I’d mentioned a few weeks ago the work I was planning to replace the old (and disintegrating) backdrop for the River Crossing scene with a new one. That’s completed, and the new backdrop in place (as seen above). The differences are subtle (aside from the fact that this one isn’t peeling off). The horizon is lower, as I cut out more of the foreground to give it more of a “seen from a distance” look. The colors are a bit more accurate (the green of the trees looks particularly good). Finally, the image resolution is higher, but you really can’t see that in these photos. It does make a difference in person, although perhaps not to the casual viewer. Below are the original presentation paper backdrops, from an early test before I glued them in place.


Old Backdrop (summer 2010)

Making the new backdrop was fairly straightforward. I reused the old backdrop board, a 2’ x 4’ sheet of tempered hardboard. One sheet of the old paper hadn’t fallen off, and left some traces behind when I removed it, and there was glue residue. So the first thing I did as sand the front. This proved harder than expected, as the hardboard had a faint ripple to it, and I was really only sanding the tops; also, it was very hard. I eventually used 100-count sandpaper and was able to remove most of the glue, and a little paint in places. Then I painted over the old blue paint with a new coat of primer, to give it a fresh surface. I left this to sit four a couple of weeks so the paint would fully cure.


Backdrop sanded (left) and primed (right)

Before painting I also attached more wood to the back of the backdrop, to make it more rigid (the edges had begun to curl away from the layoput). Once the glue had set for a few days, I also painted the back.


Reinforced back, before painting

While the paint was curing, I made my final decisions on the form of the print, and enlarged it (as described on the Enlarging Photos page). This new version was printed and left to dry for a couple of weeks also, to ensure the ink was fully dry before I attached it. I also painted the back of the board.

After the paint was dry, but while I was letting it set to cure, a marked the location of the landscape against it, and the position of the roadway. Then I experimented with the photo, to see where I wanted it to sit relative to the horizon.

In the photo below the photo is resting on the backdrop in its final position. You can faintly see the two vertical black lines on the backdrop board marking the location of the roadway on the layout, right below the large avenue. The black pen on the right is placed so that its top is where the scenery will be, so you can see that the sandy area and field to the right will be completely hidden in the final positioning. You can also see just how much of the left side will be cut off, but it also overhangs the right and top.

With the position chosen, I used the pen to draw a horizonal line across the backboard, where the lower edge of the photo would go. This plus the two vertical lines for the avenue edges would be my guide when gluing the image in place.


Backdrop placement test

And then I glued it down. This was the same as my earlier photo backdrops: I spread Paper Mod-Podge using a foam trim roller in a thin layer across the entire surface where the photo would go. After placing the photo against the horizon line and tugging it into place above the roadway marks, I used a 4” (10 cm) rubber roller (a “brayer” for ink-stamp use) to roll the paper flat into the glue, keeping this up across the entire surface until it stopped making “squishing” noises. With that, my work was done and I left it to sit for 24 hours while the glue dried.

After the glue had dried, using a box-cutter knife with a fresh razor blade, I trimmed the excess paper:


Backdrop, trimmed to fit

Another thing I’d done when reinforcing the backdrop board was to attach a metal guide along the top. This was partly to ensure the wood didn’t curve, but it also served as a mounting for shelf supports, so I could store lightweight layout materials along the back of the backdrop (I’m perpetually short of storage space for supplies).



I’m not convinced I’ll keep the shelf. The metal shelving is heavier than I’d like. I have an alternate plan for some lightweight shelves of 1/4” plywood if I decide this is too heavy. But the added storage space is very nice to have.

And that’s it for the backdrop. Now I have no more excuses for not working on the actual scenery of the River Crossing scene and its village. That’s the next project.

January 2012 Monthly Status

Well, that’s it in a nutshell: this month went to the backdrop. I’ve done some work planning the village area, and played around with the new grade crossing as described earlier. And I’m continuing to put time into finishing the comments system and updating the website with some of the older construction material. But it’s the backdrop that I’ve been obsessing over for the last several weeks. It feels very good to be able to count it done.

Tags: Backdrops, River Crossing, Construction, Scenery

While I still plan to build my own grade crossing eventually, Kato’s update of their automatic grade crossing (model 20-652) to be compatible with DCC gave me an excuse to put that off some more (see Kato’s Japanese page for some pictures and a video of it in operation). Or at least, that was the plan. What I forgot in my enthusiasm is that I’d put my layout’s one grade crossing on a curve, so Kato’s straight crossing can’t be used. I can move it closer to Riverside’s commuter station, and I think I will. But I may end up using it somewhere else (perhaps on the “subway” tracks where they run at ground level under the Urban Station). I need to think on this some more, but I’ll outline my current plan after describing the crossing itself.
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Tags: Kato, Unitrack, Scenery, Grade Crossing, Design

The “village” is what I call the collection of buildings tucked inside the four-track curve of the River Crossing scene. Today this is just a set of pre-made buildings, mainly from Kato and Tomix, placed roughly on gray-painted foam. The bridge across the river for the “commercial avenue” is likewise temporary, just a slab of gray foam-core with lane markings painted on it.

Once I realized that the road behind the elevated station in the Urban Station scene was largely out-of-sight, the village became the place that I wanted to carefully detail in its entirety. Detailing the buildings of the urban scene themselves is still important, particularly the upper floors of those buildings that will be front and center part of the scene. But the village is going to be where my ability to craft a convincing scene will be most on display. So, no pressure, eh?
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Tags: Design, River Crossing, Kato, Tomix, Administrivia

I’ve written about my backdrops several times before (see the Backdrops tag at left for a complete list). But as I’m now re-doing the final “1.0” backdrop using my “2.0” approach first applied to other scenes a year ago, and there has been time to let the lessons I learned sink in, it seemed worth an update and recap.
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Tags: Backdrops

My latest Kato model is another subway train, the Tōkyō Metro 10000. I already have a model of this train made by Greenmax, which I have mentioned briefly a few times (it featured in the “first run” video of the subway, see my Subway First Run musing for more on that). It’s not a bad model, but it lacks an interior and requires wire-in decoders for conversion to DCC. And while I’ll eventually get around to that, it’s not high on my priority list. So trains that are easier to convert to DCC, and that means Kato, are at the top of my list for actual operations once I finish up installing all the DCC electronics for the Commuter and Subway loops.

For the above-ground Commuter loop, I have lots of Kato’s commuter EMUs, but trains for the underground Subway loop are another matter. As mentioned back in October I’d hoped to have the Kato Ginza Series 01 be one of those, but it ended up not supporting the EM13 motor decoder (probably due to the narrower width of the cars).

The Kato 10000 had been on my must-buy list anyway, but with fingers crossed that this one would be “DCC Friendly”, I eagerly awaited its arrival. Kato hadn’t actually said it would be DCC Friendly (meaning compatible with their Digitrax-made proprietary decoders) although they rarely do, and there was a cryptic reference to some issue with the interior lighting that had me worried it was some kind of one-off design. I’d previously bought several of Kato’s new “version 2” LED light sets (which I describe more on my new Kato Interior Lighting page) planning to install them in the Ginza train, but hadn’t gotten around to that after it turned out not to support the DCC motor decoder. So my plan was to use them, if I could.
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Tags: Kato, Greenmax, Lighting, Subway Train, Administrivia

As any regular reader knows, the JR East E231 is the train the sparked my interest in Japanese trains, and in particular in the commuter trains of Tōkyō. I’m not really clear why myself. Objectively they’re simply boxes engineered to move large numbers of people rapidly. Perhaps it’s the simple functionalism of the design, coupled with the fact that it represents the culmination of fifteen years of re-engineering the commuter train, begun by the Japanese National Railway in the 80’s, and leading through several intermediate designs to one that now numbers over 2,700 cars. The E231 is hardly the end; evolved designs are already out there in the E233 and the prototype E331 (Japanese Wikipedia). But with the E231, JR East reached a point where the design achieved the original goal of “half the cost, half the life”, meaning a reduction in both initial cost and maintenance, at the expense of a reduced lifespan (15 years versus 30).

The E231 has been produced in many variants, but one of the most interesting lacked a model until now, the E231-800. This train, of which only seven 10-car trains were made, was produced to provide run-through service from JR East’s Chūō-Sōbu Line to the Tōkyō Metro Tōzai subway line. These replaced older 301 and 103 series trains dating from the 1960’s. For this use, the standard E231 body was reduced from 2.95m to 2.80m, giving the front a more squared-off appearance. Also, end doors were added to the cabs for in-tunnel emergency exits.
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Tags: E231, Micro Ace, Subway

’tis the season...to buy toys. And when I stumbled across this one, I had to restrain myself from buying a set “to play with”. It’s a model of the JR East East-i E train. It’s part of Tomica’s “Hypercity” line of toy buildings and vehicles. Even more impressive, Toys R Us was selling it for US$129, considerably less than the $190 it’s going for on Amazon right now. And some of the other models were showing for half the current Amazon rate. It’s not clear if it’s a sale, or just their usual pricing (I didn’t see any sale signs). If you’re interested you should be able to find them; I found a large stock of these, apparently of little interest to most people, around the corner from the stuffed animals in my local store. I expect yours will be similar.
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Tags: Tomica, Holiday

Recently I’ve picked up a couple of new Greenmax trains, the Tōkyō Metro Tōzai Line Series 05 and Tōkyū Corporation Series 6000. The models are very similar in a sense, although the prototype trains are different in a number of ways. Both operate well, and look good from a distance, although not quite as good close-up in some ways.

The Tōkyū Railway Series 6000 is a relatively recent (2008) train, formed of six-car sets, operating on the surface Tōkyū Ōimachi Line on the south side of Tōkyō. The Tōkyō Metro Series 05, on the other hand, is a subway train dating from 1988 (but still in service), operating on an east-west axis underground route through the center of the city (it goes above ground away from the center). Both trains operate on narrow gauge track, from overhead 1500 Volt DC catenary, and are 2.8m wide, 20m long. The one difference is height, but not in the way you might expect: the subway train is actually 4.0m high, while the 6000 is 3.6m.
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Tags: Greenmax, Subway Train