an O Scale diorama of an abandoned mining line with lots and lots of rusting material strewn all over. Its a fascinating diorama that always invites my attention!

Its always nice to see what the dealers have available....I have a soft spot for O Gauge/Standard Gauge Tin plate trains...

And there was plenty of dealers with modern American products in all scales....some N Scale shown below....

The food:

And of course, something for me! Found the below kits - which I was frankly surprised to find! - at prices well below what I would have paid on eBay! I've been looking for any of these old Arnold kits for a long time, so I was pleasantly surprised with this little souvenir (okay, "freaked out" is a better term)! The Vollmer bank and the modern Kibri station were an added bonus!

* Not really in Seattle, about 30 miles North and East in a town called Monroe.

N Scale Nostalgia: Trix 1972 Katalog - Updates

2011-02-06T10:15:00.000-08:00

I missed a few interesting items from the 1972 Trix Catalog in my last post....Martijn mentioned the NS1100 series set that he picked up back in those days in the comments on the original post, and here it is on Page 11:

Also, I was looking at the various modesl for the UK that, like the North American models from those old days, Minitrix no longer produces or markets. Here is page 19, with our representatives from the UK:

And you'll notice, of course, the old British Rail posters that Minitrix also featured in its catalog, which is shown at the top of this post.

Finally, as I think about 1972, and the history of N Scale, we should remember it is almost (or just) about 50 years old (history of N Scale from an American perspective here at "Bills Railroad Empire", a view on the early innovations of Arnold at the "Guide to Z Scale", and there are other sites that go into more depth on the Tri-ang, Arnold, and history ofother pioneers, but I can't find the links at the moment - if you have some good links, please leave them in the comments!)! Perhaps for some, the past 'quality' issues of this scale make it our history one of pain, rather than celebration. However, you look at it, it is interesting. For me (as mentioned below) and others, there are pieces of this scale going back to my childhold in the 1970's that perhaps turned to an influence on my now. Who knows?

Finally, I wish to thank Scaleenine blog for the inspiration for sharing some of the ideas and memories from these older catalogs and companies. I was really inspiried by his posting on Rivarrossi.

N Scale Nostalgia: Trix 1972 Katalog

2011-02-04T23:32:00.000-08:00

1972...what a year. Do you realize it was almost 40 years ago? So what would life have been like for our great ancestors who were alive at the time? What would they model? What tools and practices would they apply?

Surprisingly, they will probably be using the exact same darn stuff we have today. Especially if you buy from Minitrix!

The other thing you'll discover is that, well, it was a different time, indeed. Apparently it wasn't just the hip rock scene that was 'dropping out'....take a look at these wacky psychedelic graphics that permeated this 1972 catalog!

Can you say groovy? Was N scale really that cool back then or was it just Minitrix ("go pound sand you Roco nerds!"? Sadly, these are mysteries that none of us will ever know. And if you do claim that you 'know', please note that I have evidence of psychedelic graphics in your so-called 'train catalog', so your memories are...well, a bit suspect.

So taking a gander (as the kids used to say back then) at this catalog, we see something we see in catalogs today....icons that signify a specific feature or function. Guess what the below icon means? It means "New", it took me a minute despite the fact that I know "neu" means what it sounds like in English as well as German! But the font in the graphic? Its more like the security codes you need to enter to post a comment!

Anyway, getting into the actual content...on the first page you are introduced to this interesting scene....yes its a train being packed in with kids holding their Minitrix boxes! But I have to say, that conductor dude is one scary character....doesn't he look a bit like this guy? And check out the hat on that lady (!) ...is she their teacher? Mother? Some sort of supernatural witch that haunts the 'bahnsteig" to entice young children to trade their Minitrix sets for East German Piko sets? We will never know.

Your probably wondering, "Hey, man, we know all about that scene, what about the loco's, man? The LOCOS!?" Funny, because the trains are pretty much...exactly what we have today. Yep, 40 years on and the catalog is pretty much made up of the exact items we have in the shops right now. Well, they look really similar....

Hmm....

Okay, I'm being too cynical, and your probably right, I mean, Minitrix surely isn't using the same casting on its Nohabs that it was 40 years ago could it? I mean, they are owned by MARKLIN! Surely that means that all modern Minitrix trains are the second best trains (or anything) on the whole planet (MARKLIN! being first, of course)!

And yet, there are some hidden gems in this old catalog....for example, there you see at the bottom two electric locomotives that today are still highly sought after. They are both basically the same, except one is in the colors of SNCF (France) and the other in the colors of the NS (Norfolk Southern, who strangely enough operate a railroad in Holland!). How do I know they are sought after? Because they are darn hard to find...its like every modeler of both the NS (okay, the REAL NS...Nederlandse Spoorswegen, not that copy-cat branch line that runs on the East Coast of the US!) and SNCF are crawling eBay each and every day to outbid each other in their desperate attempts to get their hands on one of these little gems!

So what is the asking price for one of these NS 1100 items (Old Minitrix Catalog Number 51-2933-00)? The 1972 Prijslist (that's "Price List" for all you non-Dutch speakers) is for 67,50. I'm assuming that's in Dutch Guilders. And yes, the 'comma' (for my American / Canadian, and other frontier cultures) is intentional; they use a 'comma' where we use a decimal point....perhaps they appreciate the nice pause that a comma gives to a sentence and recognize that this is a useful feature to be had when quoting a number? I think its a great idea!

Back to my point....so I tried to determine what the 1972 exchange rate to USD would be for 67,50 Guilders, and I couldn't find anything. I was really curious to find out if the average eBay price for one of these (nice ones for $150, well used $75 or so?) would represent a good investment of those 67,50 Guilders 40 years ago. If anyone can figure that out, I think it would be interesting.

This tells me something else, if there's so much (apparent) demand for these old (and by today's standards, poorly detailed, painted, and antique mechanics, although not as bad as some from the same era as they still run well) why on earth wouldn't you re-release these models again? Yes, I know its expensive to do all the CAD, production, etc... for a new model (I don't know HOW expensive though), but given the investment in some really niche modern releases, I have to imagine that the big German companies are missing HUGE markets. But, what do I know?

Here's something from the catalog that basically defined the Minitrix brand in my mind since I was a child....that ubiquitous U30CG! Yeah, remember when every Class 1 railroad in the US had one of these? Seriously, I've always thought this was a very unusual choice for Minitrix to make for one of its few US models (if you didn't follow the link to Wikipedia, only about 10 were made, and only Sante Fe had them). On the other hand, I love it...its ugly enough to be cool in my opinion! And it also doesn't look like anything else in the US, so its got a real distinctiveness to it that I like.

Flipping forward a few pages....we get to see a couple of cool posters Trix had out at the time. I wonder how they look with a black light? In all seriousness, this was cool....giving away posters that are kind of hip? Why don't they do that today?

By page 34 we get to the REAL international flavor of ye olde' Minitrix of the 1970's! Two F-Units in the color schemes of the Canadian National and the Canadian Pacific! Unfortunately, while the catalog makers place a cute little flag next to every little non-German train throughout the catalog, for some reasons there is no Maple Leaf flag on these two trains sets? Perhaps it wasn't clear to the editors of this catalog exactly which country the CANADIAN National or CANADIAN Pacific were located in.

In addition to the self-promoting posters that Trix was providing, they have little pictures of apparently real railway posters throughout the catalog. In fact, I think these are pretty darn cool, and would not mind one bit having a few of these today. Here's a scan of a few of them from several of the pages in the catalog:

The Swiss were well represented in the above set, while below we see some from Scandinavia....

A few German posters....I really like the poster in the center.

That's it for trains...the remaining pages showcase the track and other accessories (again, the same exact things that are in their catalog today....40 years later! Can you think of any other company on the planet that can acutally do that! What a business!) until we arrive a whole new world.

At the end of the catalog, we leave the world of trains and enter the world of desperate toy-maker diversification schemes...okay, that's not nice, cause these actually look pretty neat. They basically seem to be very similar to the Erector sets that were popular in the US. Kind of neat, and an unusual item marketed by Trix that I wasn't aware of.

A more detailed view of this line of products.....

Okay, that ends this diversionary post that is a look back at the products of days long past. Well, not really, as a lot of this is still sold new. That amazes me. Anyway, hope you like this, I have a lot of fun looking at these old photos and I hope you enjoyed it too!

UPDATE: More related info this post here.