How to murder a Twilight Express

[stevenh]

This past weekend I ventured out to Warrnambool for a railway exhibition, mainly spending the day on loco-hauled trains (bonus).

The exhibition was great... until I saw another one of those modellers who prefer their 'own little universe'. All the Japanese stock on the layout had been 're-liveried'. I can handle this... but then I saw the Twilight Express consist running around... AS A DMU!
The owner had removed the shell from the EF81 and stuck the shell from the generator/baggage car on instead! It hardly fit; around 4mm higher than it should be... but I suppose it looked OK for anyone who didn't know.








I cried.
Meanwhile, there were some other cool layouts... the album is here.

[linkey]

Steve,

Great photos and yes that is murderous what happened to the Twilight Express. But then I keep my rolling stock without any modification (except lighting inside) really need to get to the though of adding weathering to my trains.

[Martijn Meerts]

That's sacrilege!

[The_Ghan]

"Nice layout, pity about the trains", hey?  I'm sure he's proud of what he's accomplished and his scenery (especially the rocks) look better that what I could do.  Perhaps our bias is leading to harsh judgement

Cheers

The_Ghan

[stevenh]

As I said with 'each to their own'... The layout was really really nice... and the trains did fit the part.
Kudos to the modeller for even thinking of doing that to a train... but .... it just had to be my favourite train on earth.

Anyway, I just want to re-iterate that I mean nothing (especially any harsh judgement) via this thread!

[Toni Babelony]

Hahaha, I actually kind of like the idea. The bad thing is that it doesn't look too convincing. If he'd really wanted it to look different from everything else, he'd have to repaint all rolling stock in a different livery and add some distracting details, like snowplows or extra exhaust pipes.

[CaptOblivious]

It ends up looking like a really long doodlebug. I kind of like the concept, actually, and the overall ambience achieved is very interesting. I find myself strangely fascinated by compelling or novel fantasy layouts.

[disturbman]

What?! No Ueno fantasy anymore?! 

I like the layout, it has a nice exotic touch (for me). Very nice job!

[bill937ca]

I once saw someone who removed the pantographs off a Shinkansen and claimed it was a diesel.  His excuse: no overhead.  Why buy an expensive if you are going to butcher it?  Any resale value is killed.

[clem24]

I once saw someone who removed the pantographs off a Shinkansen and claimed it was a diesel.  His excuse: no overhead.  Why buy an expensive if you are going to butcher it?  Any resale value is killed.

Resale? Really? Do you guys actually buy trains based on what you think resale value might be? I don't. I just keep buying whatever I like...

[keitaro]

I once saw someone who removed the pantographs off a Shinkansen and claimed it was a diesel.  His excuse: no overhead.  Why buy an expensive if you are going to butcher it?  Any resale value is killed.

Resale? Really? Do you guys actually buy trains based on what you think resale value might be? I don't. I just keep buying whatever I like...

as do i i wouldn't part with a model

[linkey]

I once saw someone who removed the pantographs off a Shinkansen and claimed it was a diesel.  His excuse: no overhead.  Why buy an expensive if you are going to butcher it?  Any resale value is killed.

Resale? Really? Do you guys actually buy trains based on what you think resale value might be? I don't. I just keep buying whatever I like...

I keep my models :)

[jappomania]

I once saw someone who removed the pantographs off a Shinkansen and claimed it was a diesel.  His excuse: no overhead.  Why buy an expensive if you are going to butcher it?  Any resale value is killed.

Resale? Really? Do you guys actually buy trains based on what you think resale value might be? I don't. I just keep buying whatever I like...

Yes Clem, it's right what you say, but nobody know what can happen in the future, so is not bad if you handle with care your train models, maybe you can/need to re-sale if you decide/need to stop your collection
(and if the collection value is "high" is not a bad thing...)
To Play with train is not necessary to destroy it

ciao
Massimo

 

[Bernard]

Steve - The photos you took are beautiful and the scenery work on the layout is first rate.....it does go with that old principle, "It's your layout do what you want....and they did."

[CaptOblivious]

What?! No Ueno fantasy anymore?! 

I like the layout, it has a nice exotic touch (for me). Very nice job!

Oh, capturing the essence of Ueno is still my long term plan, don't get me wrong! I just find this kind of thing interesting.

[stevenh]

...Great photos...

...The photos you took are beautiful...

Thanks for the compliments on the pics... it's amazing what you can do once you know what Aperture is :)
Meanwhile, the lens I bought (Minolta 35mm-105mm) showed up some nasty blur on the left-hand side of most pics... it might not have been seated on my camera properly... but I hate it when you find that out too late. It was second-hand too... so, beggars can't be choosers :)
Also, the lighting at the exhibition was terrible!

I keep my models :)

Hah... I completely concur with this... but space is running out :P
Resale is a great concept... especially in 30 years when N Scale physical models will be at a premium since humans will be doing everything virtually?

[westfalen]

That's a very nice looking layout with well done scenery and the freelanced paint schemes on the diesels gives a convincing enough impression of a private railway in rural Japan serving a timber industry (whether or not that's what the builder intended). I won't add to other's comments on what he's done to the Twilight Express or even begin to speculate on why, but I will say it doesn't seem fit in with the rest of the layout even if he had left it as intended. A C11 with two or three coaches would fit in better.

I know the old saying, "It's your layout, so do whatever makes you happy" and I'm fairly tolerant myself, (I just noticed my yard at the moment has a 500 series Shinkansen parked beside a pair of ED16's with a train of four wheel freight cars), but I rarely leave a train show without seeing something that makes me cringe. I don't think I could have walked away from that layout without asking him why he did it.

P.S. I am a bit relieved though, when I saw the title of the thread I thought JR might have announced the discontinuance of the Twilight Express.

[marknewton]

Resale? Really? Do you guys actually buy trains based on what you think resale value might be? I don't.

Neither do I. But its interesting the number of time people have suggested that by weathering, detailing or otherwise modifying my models I'm reducing their resale value, or so they claim. I respond by telling them I'm a modeller, not an investor/speculator.

Cheers,

Mark.