Building a tram layout

[westfalen]

That's great.  It takes several weeks for MR to show up in the local bookstore here in the States, but I usually pick it up when it does. I'll keep an eye out for your layout.

The April issue's still on the shelves here in Australia but there's a Welsh guy in the club who gets them sent from home, if he's there on sunday I'll have to sneak a look.

[IST]

Thanks, but it is just 2 pictures and about 5 sentences, so not a full article but I think it is good to show to the readers that there is available a good looking tram system.
I am a subscriber of Model Rail so I get the magazine 2 weeks late after the releasing. British railway themed magazine is not available here in the shops. :-(
Connection with Model Rail: I simply sent an e-mail to Richard Foster with the links of my Unitram articles on my home page. He liked it and asked some pictures in bigger resolution and few sentence about it. It was 2 month ago.

[IST]

Interesting update, but the current issue of Model Rail contains a full, 2 pages review about Kato's Unitram set. I am curious that Model Rail would test this set without my pictures? :-)

[KenS]

I suspect you were an influence. 

The July issue also included the "Ring Road" layout which, although it was British-themed, included a tram line featuring (pg. 37) structures and trams "from Japanese manufacturers" which were not otherwise identified. It looks like the modeler repainted a Kato or Tomix Portram and a Modemo model of the Tokyu Setagaya 300-series. The lack of information about them (they weren't even mentioned in the list of layout rolling stock) coupled with your layout may have caused readers to ask questions.

Kato's Portram has a generic look to it; for someone who doesn't know trains in detail, it looks like something they might see in a nearby city. I can see Kato trying to sell it overseas as a result of that, and I can see it appealing to casual modelers.  What surprises me about MR reviewing it is that most of their articles seem to target the very hard-core detail-oriented modeler. And I wouldn't have thought that Unitram would appeal to that audience (other than the small number who model Japan). Perhaps you gave them a wake-up call.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

The July issue also included the "Ring Road" layout which, although it was British-themed, included a tram line featuring (pg. 37) structures and trams "from Japanese manufacturers" which were not otherwise identified. It looks like the modeler repainted a Kato or Tomix Portram and a Modemo model of the Tokyu Setagaya 300-series. The lack of information about them (they weren't even mentioned in the list of layout rolling stock) coupled with your layout may have caused readers to ask questions.

Which is odd as the guy who built it is well aware of the provenance of the models...he is on another forum I am a member of and we have talked about these trams in the past. Incidently, he is a bit of a Japan-fiend...he's the one that converted a Kato 885 to a class 395 Javelin set....

Part of the problem is the almost tribal approach to modelling the UK modelling press has. Mags such as Model Rail and Railway Modeller are UK only...Continental Modeller is for everything else. Model Rail has just started to produce an off-shoot called Model Rail international, which is is a good thing, however you still have the situation of "hey, look at this lovely Dapol class 58 in EWS livery with the new super-creep motor hauling a full rake of Bachmann HAA hoppers, crossing the finely detailed new viaduct release from Scenecraft. Below it is some foreign tram from a Japanese producer...its not scale 1/148 so its too small."  

[IST]

Little update, it did not happen too much:
- I was curious about Kato trees, so I bought 2 package. Because of the foliage started to fall apart, I used my wife's hair-spray to fix it with a very good result. I attached a before and after picture, the difference is quite big.
- I bought the new Kato office buildings, so my city landscape became very different.
- As I have Portram in 3 different liveries, I made a small, two tracks depot for them. Not a prototypical one, but I like it how it looks like. I will find another place for it when I will extend the basements.
- At the weekend I got some vehicles from one of my friend, he did not really use it, especially the trucks, so he gave me. As the effect of this, I can model traffic jam in my city.

[IST]

Nothing new for a long-long time, except I bought my fifth Kato Portram:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6dof2ji_E7U" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/6dof2ji_E7U</a>

and started to get some experience with Tomytec Bus System vs. Kato Unitram plates:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Y1L8b-5lcLY" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/Y1L8b-5lcLY</a>

[KenS]

What kind of wire did you tape underneath the Unitram plate? Was it from the bus roadway or something else?

[IST]

Something else. I went to a DIY store (OBI) and asked steel fiber, but they had only 5 cm thick, twisted version. They said that the horticulture department can have steel fiber to tie flowers, and it was true. I bought a pack from this, but it is rounded around a metal holder, so I have to figure it out how can I make it straight.
But at least it is working over the thick Unitram plates.  

[disturbman]

By scavenging paper clips maybe? 

[cteno4]

IST

thats brilliant that the flower wire work with the tomytec busses on the kato unitram plates! flower tie wire is just plain old steel wire so best for the steering magnet to lock onto. you can also usually find pretty pure steel wire in the supply store where they have stuff for doing cement walls and such. its steel wire used for tying together rebar and usually comes in two thicknesses, one you can very easily bend by hand and the other needs a bit of help with pliers, but for the big radius stuff you can do that by hand.

its good to see the steering magnet in the tomytec busses is much stronger than they were in the old faller vehicles. i could only get the faller to work through 020 styrene or thin chip board reliably.

btw you can also make Y intersections with the wire so you can do a turn around loop, just break the one return arm about 1/4" from the continous line

keep us posted on your progress on this!

jeff