Takadanobaba Station in Alameda: a new blog about modeling Tokyo commuter trains

I've started a new blog about my adventures in modeling Japanese commuter trains in not-quite N scale.

Please check out the first installment at https://takadanobaba-station-in-alameda.blogspot.com/

I'll keep writing about the B&OCT in N scale. That project has many posts and a lot of work ahead.

Watching “Midnight Diner” rekindled a long-forgotten railroad passion

I’ve been watching a lot of TV lately. That’s because I’m recovering from rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder. That has limited a lot of my activities. One of the programs I found recently is “Midnight Diner”.

It’s a slice-of-life show set at a Tokyo izakaya in the Shinjuku Prefecture. An izakaya is a bar that serves drinks and snacks. The one in the Netflix show is open from Midnight to 7 am. Hence, the name. The show is like a more somber version of Cheers. There’s no laugh track. It’s also a foodie show in that the featured character or characters orders a dish of the episode. It's more than just ramen or sushi. 

What does this have to do with trains?

 

The railroad connection occurs during the opening credits. A camera is mounted in a car driving through Tokyo at night. Early in the shot, the car approaches and passes under the railroad tracks just north of the Shinjuku railroad station. Later, an overhead shot shows more trains.

Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories screen capture

Seeing those trains got me thinking about Japanese railroads. I didn’t know much about them aside from the Bullet Train or “Shinkansen”. When I was 6-years old, my parents took a trip to Japan. They brought back a pamphlet about the bullet train. I wore it out, paging through it and poring over the pictures. I don’t know what happened to it. 

JR East Yamanote Line commuter trains

The show exposed me to a less-glamorous aspect of Japanese railroads: the commuter train. Tokyo is teeming with them, as I found out. 

On reflection, it makes sense that I’m attracted to these trains. My American model railroad interest is in  Chicago terminal railroading. It’s gritty railroading. It is industrial switching, yard ops and transfer runs. My prototype, the B&OCT, hosted some B&O and C&O long-distance passenger trains. The B&O’s Capitol Limited was the most glamorous. No commuter trains, however. 

Back to Japanese trains and “Midnight Diner. In a five-second shot in the opening credits, I saw several trains pass on the bridge over the road. That was typical rail traffic, I learned. Shinjuku Station is the busiest railroad station in the world. This led me to start checking out YouTube videos and plunged down a rabbit hole. There’s a whole world of Tokyo train videos. I have yet to watch them all. I do have a life. I also started looking at web pages about modeling Japanese trains. So far, I have found a lot less material. I think there’s a lot written in Japanese that’s not showing in my browser. 

Ultimately, I started researching whether Japanese model trains are available in the U.S. Not really. 

There’s a lot available in N scale from Kato and Tomix in Japan. N scale is very popular in Japan given the lack of living space and accompanying hobby space. On this side of the Pacific Ocean, most retailers don’t carry Japanese prototype models. The access hatch to the Japanese model train market is eBay. I found all kinds of stuff available for international shipping. My itchy trigger finger went to work and I bought a model commuter train. 

Now, I need a layout for it. It won’t run on the B&OCT. 

JR East Yamanote Line map

My idea is to build a small display layout. It would feature a single station serving two train lines. The operational feature will be the arrival and departure of trains from this station. There’s no switching or changing tracks. 

I’m thinking of modeling the Takadanobaba station. It’s a stop and transfer point on both the JR East’s busy Yamanote Line and the Seibu-Shinjuku Railway. The Yamanote Line serves an island-platform station. The Seibu line serves a two-platform station with the platforms on the east side of each track. There’s a connection between the two stations via a pedestrian bridge. That overhead passageway also crosses another two JR East tracks that carry trains on the Saikyo Line and Shonan-Shinjuku Line. The Siebu-Shinjuku Railway is run by an independent company and offers suburban service. 

The JR East's Yamanote Line is a circular 21.4 mile double-tracked line serving 30 stations. (see map) There are 50 trains constantly circling on this line, which during rush hour has 2-minute headways. The only comparable prototype in the U.S. might be the Chicago Transit Authority’s loop trackage in downtown Chicago. It serves eight stations over 1.79 miles. But, there is no longer a dedicated local train circulating. 

A small display layout could be a valuable learning experience for me. It will give me a chance to try scenery on a limited scale. Since we’re in Tokyo, the emphasis will be urban scenery (structures . . . and lots of them). I’m thinking of adding sound, semi- or fully automatic operations. Lots of lights and details. 

My goal is not faithfully replicating the prototype. I don’t have the space. I want a reasonable representation. All the important elements will be captured. I’m going for the effect. I’d like the viewer to think they’re looking at a miniature slice of Tokyo. Can I accurately represent Japanese architecture? Can I replicate the density? Google Earth and Google Maps street view are invaluable resources in my research. 

One interesting fact about the Tokyo commuter train system: it runs on narrow gauge track. I will not be modeling Nn3, but rather the trains are made to run on standard gauge N scale track. The models are closer to 1:150 scale, rather than the standard gauge 1:160 N scale.

Kato Seibu Line 40000 Series commuter train

I'm eager to get started, because a Seibu Line train that I ordered, arrived on Wednesday. I have a few details to add to my concept document, which I'll share soon. Rough track planning has started. I  discovered that I may have less scenic space available than I thought. 

Enough talk. It's time to roll up my sleeves and get started. 

Layout-ready rolling stock

The first two layout ready cars have been completed!!! Prepping them took longer than I expected as I reached a major fork in the road. That fork was the question as to whether I would body-mount couplers on my rolling stock. N-scale freight cars are commonly sold with truck-mounted couplers. They don't work particularly well when cars are shoved. As I have decided to step up my game with this layout and shoot for the highest quality of work and reliability that led me to decide to body-mount couplers. Enter Stephen Van Meter: A much-more experienced N-scaler in town. He offered to help. And I needed it. On November 10 I had surgery to repair my torn rotator cuff on my left shoulder. (Thank goodness I am a righty.) I'm currently in a sling and will be for a couple more weeks. The total recovery is six months. Anyway, Stephen and Bob Moore both offered to help with modeling projects as I heal. I can't do a whole lot. I asked Steve to help with couplers. Last week, I went to his house to see how the magic is done. The conversion job was not as hard as I feared. Earlier this year I decided that Micro Trains couplers and trucks would be the standard on my layout. For existing Micro Trains cars, I can cut off the coupler box from the car's trucks and mount them using itty bitty screws. That will save time and money. The other part of stepping up my game has included being more organized.

That's what the above picture is about. Not only is it the start of a rolling stock inventory, it helps me keep track of what needs to be done to a car before its ready to be put on the rails. The extra-long green rows contain the data for the cars pictured at the top of ths entry. Two down -- a couple hundred more to go!

Organizing progress -- shelves built and mounted

 The headline speaks for itself.

My goodness building shelving took quite a long time -- a month and change. Seems like every time I thought I was ready to assemble a shelving unit, there was one or two more pieces of lumber to cut. 

The shelving units are 14-feet long in total. Two four-foot units and three two-foot units. All two-feet high. they are screwed into the studs and have a ledger board underneath. 

Finally, I got them done. 

I needed help and fortunately my across-the-street neighbor, Brad came over. Hanging them was a two-person job. I also have a torn rotator cuff. That's slated to be fixed on Nov. 10 and will keep me out of commission for a while. So, I wanted to get this done and out of the way. With these shelves up, I'll reorganize a lot of the stuff in the garage, move a bunch of stuff off the floor and have a more pleasant work space. It's amazing how much stuff goes in to building a model railroad. Too much of it has been acquired in advance. but, it will eventually be used.

One benefit of the shelf project was that I consumed a bunch of sheet and dimensional lumber that had been in the garage. I still have more to use or throw out. Getting it out of the way will be a big advancement. 

Here are a few pictures of the process of building and installing the shelves. 

This is the first cabinet, completed.

An in-progress shot of the first 4-foot section. 

My neighbor, Brad, helping install the first shelving unit -- just four more to go. Thanks Brad. 

First three units are up. Two more to go. 

All the shelving units are in place. Hmm the shop light is in the way. 

Next up --- filling the shelves. That should not be a problem, there's plenty of stuff to put on them. Might need to get a few organizing tubs. 

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Progress report -- the organizing continues

Sometimes when straightening a mess you have to make a bigger one.

That's the case currently. I'm making a lot of fine-particle sawdust -- as I cut plywood to make wall-mounted cabinets and drawers for on-going projects.

The idea: build some temporary, but desperately needed storage units. These units will be two-feet high, 16-inches deep and range in length from two- to four-feet. They will be mounted on the wall, at ceiling level. Should they be more permanent than temporary, they will be ideal to hang layout lighting above the top level. 

This project consumed a 4'x8' sheet of 1/2-inch plywood that has been hanging around in the garage, getting in the way. I'm cutting up other sheet lumber to add to the project. It's a two-fer. I'm getting rid of sheet lumber and adding more storage. Getting rid of the sheet lumber will give me access to some stored rolling stock and locomotives. I'll use a locomotive for track testing. (more to come on that.)

One of the wall units will have a section for drawers housing on-going project kits. The drawers will keep rolling stock projects, track work, fasttracks switch assembly, structures. The drawers will have all the needed tools and supplies. Easy to find, pull out, set up and when done, easy to put away. 

Next up -- cut some 1/4" plywood for drawer runners and stabilization blocks. 

One other update -- all the helix sections have been trimmed and are ready to be assembled -- once the storage cabinet project is done. 

Here are a few in-progress pictures:

Trimmed helix sections -- ready for installation.

Framing for project kit drawers. They will have either hardboard bottoms or 1/4" ply bottoms.

Sheet plywood cut to make wall storage units. Next up -- sanding and assembling. 

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Organization -- Not always my strong suit. A new learning opportunity for me

An empty box of possibilities? Really, an empty box that once held stuff now stored, categorized or tossed. One step in the process of organizing the layout work space.

Building a model railroad requires participating in a multitude of hobbies. The larger the layout, the broader that multitude. 

The B&OCT in N scale is the largest layout I've ever attempted: multiple levels, several helixes, multiple yards, interlockings, signals, DCC, urban scenery, multiple operators (some of them likely participating remotely). There's a lot for me to learn.

Historically, I'd take a scattershot approach to working on trains. It was not always satisfying. In approaching a project of the size that I am imagining -- and it's by no means a huge layout -- I can't be scattered. 

There needs to be method and structure to the madness. Projects need to be identified, prioritized and executed upon. There needs to be accountability.

In the past, my workspace would be cluttered and overwhelmed with started and not-quite-ever-completed projects. I'm looking to make a change. I'm trying to keep a diary of layout projects. It's online -- so easy to access from my computer, tablet or phone. 

One of the first priorities is organizing my layout space. And that's the significance of the top photo. Big whoop, its an empty box. Its a box of things that have been sorted, organized, stored or trashed. I have to get the garage cleaned. Building storage over the layout is on my to-do list. Under layout storage really isn't an option until my construction is further along. 

Next up -- dust mitigation. The garage is a home for the dust stirred up by the mow-blow-and-go landscapers. I'm looking into better weather stripping for the doors -- as a start. I need to reduce the dirt that gets into the layout space and settles on the track, rolling stock and other flat surfaces. 

To mitigate dust created internally I'm trying to move most of that work to the outdoors. 

Tied to dust mitigation is cleaning the Barr Staging track, again, along with locomotive wheels. I'm nearing the end of testing the track -- just need a couple of Atlas locomotives back on the front lines. Another task to put in the diary.

Anyway, until next time.

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I'm my own worst enemy!!

The process of building a model railroad has not been as linear as I had expected. There are numerous obstacles that present themselves.

Sometimes the obstacles are external, sometimes internal. 

Let's talk about the external ones: no power to the garage. Can’t do work. 

Nearly two weeks ago, the main circuit breaker to the garage tripped. I tried to reset it, but it would immediately trip. The fact that it was immediately tripping suggested either a bum breaker or some other source of an open circuit. But, I did not know how to diagnose or fix the problem. I’m not about to dive into fixing a 100 amp household circuit. That’s a task better left to a qualified professional I asked a friend to recommend an electrician.

Someone should be by next week. Hopefully, the problem will be easy to fix.

With power restored to the garage (and the irrigation and garden lighting systems) I can test the Barr staging and move on to building a helix. This “external” obstacle is pretty defined and definitely fixable. 

Internal obstacles are a worse problem. These are the roadblocks that I create. 

I’ve had an irrational fear of dealing with DCC. I think the concept is great. Yet, it's a mystery to me.  I have a Digitrax Zephyr system. Up to a point, it works well. I don’t think that Digitrax is the most user friendly system. This is not meant to be a rant against Digitrax, but rather a look at why I don’t roll up my sleeves and figure things out. I’m going to use a Digitrax Zephyr to run my HO logging layout. 

I’ll eventually install an NCE system for the n-scale layout. Meanwhile, I’m using Digitrax to test the layout. It’s doing the job. 

But, one of the things that I needed to do was connect it to my computer, so I can have a better look inside the Zephyr and inside the decoders in each locomotive. 

I have been testing the Barr Staging section track. I want to run more than one locomotive around -- in order to ensure that I have debugged the trackage for all locomotives, not just the primary test engine. The problem is that the slots were full on my Zephyr. The easiest way to solve that problem is to connect it to the computer. I have an old Acer designated for the job. But, it's clunky. Then I created a massive roadblock in my mind. This would be a hard task - given some of the issues with the Acer and the bias against Digitrax.

I could look for a DCC guru to help - but that’s hard to do in this Covid time. I decided to take the plunge and try to solve my problem. 

We took a family trip for a few days last week and I made myself a little DCC travel kit. A couple of locomotives, a test track and programming track, a locobuffer USB and my old Acer computer. 

I tried plugging everything together and firing up the older version of JMRI on my computer. Not much was happening. Then I did a quick search on YouTube and found help.

In about an hour and a half, I had downloaded the current version of JMRI and Java and followed the instructions and I was up and running. DCC is less scary for me now. I may even start installing decoders. Now, on to the testing.

This is not the first time I have created mountains out of molehills. I see that some of my other procrastination relates to these internal obstacles.