Bare Metal

When the Japanese national rail system introduced the standard KiHa 58 DMU sets they were initially produced in the JNR orange and cream livery chosen for DMU vehicles. All this changed when the new private JR regional companies introduced a plethora of colour schemes on these units to represent an area or particular line that they serve.

The Kato model has only been available on the mainstream market in the "as new" ex works orange and cream livery, however Kato did produce a few years ago a run of these models in white enabling the more artistic modeller to repaint them into a chosen colour scheme, I am now down to my final pair of white units and i am pondering as to what livery to get them repainted into, im spoilt for choice but these are my last two!, I will update the blog when the final scheme is chosen.

Merry Christmas 2007

I would like to wish all my fellow modellers and blog followers a Merry Christmas for 2007!

Body Building

A nice recent model added to the diesel rosta is this type 125 JR Kyushu single railcar. The model came as a simple build brass bodyshell from Japan to mount onto an ENDO type 110 chassis. The kit is made by the N gauge specialists Tokyodo and so far its their onlyHO offering, I had the model constructed by a guy more familiar with GWR tank engines than anything with a diesel engine, but what a fine job he has done!

Tourist Class

The Japanese manufacturer One Mile (http://www.one-mile.net/) have just released a nice 1/80 modern touring coach. These models are sadly not available outside Japan but can be obtained from some of the specialist online shops willing to export.
When i started to model Japanese 1/80 over six years ago there was very little street furniture or road vehicles available, now thanks to the TOMIX 80's collection and One Mile I can furnish my roads all I am waiting for now is a nice 1/80 modern HINO truck!!

True Blue!

The latest delivery has just arrived, another repainted locomotive,this time we have the Japan wide DD51 in the latest JR freight blue and white colour scheme. It bemuses me that KATO have since the models introduction only made the model available in diesel orange. This leaves the door open for people like Japaness shop Sazan to offer a multitude of later liveries, not just on the DD51 but the DE10 and a plethora of electric locomotives.

A Long hot summer (well mild and very wet!)

I wish I could say the above was true but apart from a few days its been a mild wet summer!!. Its been seven months since I have updated my blog, a long time but with work and family taking all my "warm weather" time I have had very little hobby time to spare.

Now its all hands on deck to commence some building work on the layout a few changes are being made, the first a pretty major on in the case that the layout will be diesel only relegating my electric stock to the display cabinet. This option was chosen due to the cost and non-availaility of Japanese 1/80 overhead wires, also im sure that after a few exhibition showings there would be some damadge to repair.

The first purchase is a nice repainted type 58 Kato DMU set, 4 cars in total, this brings the passenger DMU fleet up to eight sets, quite enough for now.

I will detail some progress on my baseboard soon with some trackwork detail.

Hand built Brass

To complement my Modemo 373 unit, I have taken the plunge and bought a second hand type 253 Narita Airport Express hand built brass three car EMU by ENDO. These trains operate several routes around the Tokyo area to the Narita airport.

These super models by ENDO are expensive by European prices and are only just at a viable price on the second hand market, I dont make purchases very often of this kind, and this might be a one off to go with my only other brass EMU set, a four car type suburban 209 by the KTM company.

The major problem with all these nice "handbuilt" models is the drive systems, OK as other models its totally hidden under the floor and powers the bogies through very small axle diffs, and there is no facility for DCC thus to get the models fitted with decoders will again be an expensive outlay.