Sections: 5

Modeling Japanese Railroads

Wed Dec 22, 2010 Link to this entry

 — Thomas M. Tuerke

Most of these pages are N scale, since that's the scale (or gauge, to be precise) of choice in Japan. That said, there is a huge selection of Japanese rolling stock available from vendors.

• Akihabara Station - Don Goodman-Wilson's site, covering the construction of this eponymous layout, as well as ventures into other related subjects.
• Japanese Trains - Doug Coster's meta-site covering his several Japanese-inspired railroads, both past and present (including Enoshima, Setagaya, and Nihon Mokei Tetsudo) and a wealth of other information, too.
• Quinntopia - Jerry Quinn's blog and site, featuring a more freelanced model, including Japanese, European, and other cool looking rolling stock.
• Sumida Crossing - Ken Shores' site depicting a "protolanced" Japanese urban station and surrounds.

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Clubs and Forums

Wed Dec 22, 2010 Link to this entry

 — Thomas M. Tuerke

There's a thriving community of modelers of Japanese rail, even here in North America.

• Japan Rail Modelers of Washington, DC, a well-known organization.
• http://www.jnsforum.com/ - Forum for modelers and railfans of Japanese rail.
• TrainWeb's Tomix site - Outside of Japan, Tomix FineTrack is not nearly as well known as Kato's UniTrack, but in-country, it's a very strong rival. Unfortunately, that also means that non-Japanese resources are scant, which is where this site comes in (for English speakers, anyway.)

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Miscellaneous

Thu Dec 30, 2010 Link to this entry

 — Thomas M. Tuerke

Various interesting odds and ends.

• All About Japanese Trains is a site by journalist and railfan Mike Nakada, with details about much of what rolls on Japanese railways.
• Three related blogs: 1-450.blogspot.com, 1-220.blogspot.com">http://1-220.blogspot.com/">1-220.blogspot.com, and 1-160.blogspot.com">http://1-160.blogspot.com/">1-160.blogspot.com (unfortunately, all three are fallen flags, so the links point to the Wayback Machine) - Various scale-specific blogs by David K. Smith covering small-scale modeling efforts.
• You have to see this! Yes, this is N scale! Stummis Modellbahnforum - Specific thread (in German, and translated to English by Google) by a finescale modeler making unbelievable trains, track and scenery. Lots of pictures; the entire page takes a while to load. Raises the state of the art to new levels.
• Japanese car classification system - find out what those terms, like KUHA, OHANE, and designations such as EF81 and DD51 mean. (Brought to you by Plaza Japan.)

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T-Trak

Sat Jan 1, 2011 Link to this entry

 — Thomas M. Tuerke

• Official T-Trak site - this is home-world for all things T-Trak.
• Unofficial T-Trak site - Paul E. Musselman's exhaustive site on all things T-Trak.
• De-facto T-Trak newsgroup - where the (English-speaking) T-Trak folks congregate.
• Japan Rail Modelers' site reflecting their efforts.
• More JRM info.

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Why Model Japan?

Fri Mar 18, 2011 Link to this entry

 — Thomas M. Tuerke

Here are some other folks' reasons for modeling Japan:

• Modeling Japan, by Bob Tomasko.
  See also another article by Bob, Trains of Japan for some really nice prototype pictures.
• Why Model Japanese Trains, by Doug Coster. A teensie bit sales pitch (he used to sell sets) but that shouldn't detract from the facts themselves.
• 7 Reasons why Japanese Trains are Different - a blog entry with some interesting facts about Japanese rail prototypes.
• Real World Action at Oji Station - a short blog/essay on the appeal of Japanese rail, featuring a 9 minute youtube video showing real-world action (or three quarters of it, as the article makes clear.)