I started this project almost a year ago and so far the only things I was able to do were:

• running the tram
• setting up the rails together (which took me roughly 43 seconds)
• spending hours on Hobby Search to see what kind of scenery work I will do…

But after posting my train depot post on the Centram the other day I was in a good mood to work on my layout.

If you need a reminder on the project, I invite you to read my first post on the topic. Quick summary: I will use a shelf from an IKEA Billy bookshelf to build a mini tram layout on a 27 x 76cm space.

Big enough to build a real layout and not a diorama, and small enough to have it fit in our appartement without disturbing anything (or anyone! ;-) ).

The particularity of this layout is it has two sides: an urban and a nature/tunnel area. It’s maybe a bit strange to make a two sided layout on such a small space (especially knowing that 3 sides will be blind) but I think the whole thing can look nice and really japanese looking.

The base of the base

You have to start somewhere! As I plan to make a pond and why not a river, I decided not to work directly on the board but use a 10mm styrofoam base. This will also allow me to easily add electric poles (I don’t plan to use any LED for the moment), trees and other things by just “planting” them in the foam instead of gluing them on the board.

Then I simply reported the shape of my tracks on the styrofoam. This helps me visualize the layout and I was able to place the position of the hill and the tunnel under it.

Now that I have the base and the plan, I just need to make the elevation. I reported my shapes on another board of styrofoam and made the first layer of the hill. I’ll probably need 4 or 5 more to be able to close the tunnel. I’ll make rough shapes withe the foam and planned to use plaster to make the later work. An opening to access inside the tunnel in case of trouble is also planned.

I decided (like many others do) to put the feeder cable into the tunnel so it’s invisible. Using a Dremel tool, I dug a gutter to pass the cable. The foam is really fragile so I used staples to reenforce it.

Now that the base work was done, I glued my tracks to the board using a glue gun. Simple and incredibly effective! I will ballast the tracks so I don’t really care it’s visible for now on. It looks really strong, glue-gun is my new friend!

Next things I need to do are finishing the hill and place the thinner foam that will level the ground to the tram tracks (you can see that I already placed o part of it on the left of this picture). Then I’ll start working on the painting, grass, trees and ballast and eventually buildings, people and details!

As I don’t have enough room at home to make a permanent layout and I’m sometimes frustrated by not being able to work on scenery, I thought working on a mini tram layout would be a good idea! So… I needed a tram! A gift from my girlfriend for my birthday!

It’s an articulated tram manufactured by Kato. It has front, tail and internal lights and can run on Finetrack’s shortest radius: 103mm. Which makes my planned mini-layout only 27cm wide.

This tram runs in the city of Toyama, Toyama prefecture, Japan since december 2009 and is operated by Chitetsu. It comes in many liveries (White, Silver and Black) and runs on one of the three light rail lines of Chitetsu inside Toyama city.

I have to admit I’m not “related” at all to this tram: I’ve never seen it in real and never even set a foot in Toyama. But I needed a tram for a mini layout and I thought it looked really nice, especially in silver.

Kato seemed to have a nice success with it’s tram tracks and the Portram model. But I was not a huge fan of the color scheme of the Portram. This one combines silver and black and light green-tinted windows.

I enjoyed a lot the articulated “accordion” part in the middle. It seems not particularly fragile as you could think it would be. And it allows the tram to negotiate the tightest Tomix radius: 103mm.

I was surpirised to see the internal lights when I ran it for the first time. It’s perfect for this kind of rolling stock but as usual with internal lights: it looks a bit sad with nobody inside… Adding N scale people inside could be a trouble as the floor is really high because you know: they have to but the mechanics somewhere. I’ll probably give it a try someday, but it’s not a priority… At least as long as the layout is not completed!

Because it is a tram, I wasn’t expecting it to run fast: it does not. But it sure runs perfectly. Smooth, silent and really stable. A real pleasure to see it slide on the rails.

It’s definitely a nice model even if it’s not a breathtaking one (nothing to do with the excitation of a new Shinkansen ;-) ). I’d really love to finish or at least progress a little bit on my layout to see this one running in the decor, entering a tunnel and running an a miniature city!

What I like:

• Cute short tram
• Internal lighting
• Accordion :-)

What I don’t like

• not much…
• doesn’t have the charm of older more rustic tramways

Prototype infos:

• Operated by: Chitetsu (Toyama Chihō Railway)
• Country: Japan
• Type: Tramway
• Service started: December 23rd, 2009
• Service ended: 1966-1974 some are preserved as historic models
• Max speed: 70km/h
• Operating speed: 40km/h

I received a wonderful gift for Christmas: a Kato SBB Re460 and two double decker IC2000 coaches. As you can see they look awesome! Those cars are currently running almost everywhere here in Switzerland and are a perfect match for the Re 460.

But I had a major disappointment when I ran the coaches for the first time: they are so low on the tracks (to look as prototypical as possible) that they touch the rails on any minor track bump which makes them uncouple really easily and even derail sometimes.

In the following picture you can see that even a minor obstacle under the track (here it’s a toothpick) gets the car stuck.

Needless to say that they can’t negotiate running up and down of a viaduct but even the cable of a switch passed under the tracks elevates it enough to cause troubles… :-( The problem is probably amplified as those cars are really long, even longer than a Shinkansen car.

You can imagine how much I was disappointed: gorgeous rolling stock, gift from my girlfriend and unable to run them, either pushed or pulled… At that point, I was thinking about returning them.

It was without counting on the good folks of JNS Forum and especially to2leo and quinntopia who had a great advice for me:

For the wheels and derailment, you can add a flat ring thingy in the screw aisle available from your local home renovation store.

Spoiler alert: it worked!

Here is how to do it!

Get rings in your hardware store (I bought 0.8mm height nylon rings, 4.3mm/9mm diameter to fit the truck base).

Unclip the truck of the cars (be gentle but it’s really easy, they are just clipped). Then put the rings under the floor of the cars (I added two of them for a total height of 1.6mm added) just like in the picture.

Just clip the truck back and there you are! An invisible fix that will allow your brand new cars to run on your tracks and even climb a viaduct!

Just be careful as the tucks aren’t clipped anymore they could fall when you lift the cars. But the simple weight of the cars themselves in enough to avoid any problem like this when they are on the rails.

Just one more problem…

You thought that would be all? Now your cars are 1.6mm higher but your locomotive’s couplers didn’t move. Uh oh… The coaches couple perfectly together but uncouple really easily with the Re 460 (it’s my first train with rapido couplers and the first one that is not an EMU, so I can’t compare).

I was advised by to2leo to use sillyputty (patafix in french) to help the coupling between the locomotive and the rest of the train. I have to admit that I’m not really seduced by this idea, I’d rather try something like a mini rubber band. But I didn’t give it a try yet and I’ll keep you informed next time I build a layout (I can only have temporary layouts).
In the meantime you have a nice solution to fix an annoying problem on gorgeous rolling stock.

PS: I’m sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. I made them at night with artificial light and it’s definitely not good except if you have an appropriate light equipment.

I’ve been waiting a long time for this one! If you’re following Tecchan’s Facebook you already know the news: I just received my Keisei New Skyliner.

Preordered in august, it took the parcel almost a month to come from Japan. It was worth the waiting time: it is simply gorgeous!

I’ve often heard that Micro Ace tends to be a little better manufacturer than Kato or Tomix, this simple trains confirms it perfectly. The mold seems to be perfect and the colors are gorgeous: the metallic paint on the front and top is a beauty.

I was kind of afraid of the coupling because it uses rapid couplers but it couples quite close and looks nice.

I’ve never taken the Skyliner but I have kind of a fascination for its design. I hope to have time to set up a small layout and run it soon. I really want to see it running and with the lights on.

I’m also a bit late on the train depot posts as I have 5 more reviews to make and soon 6… Oops…

At least this guarantee some future content for the blog, I just miss some time to do it.

I wish you a merry Christmas and wonderful holidays. Enjoy being with friends and family, having time for you and eating loads of delicious food!

See you real soon for new adventures in our tiny 1:150 world! ;-)

Another expo I like to go each year. It’s usually held the last weekend of november in the shopping mall of Geneva Airport. It’s also accessible by train! :-D

This year: no N scale, not many stuff in the shops, nothing really impressive but… a huge O gauge layout. About 10m per 20m of Swiss trains: olds and news. Man! Those trains are BIG!! The scale is about 1:45.  A lot bigger than N gauge that is 1:150/1:160 and HO (which stands for Half O) that is around 1:82.

This was a perfect occasion to try filming with my new iPhone! Here is a quick movie. :-)

Of course I made lots of tours around this huge layout to take pictures. It’s impressive how many people were around…

I was impressed to see the variety of models at this scale. O gauge models are quite expensive (a single loco can cost the price of several N scale sets) and I didn’t think there would be so much choice available.

On this next picture you can judge the actual size of the rolling stock. It’s so big! I couldn’t even build a returning loop in my apartment.

The Red Arrow is gorgeous! I’m more used to see my N-Scale model and I enjoyed seeing it at such a scale!

There also was other stands but nothing as impressive as the O gauge. The Swiss Vapeur Parc was displaying a steamer and a smaller layout of the park.

I call this one “Trainception”: a model train within a model train:

You’ll find more pictures on Tecchan’s Facebook page, don’t forget to like it! ;-)

It was a nice expo but like when I went to Rail Expo in Nyon this year, I was a bit disappointed not to see more different layouts and especially N scale ones. Thus said, all was compensated by the O gauge layout, I can’t get enough of this one!

You may have heard about Miniatur Wunderland. If you have not, you will enjoy the following. It’s a model attraction featuring railways of course but also roads, waters and even… skies with their brand new airport area.

But enough words, here is their official 2012 video and at the end of those 5 minutes I’m pretty sure that you will want to go to Hamburg!! (don’t forget to play it in fullscreen HD)