For the benefit of those members who aren't on NGRM Online, I'll start also posting here details of my slow to develop H0e layout, Amenomiya (Shrine of the Rains), a passing station on the Kohata Dentetsu (Kohata (Old Fields) Electric Railway), located 'somewhere between Fuji and Shizuoka' on the southern side of the mountains in central mainland Japan in the late Showa period (1950s/60s/70s).
I spent over a year in 2018/19 on a foreign study program in Japan, based in Tokyo, and achieved a level 4 certificate in Japanese language competency, as preperation for my linguistics degree study. While there, I developed a fascination with the dozens if not hundreds of small local railway companies that were and in many cases still are active all over the islands.
The Kohata line is fictional and contains elements of many of the larger mainland 2'6" gauge systems such as the Kosaka Copper Railway, the Kurihara Copper Railway, the Echigo Transport Tochio Line, and the Five Lines of Mie. Since some of the 3'6" gauge local railways are little different to their narrow cousins except in the distance between the rails, I will also incorporate inspirations from those where appropriate. While a modern setting would be plausible, I chose the late Showa period as being early enough to still include loco haulage and wagonload freight in order to make the modelling and operation more interesting, while still being recent enough to at least resemble the Japan I actually know.
The layout construction was begun in the first lockdown when the supply of modelling resources rapidly dried up. I had to go to three different online stores just to get three points, and the baseboard was procured by stripping down a long dead Gn15 layout.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/TdtWNI.jpg)
To give an idea of size, the baseboard is a little over 5' x 1'. Common carrier NG needs space and lots of it.
By winter, after placing, removing and replacing the landforms and repositioning the building mockups more times than I can count, the layout reached this state of play. I don't seem to have much of a knack for scenery so progress is slow. The setting is meant to be a village located in a mountain valley at the point where a side valley and it's river join the main valley. The railway crosses the mouth of the side valley before boring through a spur of the mountains to avoid a tight spot in the main valley on the way further up it.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/r3qSOL.jpg)
The left hand, more rural end, is already indicative of it's final appearance. The line passes a rice field before crossing the tributary river and enters the tunnel.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/b7SVUT.jpg)
The right hand, village side still looks like nothing much as this will be covered in buildings, most of which are not yet done. I am using a mixture of Sankei card kits (with Echo Model plastic roofing and details), Baiodo card kits (just one actually as the supply is limited), and Tsugawa plastic kits (mostly as a basis for bashing customised buildings). There may be a need for a scratchbuild to fill an awkward space.
Here is the station building under construction. It is a Sankei kit shortened by one third. This is, and will be, the only modified card kit as the design of the kits is quite intricate and therefore rather difficult to modify successfully. The plastic kits are dead simple and therefore easy to alter.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/VZwH2T.jpg)
Do let me know if all this is of interest. There are, after all, no pugbashes, indeed no steam traction of any kind, no slate or treacle mining, and nothing is made of whitemetal. Such heresy!
David I am interested. I like railways from around the world. I think most people model Western railways simply because of availability. I for one like very much the Railways of India. I have to pretty much make everything from scratch. I get fed up many times. If one has passion for a particular railway even if the rolling stock is not correct who cares, as long as in one's minds eye its correct. So as far as I'm concerned keep posting. We need more variety.
Robin.
Yes, please continue! I discovered the Tateyama Sabo soil erosion works railway and the Studio Ghibli films at about the same time and Japanese NG railways have fascinated me since then.
Yes, more please. I have more than a passing interest in Japan so am looking foward to following your progress.
Lawrence
Very well then, I'll keep you all updated on progress. ;D
I don't remember where I read it, but it is advised to occasionally look at your layout from a different angle to check how things are shaping up.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/922/TweB2Z.jpg)
And sure enough, a patch of unpainted rail. Easy to rectify at this stage. Composition wise it looks natural enough, or will once I put in a block of polystyrene for the main street buildings instead of propping them up on authentic narrow gauge rail paperweights.
The passenger and goods platforms and buildings both lead out onto a narrow road which climbs straight up to the town's main street.
The station building still needs tweaks here and tweaks there before adding the final detailing. Platform edges are sections of cork noticeboard frame. I'm not sure about the fencing, it came labelled as 1/80 scale so I thought it wouldn't be too big for 1/87, but perhaps on reflection it is.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/N22JaJ.jpg)
And before anyone says the platforms are too high for narrow gauge.....
http://tsushima-keibendo.a.la9.jp/echigo/Spkoike1971-8-055.jpg
Look, no steps!
http://tsushima-keibendo.a.la9.jp/echigo/Sp84-72.3-34.jpg
(For passengers, anyway)
Finally, a view along the main street from the bridge over the railway. Deliberately blocking the view should help create distinct scenes and areas within the layout, like this one.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/iJpSrM.jpg)
There's a second billboard style shop to go behind this one, then the station street to turn off left just before the backscene. I know the street running straight into the backscene can be jarring, so perhaps some kind of secular arch as traditionally used to mark the entrance to the main commercial street in a town can be used to cover the transition.
The same building seen again.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/923/T2QmZv.jpg)
Looks like they are almost ready to open. There's just the matter of sorting out the roof...........
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/R6gPU1.jpg)
Not that the absence is obvious from low angles. Arranging all the retaining walls to hold up the ground underneath it is going to be............interesting.
I'm very pleased with this particular Sankei kit, superb detail right down to the provision of basic interior furnishings (just visible in the gloom) and the very fine balconies front and rear. With laser cut good quality card it's almost possible to match etched brasswork in terms of appearance, albeit rather less durable.
Wot, no MSG mines or mirin wells? ;D
I'm tempted by the Japanese paper and card kits so it is interesting to see what you think of them. They look very effective on the layout. It is more the diorama type though, in particular the Studio Ghibli ones such as this one.
https://www.plazajapan.com/4580236846857/?setCurrencyId=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwweyFBhDvARIsAA67M72Wl1l3eYL0H5oWHU3XbIYKjOu5jUE9OYmI3djF-iumVtusU0-rdKcaAo7PEALw_wcB (https://www.plazajapan.com/4580236846857/?setCurrencyId=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwweyFBhDvARIsAA67M72Wl1l3eYL0H5oWHU3XbIYKjOu5jUE9OYmI3djF-iumVtusU0-rdKcaAo7PEALw_wcB)
Quote from: GraemeD on June 05, 2021, 08:21
Wot, no MSG mines or mirin wells? ;D
I'm tempted by the Japanese paper and card kits so it is interesting to see what you think of them. They look very effective on the layout. It is more the diorama type though, in particular the Studio Ghibli ones such as this one.
https://www.plazajapan.com/4580236846857/?setCurrencyId=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwweyFBhDvARIsAA67M72Wl1l3eYL0H5oWHU3XbIYKjOu5jUE9OYmI3djF-iumVtusU0-rdKcaAo7PEALw_wcB (https://www.plazajapan.com/4580236846857/?setCurrencyId=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwweyFBhDvARIsAA67M72Wl1l3eYL0H5oWHU3XbIYKjOu5jUE9OYmI3djF-iumVtusU0-rdKcaAo7PEALw_wcB)
It takes a lot of dexterity to put them together as some parts are very thin/tiny and some very fragile. Make sure to use a glue that does not stick too quickly, and make certain that you have checked the instructions at every step! The instructions for the model railway kits are only in Japanese. I do not know if the kits like the one above include other languages in the instructions.
Platforms drilled for fences and the edging made up and test fitted. All is simple plasticard and plastic strip construction.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/923/jgJeog.jpg)
The first and possibly only plastic kit building on the layout is a restaurant made up of one and a half Tsugawa generic house/shop kits. The kit is rather crude but that was perhaps to be expected given the cheap price. I will need to add a lot of home made detailing to get it to look good next to the fine card buildings.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/922/EWzB8M.jpg)
In it's place on the layout. The station road is taking shape.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/923/vCLtKR.jpg)
Quick and lazy repost of a recent picture. Apologies to those who already saw it on NGRMO.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/923/JYgO9Z.jpg)
I'd put off finishing the tunnel mouth for quite a while because I had expected fitting the arch stones to be challenging. It was not. You may notice that the keystone is almost the same size as the other stones and not at all prominent. This appears to be prototypically characteristic.
The retaining wall on the left is the old carved clay construction technique and depicts the typical Japanese technique of using diagonally interlocked stones and laying the wall well back at a large angle. This improves earthquake resistance as the structure is resistant to lateral forces as well as vertical ones. Western style stonework is much stronger under compression allowing larger structures to be built, but the long horizontal mortar courses are perfect shear lines under the lateral motion of an earthquake, encouraging the stones to slide off one another and collapse the structure.
On the layout, only specialist railway structures will use Western style stonework - it was not practical to adapt traditional stonework techniques to railway structures, you cannot, for instance, make arches using diagonal stones. Generic retaining walls which would have been built by local contractors, use traditional stonework.
Right now there is a lot of glaring white primered stonework about as I want to paint all the stone at once for consistency's sake.
The same area seen more recently.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/922/M1bflW.jpg)
The trees added so far are old Treemendus generic deciduous types which are among the best ready to plant I have seen. They have metal armatures with flexible bark allowing them to be reposed to fit the chosen site, such as the 'half relief' tree on the right. Specific Japanese tree species are almost exclusively made for N scale so will have to represent small, young trees with the generic types adding volume and height to the woods.
Stonework on the tunnel mouth, platform edges etc is being worked up through numerous round of dry brushing with a variety of colours. This is the technique that works best for me for representing natural materials. There are many more rounds of dry brushing yet to go.
Focus on the catenary mast.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/pzZ3S5.jpg)
The use of single phase, low voltage DC allows for very cheap and simple electrification systems using what is basically early tram technology. Hundreds of local railways across Japan continue to use this kind of very basic electrification today. RhB standard it definitely is not!
These are a recently released Tomytec product which come 'ready to plant', albeit sized for cape gauge with a couple of moulded marker lines indicating where to cut the poles shorter for 2'6" gauge. I had forgotten how large these things are and had to cut into finished landforms to get them in. So I will add the catenary and signals and other lineside furniture before doing any more scenery near the track, to ensure all the essential equipment fits in.
The station building was one of the first buildings started but became overlooked. I went back to it recently to finish the roof with ridge tiles and bargeboards.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/922/0Md2hK.jpg)
The plastic is already the right colour (Japanese modellers seem to prefer to use self coloured materials rather than paint wherever possible), so it will just be matt varnished and weathered to take the shine off.
We're getting there.......
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/923/zYA6Ic.jpg)
All the catenary in place. Pairs of Tomytec single track gantries were spliced together for the double track gantries. Signals, still to be painted, are Tsugawa plastic kits. A windbreak on a bank is going up behind the rice field and some experimental backscene papers (too dark) tacked in place to see how they look. The idea for the backscene is multiple layers of green and grey mountain silhouettes, lighter towards the back, giving the impression of ranges stretching away into the misty distance.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/S2D0V2.jpg)
End view gives an interesting perspective. Lots of small and fiddly bits of plastic have gone into recent addtitions. The drainage channel down the centre of the loop was added as an afterthougt when I realised the scene felt like it had an important prototype detail missing. Foot crossings use I section plastruct for checkrails as working small pieces of actual rail into the right shape is quite difficult.
You will probably notice a couple of N scale trees in the setting. They are models of actual Japanese trees and are nicely made but do not fit in well with HO trees, they don't just look like small and young trees because trees change shape as they grow. One or two may end up decorating the platform where their smallness can be explained by limited soil and regular pruning.
I also took some ground-level close-ups recently. A scene which looks right from the perspective of a person in it is more likely to look right from an external view.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/922/kRvEDA.jpg)
Well, it gives the intended impression. The hiking trail brings one to a logical and somewhat dramatic trainspotting location, then invites us to continue into the valley.
I removed and reworked part of the down platform using better materials, completed the up platform substructure, and have started to paint and attach the platform sides and surfaces.
(https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q90/924/caja2e.jpg)
The tree sits on a semicircular plug that fits into the up platform to fill a hole left to clear the corner braces of the opposite boards which come all the way down to baseboard level here when the boards are crated together.