NRAIL thoughts and photos

A little mood music for the post. :)

Well, things are moving along. I have my lists and I keep making an effort to knock something out every day - even if it's for 15 minutes, I'm still getting some hobby time in!

Aside from the checkbook items I need to dial in like more cars and more "hero" people (I still plan on repaints of some of the cheaper people from China to fill in mid and background areas) I have a lot of little detailing projects I want to tackle. This like this farming area - people resting and the like. I also have a lot of weathering I want to do to various vehicles and structures. That's a great filler set of items.

There are some other projects that get added as I start looking around at my layout for photos opportunities. Little things jump out when I start getting in there with my iPhone camera. Things like the small station area in the back of my Shizuka city section.

"Hmmm...a parking area would fit nicely into that spot of bare plywood by the station" and "Hey...there are only people on one side of the station area and not the other" have come up recently. Now added to the list as well.

I ran across this great building shot on Instagram.  (616jun) I mentioned that I thought it would make a great scratchbuild building. I also like the little details the scene offers. It's now on my list!

As the Superbowl droned on in other homes, I sat down with a Sankei paper kit and built some items. A few vending machines and a small building.

I like the way some of the areas of my layout are shaping up! The little details and overall arrangement of items is working for me these days. Well, everything by my freight lines. That needs work. 

And yesterday I spent some more time building another Sankei kit. It was lovely - the whole family was sitting around the table working on projects on the rainy, California afternoon. :)

In place

 I purchased a fun Tomytec truck set from Hobby Search as well. A nice addition. They need weathering up a bit. 

Some photos to round out the post. :)

A different photo angle on the factory

Soyokaze Old Town

A different view of Soyokaze Harbor

Cheers!

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Bicycle Parking Scratchbuild

• I started this post months ago and nevr went back to it. heheheh So, I'm just publishing it. It'll just be a picture process post. :)
 
I've been planning this project for over a year. An underground bicycle parking area I saw on DANNY CHOO's video channel.





I didn't need it to be exactly the same.

A rattle can paint job later....

J.R. Series 500 Type Eva - video and layout work

Well, I got my birthday present! :) 

It's an eight car set, but I think I'm only going to run seven cars because...IT'S SO LONG!!!!

Sadly, I had to make a repair before doing anything. One of the wheels were off. Must have happened when they boxed it up. :(   Relatively easy fix.

Before I got it rolling without a derailment or a crash into the station, I had to do some work. There were three trouble spots on the layout.

Spot one was the area in front of the temple that I made a banked curve by clipping the Kato unitrack plastic on one side. It worked really well, but I believe that I banked the area a bit TOO much. The train runs through in one direction, but not the other.

Which brings to mind a Henry Youngman joke.

Man "Doctor, it hurts when I lift my arm up."
Doctor "So...don't lift your arm up then."

heh.

The second spot was another banked curve further along. Same situation. The train would derail every time.

This one seemed easier to address right away, so I got Soyokaze and Kiwamura's teams in action and started them working on tearing the banked track out.  :)

While they were working on that problem, I moved to the last area that needed to be addressed. Sadly, I found out the train would hit the station in Kiwamura when heading out or in around a curved area. BOOM! The whole thing derailed!  I just removed the station platform at that end and marked it for "augmentation" at a later date. I'm going to end up chopping it up a bit and adding a guardrail.

I'm very happy with the train overall. I actually need to give it a closer look - I realized that I tossed it onto the layout without REALLY looking it over. I'll have to take some detail photos.

I was really excited when this finally arrived. My wife watched as I opened the package and even asked if I wanted her to take video of me opening it because she knew how much it meant for me. :)

The packaging is really lovely. They knocked it out of the park, I believe. 

I'd love to hear from someone who has both the Kato and Tomix versions to see what they thought of them both. Which one is better, I wonder. Either way, I'm VERY happy with mine! :)

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[Limited Edition] J.R. Series 500-7000 Sanyo SHINKANSEN (500 Type Eva) (8-Car Set)

Well, I hope I didn't screw this up.

I had placed an order through HOBBY SEARCH months ago - six, I believe - to get this train. They finally sent me the link to the sale a few days ago, but I had to wait till payday and/or praying I got some birthday cash in the mail LOL before sending my PayPal payment.

Oops...the link lasted three days, not four. I had more items I wanted to get and did as Hobby Search said, making a comment to include the new stuff in with the train order. I just hope they didn't forfeit my train to another customer in that 24 hour period! I guess I'll find out sometime this weekend or on Monday.



I already waited six months, so I guess a few days won't hurt.   Grrrrr.....

Fingers crossed. It's so cool!