Contents

The layout is being built with the following ideas in mind :-

• It is modern Japanese outline.
• It is in 'N' scale (1/150 not 1/160).
• It started as two modules (1800mm x 1200mm and 1500mm x 1200mm) to be ready as a one-sided layout for the HMRS 1998 exhibition. Facilities are being included now to allow addition of the same size modules on the 'other' side to make an all-round layout.
• There will be eight (yes 8!) running tracks, so there should be plenty of action for the public to see, and to keep the operator busy.
• Also planned for a later date will be computer control to relieve the operator of controlling all this action!

The overall design of the layout is a large city station scene on one side, with a rural scene on the other side. As mentioned above, there are eight running tracks, but the station's eight platforms do not relate directly to the tracks, as two of the tracks are for Bullet trains which do not stop here. The extra two are for country type Diesel trains which will run an out-and-back type operation, and terminate on the rural side. The other six tracks/platforms are for :-

• Mainline or Express services to other cities. These trains will pass though the rural side as well.
• Semi-fast or Outer Suburban and Subway (which are not always underground) services within the city. These trains will only be seen on the city side.
• Private railway company trains, both suburban and express, will also pass though the city side, and the private express trains will run to and terminate at the station on the rural side.

Construction methods.

• The framework is built from 90x19mm pine with corners being strengthened by 42x42mm blocks and triangular 19mm gussets. Cross bearers at around 300mm intervals is from 42x19mm pine. The legs are a rectangular frame from 42x19mm pine with a triangular brace. The legs are attached to the main frame with hinges, one at the outside end of each module. Support in the middle is with a collapsible A-frame with locating guides to help position the modules together. Connection is by bolts with T-nuts, and there are metal locating guides on the sides to align the modules precisely.
• Risers are from 42x19mm pine and the baseboards are from 12mm craftwood, which is sealed to prevent warping. Track is laid on cork roadbed and will be Peco Finescale code-55 concrete sleeper for visible tracks and 'el-cheapo' brand code-80 for storage tracks. Large radius points are used for all visible tracks and also the bullet train storage tracks and medium radius points for all other storage tracks. The new rural side will use all Tomix track, as I have not been happy with the reliability of the Peco components!
• Control will be by a matrix system for each storage yard, so that only one train can be run at once. There are 8 bullet train storage tracks, 12 express tracks, 6 suburban/subway tracks, 4 private railway tracks and 4 diesel storage tracks. With this many trains to control, a system will be devised to automatically run trains in and out of each yard in sequence so that there is not the boring continuous circling of one train that is often seen at exhibitions. The C/MRI system, as seen in Model Railroader, is being investigated as the control system. Also, most trains will be programmed to stop at the station, unless overidden.
• Scenery will be medical plaster bandage material (which I acquired a box of for free!) covering a cardboard framework, covered with the usual scatter material. A lot of the layout will be the city area with just streets and buildings on a fairly flat base. Structures will be of Japanese design of course, from Tomix and Greenmax mostly, with a little Kato. The buildings will kind of dominate the trains, which is usually the case in a big city, with one building being around 600mm high! Hopefully, in the more rural end, there will be a Bhudda shrine, if I can find one the right size! Also, if my artists hand works properly, or I can trick someone else to do it, there will be a vista of Mt Fuji setting the scene over this end. The rural side will show a small town with a JR through station and storage facilities for the private railway terminus. It may also have port/harbour facilites.

Progress log.

• The beginning of this project originated a few years ago as an HO Australian layout depicting the Bunbury Street tunnel area on the main western line out of Melbourne. Timber was cut and some framework was constructed on the balcony of the flat I was living in at the time. During early last year, I was able to find a suitably sized area to set up the whole layout (5.7m x 2.7m) and construction commenced in earnest. By late that year, all framework was constructed and roadbed and track had been test-laid to check clearances and train abilities on the gradients (yes, gradients on an exhibition layout!). At this time, I was able to acquire some Japanese rolling stock, which I had never had before, but had always admired. At a price too good to refuse, the idea then came about to have somewhere to run this acquisition. A layout to do this on could be a lot smaller - read cheaper and quicker - to build! A large amount of the framework and baseboards could be reused, without having to start from scratch again. Also, the smaller size meant that I could fit the layout in a room at home, and hopefully get more work done on it.
• December 29, 1997 - Framework was rearranged to the new configuration.
• December 31 - New framework brought home on roof of car, without too much falling of onto road!!!
• January 1, 1998 - Set up in new location and track plan transferred from paper to full size on baseboards to see if it would fit. Many changes - read improvements - made!
• January 3-4

- Storage yard baseboards cut to size.
• January 5-9 - Curved baseboards from stage yards to front sections cut out.
• January 14 - Baseboards for full circle of Outer Suburban loop installed and trains run on test track (there are gradients again - around 3-4%).
• January 23 - Baseboards for Outer Suburban and Subway lines finished and cork track base laid.

Overall view at this stage. Vertical posts are where the backboards will be.

Left hand end showing site of station area.

Right hand end showing loops to Outer Suburban and Subway storage tracks.

• January 28-29 - Backscene boards constructed and temporarily fitted.
• February 1 - Track purchased and laying started on Outer Suburban loop.
• February 5 - Full Outer Suburban loop track layed, wired and tested. TRAINS ARE RUNNING!!!!
• February-March - Some Subway tracks removed and relaid - point motors added and wired to both yards - city buildings ordered and constructed.
• March 22 - Route switches added to point motors.
• Early April - Foundation for upper loops and storage constructed - cork for roadbed laid.
• Shots with framework for upper tracks in place.

Overall view at this stage.

Front side looking from right hand end.

Back side(!)looking from right hand end.
 

• Baseboards for upper tracks fitted.

Overall view at this stage.

Left hand end.

Right hand end.

Right hand end looking from left hand end.
 

• Back boards have now been fitted.
• April 19 - Track laying started on Express loop.

Overall view at this stage.

Left hand end.

Right hand end.
 

• June/July - madly trying to acquire items to finish the layout, some items had to be airmailed from Japan. Even though there were a lot of things I had planned that didn't get done, the layout was still shown to critical acclaim, including a 2nd and 3rd in the awards voting. A number of electrical and operation problems were solved over the weekend.
• August - 2nd exhibition, hampered by losing my job (and company car) and having to hire transport to travel out of town. More work had been done in the meantime and the layout ran a lot smoother.
• Invitations have been received for 4 future exhibitions and there are plans being made to extend the layout by 1.2 or 2.4 m.
• Below are some photos taken at the exhibition in July, thank to Nicholas Vogt.


Overall shot of 6 track station with Bullet train passing in the background.

View of station looking toward rural end.

Closeup of city area.

Another view of rural end.

View of upper storage roads.

Another view of upper storage roads.

Photos below from the exhibition in August, where a number of changes/additions should be apparent!

      

A good overall view of the city scene, showing the size of some of the buildings.

View of the double deck storage tracks.


Photos below were taken at home using 'studio' conditions, as I was not happy with the results from the previous sessions, as seen above.

      

      

      

After the layout was extended by 300 mm (the 1500mm board is now 1800mm), so both original modules were the same size, I attended an N scale convention. The photos below show more changes to the 'front' side, getting ready for the expansion of the city towards the RH end; and the redevelopement of the storage tracks at the back.

    

The final result as at Easter 1999. See if you can spot all the differences!

    

    

The three wise monkeys (sorry - men!) that are the usual operators of this layout, showing special T/shirts made up for the convention. To the right of me - Ed and Keith (thanks guys)!

    




Future Plans

A large addition was planned early in 1999, but was not started until the above convention was finished. It was planned as a second side for the layout - so it would be an all-round affair. Construction was half finished for an exhibition in June, and then abandoned for shows in July and then October, due to lack of time and money.

  The new visible end of the layout, which was to show a bridge scene in a deep valley, like on the old Usui Pass.

   The LH corner tracks, which would have lead out of the mountain to a rual town station scene.

   The middle section, where the Bullet train tracks would have bypassed the town area (in the front).

   The RH corner tracks, where the tracks would have looped back to rejoin the main board.
 

By June, I also had a custom-made trailer built for transporting the layout to exhibitions. You can see the rails inside for the layout pieces to slide in on.  It is now painted Stealth Black !!! I may put a new picture up soon ....

  
front photo           back photo

Anyway, the size had proved to be too wide to suit exhibition hall planning. So I decided to add the new boards on the end of the current layout and make it twice as long and the same depth. The original large layout would still fit in a room in the house, but the new plan will not, but that is my problem!!!!  In December, I ripped most of the removable objects from the layout, to start again from baseboards up!!! The two photos below show the layout at this stage...

  
ex-city end            ex-country end

Sadly this layout is now part of my learning experience, but I am hoping the next one will be so much better. Please look at the new Shin Yamanote page for it's details and history.


Exhibitions this layout attended...
Hills Model Railway Society Exhibition - Castle Hill -  26th & 27th July 1998
Ourtown Model Railway Club Exhibition - Newcastle -  30th & 31st August 1998
National N Scale Convention - Quakers Hill - 3rd & 4th April, 1999
Epping Model Railway Club Exhibition - Epping -  5th to 7th June 1999
Hills Model Railway Society Exhibition - Castle Hill - 24th & 25th July 1999
Australian Model Railway Association, NSW Branch Exhibition - Liverpool - 2nd to 4th October 1999 

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Videos

I had around an hour of video footage taken at the June 1999 (see above) exhibition, and that has been converted to an MPG file on my computer. I have selected small scenes and loaded them onto a web page so everyone can see the layout in operation.

I have made the files fairly small (average 300-400Kb), so they will download quickly, however the quality is not crystal clear - you can't have both !!! 

All you have to do is join the free Yahoo! discussion group and then access the video from the group's 'Files' area.
The address you need is below ...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NMTV


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Informed visitors since 16/01/98



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