I should be building the topography under the soon-to-be Riverside Station scene’s Commuter Station, instead I’m still obsessing over the scenery where that scene meets the River Crossing scene, and specifically the exact design of the grade crossing I’m going to build there, someday.
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Tags: Scenery, Digitrax, Circuitron, Design, JMRI, Grade Crossing

DCC doesn’t need to be complicated. At the simplest, it’s a pair of bus wires from the command station running under the track, with feeders connecting the track to it at intervals. I can, however, make anything complicated. Probably more complicated than it needs to be. It’s a talent.

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Tags: Electrical, DCC, Digitrax, Lighting, BDL168, PM42, SE8C

Kato’s DE10 freight locomotive isn’t new; they came out a year ago. But they promptly sold out, and I hadn’t been able to get one until just recently. There are two versions, a “warm region” model and a “cold region” model that adds circular windshield wipers and a small snowplow. Both versions operate in the Tōkyō region.
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Tags: Kato, DE10, Freight, DCC, Digitrax, MoW

My model railroad is primarily a passenger railroad. That’s not because there is no freight in Japan, or even in Tōkyō, but freight is definitely second to passenger service in a nation where most of the population lives close to ports, and trains have to compete with both trucks and ships. As a result, freight in Japan largely means containerized cargo and bulk products such as petroleum, although boxcars and other general-freight cars are still in use. Freight trains in Japan tend to be relatively short, often just a dozen or two cars, or even just a few.
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Tags: Kato, Freight, DE10, EF210, EH200, M250, Container

It occurs to me that I’ve been writing about my layout for over six months, and haven’t really mentioned the central reason for it: to run Japanese trains in a setting that evokes their natural urban landscape. In particular, I’m focused on contemporary Japanese passenger trains operated by JR East in and around Tōkyō. That may seem rather narrowly specialized, but Japan has such a variety of passenger trains that it really isn’t.
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Tags: Kato, E231, Tram, Shinkansen, Limited Express

Well, I have a much greater sense of accomplishment this month than last. June not only saw the subway line completed (in the electrical sense) and operational, it also saw substantial progress on the River Crossing scene. This included finishing the foam shaping for the other side of the river and painting it, as well as building and painting a roof for the subway where it runs through that hillside. There are still retaining walls and roads to build, and some painting, but it looks pretty good “for now” (still with just painted foam for scenery), while I turn my attention to work on the Riverside Station scene.
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Tags: Riverside, River Crossing, Backdrops, Contest