Kamiyacho Layout Photos

[Kamiyacho]

I am busy fine-tuning the track on my new layout and haven't have time to take many good photos, but here are a few featuring my old school shinkansen.  I've read through the DCC manual and am pushing the correct buttons on the Lenz system most of the time now.  This is the first time I've used DCC and it is really great.  The layout has already absorbed evey vehicle I own (250 - 300) and I've begun to add a few figures and other details, so there will be many more purchases to come!

[boiselfish]

Very impressive!

[Kumo]

Simply awesome!!

I feel like on the Tokaido Line!! Love your "Kyomizu-like" temple on the first pic.
Would you have more general pictures of the whole layout?!

[Bernard]

Curt - The highest compliment I could give you is that your layout would make a nice feature in Model RR Mag.....unfortunately I've never seen them do a non N. American layout.

[bill937ca]

Curt - The highest compliment I could give you is that your layout would make a nice feature in Model RR Mag.....unfortunately I've never seen them do a non N. American layout.

MR did a few non-North American layouts a few years ago, and when it came Japan's turn they did a New York Central layout in Tokyo.  UGH!!

[marknewton]

Bill, I remember thinking the same thing - why feature a model of a US railroad when they had previously featured Finnish and Russian prototype layouts? And in all fairness, the NYC layout was nothing special, IMO.

Cheers,

Mark.

[Mossberg]

Love it. Thank you for showing it.

/Magnus M

[cteno4]

well i just got back from Curt's house and all i can say is AMAZING! the layout is quite stupendous and really fun. nice amount of track, but not a spaghetti bowl! easy switching out some trains and the dcc operation makes things simple. He is just working out the little kinks now after the installation. we spent a few hours running trains, cleaning track and findings little gotchas around on the track to fix. working quite well. the detail is great, but it just a start so curt can go wild with all sorts of fun details. its one of those layouts that really takes a long time to take in even though its not a huge layout. he is going to have fun for years to come playing with this and doing all sorts of fun detailed work on it! room for expansion in the layout and also in the room as well for the future!

the lighting in the buildings is wonderful. they did a lot of the signs with miller engineering electroluminescent backlighting so they really look great. some flash, others do a small sequence. really gives the japanese city feel to it!

just smashing!

once he gets some of the detailing into the layout it will be a fantastic layout for MR.

cheers

jeff

[Kamiyacho]

Here are two general overview pictures.

[Bernard]

Curt - I don't know if you mentioned this but what brand of track did you use on your layout?

[Kamiyacho]

The track is Peco code 55.  Works great now that Jeff was here to check the ballast for high spots.

[Kumo]

Just awesome!!
I really love it!

[Toni Babelony]

Simply wonderful! Really impressed by the ammount of detail and the overall atmosphere of the layout! Looks like a really nice place to be :)

[Lawrence]

fantastic 

[cteno4]

And this is just a start! now is where Curt comes in as he loves to detail little scenes-- remember this is the guy that put people, desks, offices and a conference table with papers out on it into one of his kato buildings! there are also lots of spots too where he can slowly redevelop if he wants a change in the layout. right now its in impressive shape for a layout, but it will just get better and better as he now tinkers! he has lots of fun ideas for changing shows at the expo center and plazas areas, re-arranging the car density/scenes on the streets, detailing the city scene and buildings more etc to really make this a fun and dynamic layout. its going to be a real treat to watch it evolve and change over time!

cheers

jeff

[Claude_Dreyfus]

I would be very interested in seeing more about adding the internal details to buildings.

The reason being, we are planning to add a 'front-scene' of half-relief buildings by the station on our layout, i.e. their backs facing the audience. One of the possible options here is to have some of the structures, which will face the station area, open at the back so people can see inside...and through the windows. These will be residential, so there is plenty of scope for modelling! 

[Tenorikuma]

That is really a very nice layout, right down to the presentation. Very tasteful.

[inobu]

Nice layout and bench work.

Inobu

[to2leo]

I am curious whether it lights up at night!

I wish there is a little train camera that can take us through the layout.  Too bad there isn't one readily available in N. America :0(

[KenS]

Yes, if ever a layout needed a train-mounted camera, this one does.

It's an amazing layout, and I expect it will bring you much fun.  I look forward to future postings as you create or add detail to scenes on it.

[cteno4]

yes it lights up big time!!!! street lights, lights in most buildings, lots of neon signs, quite impressive!

I actually meant to take the little flash recorder over to run around the layout last week and forgot. ill remember next trip as it is a fantastic layout for it!

also encouraging curt to think about stationary mounted video cams at some points around the layout like in the station and with some of the trains running in front of scenes.

cheers

jeff

[Kamiyacho]

I've been busy trying to get all of the track and trains running perfectly, so I haven't had time to take a lot of photos.  The track is in pretty good shape now but I'm learning that I need to keep the wheels very clean for DCC to work optimally.

At the moment I have 4 Kato trains with decoders installed.  The DD51 is proving to be a real workhorse and runs great - I'm moving a lot of freight cars around as well as some of my older passenger cars sets.  The EF81, after an initial decoder wire placement issue which Jeff resolved, is also running well.  The passenger trains seem to be a bit more tempermental.  My 0 series shinkansen runs perfectly but every now and the the end lights do surprising things; I think this is just an issue of keeping the wheels clean for good contact.  And the Yamanote line 205 seems the most unpredictable.  Once I ran it into the station and walked to the other side to watch it come out - but it reversed itself in the station without me touching anything.  The wheels on this one seem to get the dirtiest.

One more photo is attached below and I'll try to get some "night" shots in the next week or so.  The other day I ran my 20+ year-old blue train with interior lighting behind the DD51 and it looked great except that all of the interior lights didn't work all the time.  If I can get the bugs out of that one it should make for some excellent pictures.  I always liked the little red lights on the tables in the dining car.     

[Kamiyacho]

Here are some new photos.  Recently I've been adding additional foliage as well as placing a few figures.  A lot remains to be done - this is only the beginning.   

[marknewton]

Great photos, Curt, particularly the night shots. But you really should feed that lizard! 

Cheers,

Mark.

[KenS]

Wonderful photos, and the nighttime skyline is really impressive.  I want my cityscape to look light that at night, someday.

But you really should feed that lizard! 

It looks like he brought his own snack. 

[westfalen]

Things like trees, figures and vehicles really bring layouts to life. The night scenes are an inspiration.

[Kamiyacho]

Adding details are what I enjoy most.  I can see probably 6 months worth of projects each detailing some of those scenes, like the station platforms.   

[cteno4]

Curt has given me a new article on his layout for the jrm website. its part 3 in his series.

http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/curtlayout3.html

i also updated his photogallery with the new picts

http://japanrailmodelers.org/photos/kurtslayout/index.html

cheers

jeff