The Introduction Thread...

[nightfly]

HI! The username I chose was 'nightfly' which referred to the fact that I stay up at night, and sleep in the daytime. It's in my blood, my grandfather worked on the Long Island Railroad, finishing his career as a ticket agent in Manhattan on the night shift. I live in Northern NJ, USA, am semi retired, and my favorite JNR train is the Shinkansen 500 series, which I consider the most beautiful train in the world. I was sad to see it get taken out of service. When they replaced it with the ugly 700 series, I sort of was very disappointed. The newer 800 and E7 series are much better looking than the odd 700 and E5's. When I returned to model railroading (early days were Lionel 'O' scale 50 years ago as a boy), I decided on N scale because of the size. I live in an apartment, so size and space was a big consideration. I had joined Northern NJ Ntrak, but when they changed locations and the new setup had a crawl under, my arthritic knees couldn't handle crawling anywhere, so that was the end of that. So now I limit myself to what I can set up temporarily in my home, on a 36x80 door, a 56" square table, and a foldup 80x40 double door which I set up off of the wall onto legs. I connect them all up to make one big layout that I can take down pretty quick whenever I'm going to have company (even after all these years, it seems that most women think grown men playing with toy trains is weird). My favorite lines are of course the Long Island Railroad, Pennsy, and NY Central system. I use Kato track exclusively, just because that way I know everything works, and it fits together perfectly. I'm still using DC at home, but if I see a cheap DCC system at a model train show, I'll probably grab it. In the meantime, I have Kato's sound box. And though I consider the Nozomi 500 the most beautiful train, my favorite locomotive is the legandary GG1, because I grew up riding behind them. My best memory as a kid riding on the LIRR was waiting for the train, and seeing a tuscany red G pull the train up to the station, the engineer waving to me as I waved to welcome train. To a little kid, that GG1 was larger than life, and as impressive as a Saturn 5 rocket. I guess that's enough for here. I look forward to reading lots about trains here! 

Edited February 23, 2016 by nightfly

[cteno4]

Welcome nightfly!

 

Glad you found us! Sounds like you are running trains Japanese style setting up on the fly! Apartments do present challenges, but sounds like you have worked out a good solution! Im sure then right woman will come along and go "cool!" When you mention the trains! Or at least not roll their eyes! Hey it's their loss!

 

Think you will find a lot of interesting stuff and folks here to chat with!

 

Start a thread on your temp setups, its always cool to see what/how folks do them. Our Japanese train club here in DC did our first layouts for 5 years at shows setting them all up on the fly.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[miyakoji]

Hi Don, welcome to the forum!

[Suica]

Hello and welcome, Don!

 

You actually made me google the GG1. (I don't know much about US railroads.)

Pretty impressive locomotive. I can see how someone could like it that much!

[ayvini]

Found this site while researching Bandai trains. I have been a N scale modeler for about 50 years now. Finally in my retirement years I have decided to downsize everything from layout to motive power and now model a free lance road the Turtle Creek Central set on an island of the Washington State coast. A short line railroad which serves the industries on the island and a port.

 

Everything is smaller sized. The diesel locomotives range from the 44 and 70 tonners to to the steamers like little 2-6-0s and geared steam. Bandai is my answer to passenger power. The shorty Seibu 3000 looks enough like a version of the American RDC that I am going to use them as 3 car sets of passenger power. 

[cteno4]

Ayvini,

 

Welcome! glad you found us and that you are able to adapt the Btrains to your new modeling needs! They are fun and look great, especially when you get the views focused at the trains coming at an angle and not flat on sideways. 

 

We have a number of btrain folks on the forum. please post your layout and trains, it would be great to see them adapted like this!

 

have you seen this video? really shows what a little btrain layout can do! its on my list to make one like this for fun and to take to events.

 

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Reynard Noir]

Hello, I have been lurking on this forum for a while but I thought I should finally sign up and say hello. I live and work in the UK and my job takes me to Tokyo on a semi frequent basis (I type this from a bar in Akiba). I do a few toy fairs in the UK selling mainly Roco, Heljan, Wrenn, Dublo and Rivarossi, but I also sell a bit of Japanese stuff - mainly Tomix and Kato. I tend to buy locos in Tokyo bring them back to England then either keep em or sell em at fairs or on Ebay. As the locos are quite scarce in the UK (other than shipping direct from Japan) I hope I can help people in my country with the hobby. (I will also ship to the Middle east and USA from time to time but usually there are better sources locally!) 

 

cheers

 

Reynard. 

[Ekiben]

Hi folks, The model railroading bug has struck and, though I've felt its sting before, this time I'm committed to persevere and complete my long-sought layout. Though time, money and purpose have always thwarted my efforts, I always return to the hobby. There's something comforting about it. I've enjoyed watching and reading about trains (large and small) since I was a kid and, long ago, even assembled a pair of roundy roundies. First as a youngster with my grandfather then as an early teen with my mom. Nothing too groundbreaking, but the experiences are great memories. Decades later, family connections take me to Japan every two or three years and the JR Rail Pass office is always my first stop on arrival at NRT. My trips to Japan have taken my interest in railways to a whole new level. You all know what I'm talking about. What's not to like about riding a rattling Kiha through the remote hills of Shikoku, watching infinite neighbourhoods scroll by along the Yamanote Line or screaming toward the deep south on Kyushu's Tsubame shinkansen.

 

Having mulled the wisdom offered throughout this site for the past month, I've finally decided to sign up and officially join the Japan railfan community. I'm expecting two boxes from Japan before the end of the week and look forward to learning more as I build slowly but steadily on my lonely Kato M2 starter set. The layouts are being closely scrutinized, my imagination is beginning to run free, and a corner of my home office is set to be recommissioned. Shuppatsu Shinko.

Edited March 30, 2016 by Ekiben

[JR 500系]

Welcome Reynard san and Ekiben san! Wow Ekiben san your nickname makes me hungry....  :P

[miyakoji]

Hi Reynard and Ekiben, welcome to the forum :)

[Sascha]

Welcome Reynard and Ekiben.

[Reynard Noir]

Thanks for the welcome guys - bought 10 locos in Akiba today - some for ebay - some for me, one running but scrappy loco for 800 yen! 

[cteno4]

Hi Reynard!

 

Welcome to the forum! Glad you found us and joined up! Nice to get to travel to Japan or a regular basis.

 

Start a thread on your train offerings in the suppliers forum. We welcome suppliers to have a thread there to post what's going on with their visits, post new offerings and let folks post questions and such.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[cteno4]

Welcome Ekiben!

 

Sorry to inform you that the bug is unfortunately incurable, they will bury you with your trains! But of things to catch, like you said it's very soothing and enjoyable. Trips to Japan do rather cement the hobby into your soul!

 

Start a thread on your layout plans and feel free to ask questions! Lots of helpful folks here. Checkout the various layouts folks have done here, might add to the creative juices.

 

http://www.japanrailmodelers.org/pages/otherlayouts.html

 

Looking forward to your layout developing!

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Ekiben]

Great to be here, and looking forward to many good times ahead. Thanks to everyone for the welcome. I really like that link Jeff - much weekend/late-night reading there. BTW, I sense there's a parcel from Ami Ami for me to pick up at the post office tomorrow. Packages from Japan never fail to impress. Stay tuned...

Edited March 31, 2016 by Ekiben

[Tintinfan]

Greetings,

 

I'm not really so sure what to put in my "自己紹介" here, but I'll just run my mouth a bit. I'm British and now live in the UK, I've been obsessed with trains the longest, followed by aviation and anime. My username is nothing special, just re-using the same username I have elsewhere! During my schooling years my parents work had me living in various parts of Asia and as a result I learnt Japanese in the final years of my education which led to a few months exchange over in Japan and I got to roam a fair bit on the country by railway during breaks. I have to say, the rural/cross-country KiHa's of Hokkaido were by far my favorite trains to ride. Anyway, I was in Indonesia for a great length of time where I had a 00-scale British layout using stuff that I'd wait months for to come via post. Having returned to the UK and lost all but the stock for that, I've decided to pursue the reverse now and have an Indonesian themed layout over in the UK! I personally hope that by making a KA Jabodetabek inspired layout I can combine a love for trains, Japan (and Japanese trains!) and tribute my time in Indonesia. Aside from railway modelling, I spend a good deal of time on various train simulators and dangerous amount of time on OpenTTD.

 

I look forward to talking, meeting, getting along and getting help from you all!

Edited May 13, 2016 by Tintinfan

[miyakoji]

Hi Tintinfan, welcome to the forum

[Sascha]

Hello, and welcome to the forum.

[cteno4]

Welcome to the asylum tintinfan! There are a few other Indonesian rr fans here and Modelers to chat with.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Tintinfan]

Hello and thank you all for the very warm welcome to the forums!

Edited May 14, 2016 by Tintinfan

[amszterpeter]

Hello,

I am retired and a former resident of Tokyo and Kyoto, presently live in San Antonio, Texas. I was an active model railroader for about thirty years from 1970 to 2000. I am returning to the hobby and hope to complete a small, 6' by 3' portable layout based on the Ome-sen leading from Tachikawa to Okutama. The ere modelled is the mid-1960s and intend to use Kato Unitrak and dual cab-control. Looking forward hearing from you all.

Cheers.

Peter

[Bernard]

Hi Peter - welcome to the forum. Have you started building your layout?

[miyakoji]

Hi Peter, welcome to the forum.  Western Tokyo-to is a very nice part of Kanto I think, I'm looking forward to seeing your layout :)

[cteno4]

Welcome Peter, glad you found the mad house! Lots of interesting folks to chat with here. Also a couple of members in the Houston area that got a layout together last year for a Japanese festival there. Look forward to hearing and seeing about your layout.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[Tokyo Matt]

Hello

 

   Met a fellow photographer at Shin-Kawasaki station who told me about this site. I live here in Ebina area now. Retired from the US Navy and got into the Japanese Railway.

 

   I try to travel and do different lines and also including Private lines as well.