How did you get interested in the Japanese RR?

[Guest Bernard]

I thought this might be a good way for everyone to introduce themselves.

The way I got interested in Bullet trains is in 1998 the company I work for was filming the Olympic games in Nagano, Japan. Our crew from NY boarded a flight non-stop from JFK airport to Tokyo. I believe the flight took 16 hours. The travel agent, to save money, booked the NYC crew on a bus from Tokyo to Nagano. We all thought this would be a quick bus ride, until I looked at the schedule and told everyone that it was a 71/2 hour bus ride. So we all traveled for 24 hours straight, got to Nagano Thursday morning with the Olympics starting Friday night. I met up with one of my friends who was working with NBC at the time and told them of our ordeal and he said, "Why didn't you guys take the Bullet train? It only takes 3 hours, there's a dining car and it was the most comfortable part of my trip." I was in shock when he told me this. Unfortunately I had a family emergency and had to rush back to the USA pronto, this time the travel agent booked me on the Bullet train, got me to the Tokyo airport and I was back home in no time. I kept in contact with my boss everyday and when the emergency was under control, my boss told me to get back to Nagano as quickly as possible. This time I could enjoy my ride on the Bullet train. What an experience, you feel like you aren't even moving until you look out the window and see the scenery flashing by like you're on a rocket. The train was very clean and there was a map with a clock at exactly when the train would be at the next station. It was so accurate you could set your watch to it. When I finally got to Nagano the person who was to pick me up at the station knew exactly which door I would be coming out of because all the information on my train ticket was forwarded to him.

Toward the end of the Olympics I had a morning off until I began work at 1 pm. This was the only time I would have to get to a Hobby shop. When I got there it was the first time I saw Kato Bullet train sets and couldn't believe the craftmenship that was put into them. I purchased 3 sets and have been a fan ever since.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Darren Jeffries]

Well I have no personal experience like that, but i remember seeing the ususal "behind the scenes" stuff the BBC put out around the nagano olympics and i saw Bullet Trains then. I loved them. I started modelling N Guage (which has always been my scale of choice) in British outline, then I found a seller of Kato locos here in the UK and bought my first 203 series DMU and 500 series Shinkansen. I have been converted ever since.

[CaptOblivious]

I've only seen bullet trains from afar...my interest is in commuter trains and freight—mostly commuter trains. I spent a month in Tokyo over New Year's 2007, and fell in love with the subway system and the Yamanote Line (although mostly I used the subways—so much cheaper!)  In fact, I just fell in love with Tokyo, and wanted to model a small scene. When I got back, I decided the best way would be to do a diorama of one of the stations I photographed...which began my inevitable downward spiral into the world of model railroading.

[Garth]

I became interested in Japanese Steam in 1982 when I visited a hobby shop in North Vancouver BC which had a good selection of Kato stuff. I found they ran so much better than the stuff I was finding from Atlas/Rivarossi and after finding this source I found the ConCor Hudson made by Kato. In the end I built a fleet of steamers for my pike using the Japanese mechanisms and North American boilers and tenders. Eventually I began to run these engines on my pike and enjoyed them as they came and no longer butchered them for their parts. I have been an avid fan since 1990 and have been really impressed with the Arii or Micro Ace engines of late. 

 

I never go interested in the EMU and Shinkasen but do like to collect the DMU's and run them as well as no overhead is required. I also am also a fan of the Modemo streetcars.

 

Recently I have become enamoured of the Z-scale product that has started to appear in Japan and maintain a web page with information in English of what is happening there. . I maintain a web page on the various N-gauge Steam engines produced in plastic in North American profile and in Japanese Profile as well as pages on Streetcars in both profiles.

 

thanks for the welcome message

 

Garth

[Guest Bernard]

Garth,

Welcome to the forum. One of the reasons the forum was started was to share and meet people with similar interests. I model the Shinkensan and other passenger trains but you bring up and excellent point about Japanese steam engines and street cars. I know one of our member Cody post his Tram layout under the construction platform. I would love to see photos of you layout and trains.

[marknewton]

It's a long story - I went to Japan as a kid with my father, then later travelled there for work, but what tipped me over the edge was am incident involving a steam engine, a lost cricket ball and a second-hand bookshop. I have to go to work now, but if anyone's interested, I can expand on that story...

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Bernard]

A steam engine, a lost cricket ball, and a second-hand book store? You've got me hooked, I'd like to know more about how those three things got you interested in the Japanese RR when you have time, sounds like a real interesting story.

[Guest ___]

I tutored conversational English to Japanese professionals for a few years. I got talked into it by a colleague at the newspaper. From there I did a trip over to Japan to meet a couple of my students, 2 trips in 3 years and the rest is history.

[Dick H]

How about these, in this order:

Church choir, Chinese radio, computer design, and Fire Dept.

 

Back in the dark ages, I was a choir boy in a large church in Boston. Since I lived in the suburb of Newton, I had to commute by streetcar 4 days a week - 3 for choir practice, then church on Sundays. I always stood near the driver to watch the tracks ahead. The most interesting part was when we went down into the subway (first in the U.S.).

There were tracks entering and leaving at various points and it was so mysterious wondering where they went, etc. When my voice changed, I seldom went into Boston, so my interest waned.

Now advance the clock 7 or 8 years to the Korean War. In 1951 I enlisted in the Army and went to Korea, where I monitored the Chinese Army on the radio. We spent about a week in Tokyo on the way over and I went back to Tokyo for several R & Rs. It was so interesting, that a seed was planted in my brain that I wanted to live there some day, never thinking I would ever have the opportunity.

Now advance the clock another 20 years. I was working in the Honeywell computer division and some Japanese computer engineers from NEC came to study our systems. It seemed sad to me that no one had much to do with them, especially on weekends. So I would take them places and show them around Boston. Then in 1971 I took a long 5-week vacation and went to Tokyo and visited one man's family. They could not speak English and we could not speak Japanese, but we managed and it was a fantastic experience that germinated that seed that had been planted in my mind in 1951. During my years at Honeywell, I was also a paid volunteer firefighter in my town and in 1974, I took a full time job as Supt. of Fire Alarm Communications.

Advance the clock another 10 years. I had a heart attack and was retired form the Fire Dept. on disability. During those 10 years I had befriended another Japanese man and it turned out he was president of a small company in Tokyo. After I retired he offered me a job with his company. Of course, I couldn't refuse. My life long dream had come true. I stayed 9 years, during which I studied the most complex and large rail system in the world. Those studies resulted in a book, Tokyo Subways, published in 1992.

On Christmas Day in 1991 I married a delightful Japanese lady, Etsuko, and we returned to the U.S. in 1994.

My main rail interest is subways, streetcars and commuter railways. The Shinkansen is merely a fast way to get to see other Japanese rail systems. :)

Since 1994 I have been back 3 times and plan another trip this October. Since my last trip in 2005, several new subways and surface lines have opened and extensions completed, so I have a full schedule in October. If anyone wants to tag along for part of the time I am willing to act as guide.

[Martijn Meerts]

Wow, that's quite a story  :o

 

I still dream of living in Japan for a few years at some point, just to get to know the country better than you could when going there on holidays, we'll see if that ever happens ;)

[Guest ___]

I'd be happy with just 3 months  :-X

[ChrisV]

My interest in JR is only more so in recent times.

I just returned back from a trip to Japan about a week ago.

I model Australian stuff in HO but I was curious on what all the excitement about the bullet trains were - went on a ride on an E4 and was hooked. Caught an E2 back and thought " that was pretty cool" but then took a real ride on a Series 300 from Tokyo to Osaka and really took the bait. Caught an 700 Railstar to Hiroshima and then a 100 series 'kodama' back and was happy that I rode 5 different shinkansens in 4 days.

My railpass did not allow any Nozomi rides which ruled out the 500 and N700's which frustrated me but maybe next time.

i'll never forget standing at Fujimaya and watching a Nozomi fly thru the station and over 250kph - that is one memory I would  not forget.

 

the range of N scale in Tokyo was amazing -  I cleaned them up and almost had excess baggage back to Sydney but now i need to build something to run them on!! :D

[Bernard]

Chris - If you mind me asking, how much is a railpass now and are there any limitations?

[ChrisV]

Sure - The railpass I obtained was a 7 day pass, cost around AUD480.00. It covers all JR services except Nozomi services and some private lines.

I was a bit apprehensive at first thinking it was a lot of $$ to pay for something I may not get value from but I calculated that I made a good call as I caught 7 Shinkansens, 2 x airport express's + approx 12 local trains. Plus its sensational if your going to see the Shinkansens as you can hop on / hop off all day with this pass. It made travel around Tokyo so easy!!

 

My pass was ordinary class - no reserved seating also.

 

Would do it again for sure - planning on going back in a year or so.

[Mudkip Orange]

At some point many years ago I got really intrigued by Keihan's two-tone color scheme because it looked exactly like SP&S. Not too long after that I found railfan.ne.jp and my desktop wallpapers for the next year were all 6000s and 9000s rolling past rice paddies and cherry blossoms. Eventually I caved and bought a 6000-series kit from Greenmax, which I still have yet to put together.

 

Of course Keihan bought Eizan and with that I decided the 900 series "Kirara" was the bees knees, so I got one of those too. I slapped together a 216mm oval of Unitrack and then promptly put the whole thing in the closet and forget about it for years.

 

This past Christmas I pull out some of my HO Unitrack and set it up around my girl's family's Christmas tree. After countless hours spent tormenting the cats with an Athearn F59PHI and some Bombardiers, I'm like "you know what, trains are cool." I log on to the internets to find that the US-prototype HO scale offerings are about what I remember them being 3 years ago... but I am ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY by the new Japanese N scale stuff. Chuo Line E233s, Kato's new-style platforms with the tactile warning strips, Modemo's models of the Setagaya LRVs and the entire Enoden fleet... and to top it all off, I see that Kato's planning to re-run the Yamanote E231s, which I wanted to get the first time around but didn't have the cash money.

 

Of course, I really don't have the money now either... but last weekend I caved and ordered a full set of Joban E531s off Hobby Search. Also planning on getting Greenmax's Keihan 3000 series and a full 11-car Yamanote consist when those become available. I don't know what became of ye olde 216mm Unitrack oval, so I'm just going to collect these for awhile until I have enough trains to justify an interesting layout. Also not sure if I'm gonna go with Unitrack or Tomix, or maybe a mixture... but then I don't have to make that decision overnight.

[CaptOblivious]

At some point many years ago I got really intrigued by Keihan's two-tone color scheme because it looked exactly like SP&S. Not too long after that I found railfan.ne.jp and my desktop wallpapers for the next year were all 6000s and 9000s rolling past rice paddies and cherry blossoms. Eventually I caved and bought a 6000-series kit from Greenmax, which I still have yet to put together.

 

Of course Keihan bought Eizan and with that I decided the 900 series "Kirara" was the bees knees, so I got one of those too. I slapped together a 216mm oval of Unitrack and then promptly put the whole thing in the closet and forget about it for years.

 

This past Christmas I pull out some of my HO Unitrack and set it up around my girl's family's Christmas tree. After countless hours spent tormenting the cats with an Athearn F59PHI and some Bombardiers, I'm like "you know what, trains are cool." I log on to the internets to find that the US-prototype HO scale offerings are about what I remember them being 3 years ago... but I am ABSOLUTELY BLOWN AWAY by the new Japanese N scale stuff. Chuo Line E233s, Kato's new-style platforms with the tactile warning strips, Modemo's models of the Setagaya LRVs and the entire Enoden fleet... and to top it all off, I see that Kato's planning to re-run the Yamanote E231s, which I wanted to get the first time around but didn't have the cash money.

 

Of course, I really don't have the money now either... but last weekend I caved and ordered a full set of Joban E531s off Hobby Search. Also planning on getting Greenmax's Keihan 3000 series and a full 11-car Yamanote consist when those become available. I don't know what became of ye olde 216mm Unitrack oval, so I'm just going to collect these for awhile until I have enough trains to justify an interesting layout. Also not sure if I'm gonna go with Unitrack or Tomix, or maybe a mixture... but then I don't have to make that decision overnight.

 

Welcome, Mudkip! When I first got my E231-500, without anything like a permanent layout, I just set out a long straight across the TV stand in the living room to display the train…they can be pretty impressive display pieces, even if you don't run them (yet)

[Martijn Meerts]

so I'm just going to collect these for awhile until I have enough trains to justify an interesting layout.

 

That's what I said as well when I started with Japanese trains. It's now about 35-40 trains (I lost count...) later, and I still don't have a layout =)

 

The whole "collect for a while" thing is dangerous ;)

[Mudkip Orange]

Well I just unpacked my E531s... (shipping took about, oh, A WEEK less than I expected) and these are some seriously spiff trains. I was especially surprised that the four-car add-on set came with a nice bookshelf case that's big enough to hold a full 8-car train.

 

One thing that did happen is when I unpacked the basic set to put in the bookshelf case, one of the pantographs was unclipped from the motor car. It seems like it's just a simple matter of clipping it back on, but that task is not possible with my chubby gaijin fingertips. I'm going to have to go out and buy some tweezers or something. In the meantime I put it in the little bag with some other random pieces it came with (a mini screwdriver? wha?)

[Bernard]

Mudkip - If you don't mind would you post a photo of the new E351?

[Mudkip Orange]

Here's what they look like in the case that came with the "add-on A" set... I'd post an action shot except for the minor detail of I DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE ANY TRACK

[Sushi Train]

Here's what they look like in the case that came with the "add-on A" set... I'd post an action shot except for the minor detail of I DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE ANY TRACK

 

very nice, post them to me and I'll show you them on my track  ;)

[Sushi Train]

Back on topic-

 

How did I get interested in the Japanese RR?

 

 

Need I say more?  ;D

[scott]

Well, I don't have a great story like some on here, especially since I still haven't been to Japan. But I guess it was natural to get interested in Japanese railroads, since I've been interested in Japanese history and landscapes and etc. for a long time, and also like rail travel and countries where it's actually possible.  :P

 

Since I've never been able to go, I've gotten what I can from reading about Japan. Alan Booth's _The Roads to Sata_ is a really nice travel book about walking the length of Japan that's also very funny (if you haven't read this one, you really should  :) ). . His _Looking for the Lost_ is also really good. And there's a good book by Leila Philip called _The Road through Miyama_, about her experience as an American apprentice to a Japanese craft potter.

 

See--lacking any life of my own, all I have to talk about is other people's books.  :-\

[Sushi Train]

 

Well, I don't have a great story like some on here, especially since I still haven't been to Japan. But I guess it was natural to get interested in Japanese railroads, since I've been interested in Japanese history and landscapes and etc. for a long time, and also like rail travel and countries where it's actually possible.  :P

 

Since I've never been able to go, I've gotten what I can from reading about Japan. Alan Booth's _The Roads to Sata_ is a really nice travel book about walking the length of Japan that's also very funny (if you haven't read this one, you really should  :) ). . His _Looking for the Lost_ is also really good. And there's a good book by Leila Philip called _The Road through Miyama_, about her experience as an American apprentice to a Japanese craft potter.

 

See--lacking any life of my own, all I have to talk about is other people's books.  :-\

 

With the exchange rate at 1 to 1 (I take it you're in America) now is the best time to go....unless the global economic climate is stopping you. Not me, im off back in September.

[scott]

I'd love to go, but I'm not sure that I want to take a 6-year-old on a trip that crosses that many time zones. If we can save up enough, we may take him to Costa Rica in the next few years, but that's only one hour difference.

 

(Oh--yes, I'm in the US--in Virginia, about two hours southwest of Washington DC.)