A lid of a fuel tank

Weather forcast says it might be snowy and stormy at the end of January and the begining of February , so I checked my snowblower and filled the fuel tank. But I didn't find the lid of the fuel tank, so I went to the factory I always ask the snowblower maintainance to get one.

2400 yen! I expected some hundreds yen for that, quite different. A lot often special stuff of special equipments cost much more than expected. Especially if it's a snowblower, it goes like that. Snowblowers are not for everyone for daily use like usual cars. By the way, snowblowers are not something you can buy anytime. They are in some exibitions in autumn (before winter people need them!) and they try to sell them out before the winter starts. So even new ones are not available in winter. If your snowblower were broken or out of order and you need to buy new one, you can't!!!! This really bothered me too much some years back. Check out "Buddy da antique snowblower" tribute in our old Earlybird express.



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Making a layout #27 Realistic water going ahead!

Finnaly a bottle of water effect and 3 of realistic water arrived!


Have to prepare for it.


Brush some water bond along the edge of the lake to spread some balasts. I noticed that rivers and lakes that look blue usually have stone bottom. Those look green usually have sand bottom. No idea there's any rules or whatever though.


Put some small stones to show some big rocks in an incoming river to the lake.


They say realistic water needs to be left for 24 hours to get dried and fixed after being poured. We didn't have "ANY" guest at that night, so it's time for it! Should have not missed the chance. As I needed to put a plastic bag to cover the lake, I put some supporters for it to check they were long enough or not.


Pouring some realistic water at the incoming river. This small one is in a kit for making a fall.


Pouring some realistic water at the lake. I surrounded the lake with 4mms tall boards all around and put some 9mms tall foam polystyrenes because some regular poster to our Japanese blog have adviced to be careful because sometimes the realistic water goes where we never expect if the ground were not horizontal. There's always something unexpected happening!!


Spreading realistic water by a spatula. They say I have to make it 3mms depth or thinner.


An outgoing river from the lake was filled with realistic water.


The lake was also filled with realistic water.


Have to be patient for 24 hours from now on. Some music phrase popped up from me with humming which is one sung long ago, it proves my age!

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Making a layout #26 Spreading some balasts

I decided to have the road opposite side of the lake filled with some balast beyond the Faller mountain restaurant.

This pack of balasts costs around 800 yen (500gs), and very suitable size in use. Wish they had this stuff in brown or chest nut color.

Maybe a little bit hard to see though, filled the path opposite side of the lake and the parking area of this side with this balasts.

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Making a layout #25 Painting the lake bottom.

I decided to paint the lake bottom in blue after checking how it looks by the trials I made.

I thought I was doing alright but noticed it was darker than I expected. Far sighted eyes bothers!!!!!!!!!
Just made the left side a bit slightly greener as a river starts flowing from that side.

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Making a layout #24 - Figures vol.1

Have collected some figures little by little but have never put them in my layout yet. So I put one set in it to see how it looks.

"Hikers at a spring" by Preiser. Attention at the hands of a man at the spring. Even water is created which surprised me! What a detail!! But a pair of old eyes don't work enough good to see that tiny thing :( lol...

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Sun Alpine Aokiko ski slope

A little bit hard to find a timing to go out for skiing. This below is what I took at this time of the last year.

Sun Alpine Aokiko ski slope, the lake Aokiko was frozen all over. As you see, it was "all only for you" when you went there early in the morning. This ski slope is connected with Sun Alpine Hakuba Sanosaka and Sun Alpine Kashimayari, you can go and back each other slopes with a common ski pass. Most ski slopes in Hakuba area looks like mountain ski resorts but this ski slope looks a bit different. An elegant lake is beside which I recommend.

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Removing snow from the roof.

First time in this season to do this. It's okay because snow stays just around the ski slopes, we need to do less extra work to remove snow this season.



My buddy da snowblower was loading.


Done.

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Japanese narcissus

As it has been fine today, I put some Japanese narcissus pots outside to get sunshine.

The flower is white, and the center is yellow. It looks cool and smells really special. When I put them at the front, they smell slightly which I really feel comfortable.

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A mysterious kit

Not sure when I bought this one but anyway the floor board has already been soldered. The box says "Suha 43" series.


What's these parts for?


I guess perhaps the silver color one is a window frame? But windows are already fixed though... Hum... No boggies found. Maybe modelers have to buy them? Have never tried this kind of kits yet, so no idea at all :( I have tried some pre-colored kits which needed me to screw some bolts and nuts, that was all. I don't have any air-guns to spray paints.
With this way sometimes I open the box just to see the kit without doing anything.

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Revival B tender!

Steam locomotives had already retired from railroads in Japan more than 30 years ago. But sometimes the opposite happens in a model layout :-) I revive a Btender at my HO layout.

Now it's in charge of pulling a cleaning car. But due to the different coupler, at this moment the cleaning car is just tied up to the loco :( Gotta find a better way, maybe have to find some American couplers because the cleaning car is an American one and the loco is a Japanese one.

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Limited express trains passing by the station!

In any time, railway fan boys enjoy watching out trains passing by a station having their faces sideways at the platform. Now there's how it seems here. Click the pics below to see clips.




Almost remembered my kid's days.

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Making a layout #23 A path and forest at the lakeside

I am now trying to make lakeside scenery before some Realistic water would arrive.

Put some conifers at the background of houses there to hide rails, covered the ground in front of them with green powder to express grasses. Did the beachside with brown powder to express them. Not decided how to do about the path, so just leave it s it is. Tried to put only evergreen tree in front of a bridge which is over a stream, noticed it appeals some visible effect.


Looks like this when you see it from the bridge side.


A Feller mountain restaurant is also located in this area.


T.E.E (Trans Europe Express) train Gottardo is now running behind the trees. Would like to hide it more by putting more trees though. You can see a larger image of this pic by clicking it.


Gottardo keeps going on and on and on.


A JNR (Japan National Railways) electric loco EF60 is pulling a 6 blue train cars behind the trees. When locomotives, passenger cars are painted in similar with green, it looks different from the case of Gottardo.


EF60 and a blue train keep going on.


Came out of the trees.


This is how it looks when you sit in a chair in front of the control board where the power packs are.


Watching out the EF60 train coming out of the trees by sitting on a chair in front of the control board. Many posters at our J-blog say they enjoyed this kind of view by laid sideways putting a textbook of their school just in front of the truck. Now it comes easier here, just by sitting on a chair!

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Cylindrical pots

That have worked with us since I started this business.

27cms, 24cms, 21cms and 18cms in diameter ( Bottom to top ). They are what we call "Han-Zundoh nabe". Han for it means "middle" or "semi-something". Zundoh means cylindrical. Nabe means pan/s or pot/s. A zundoh nabe is deeper then them. They seem to have something like imbricate pattern at their surfaces because I thought it might have helped not to have any uncomfortable noise when some iron stuff e.g. spoons and themselves touched each other. Nowadays I seldom find that kind of pans in markets, wonder if they are still available or not.

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JNR 153 series - time to retire

Born in 1958 for express and semi-express train in some lines which are located in flat places not in hilly or mountain area.


Some express trains e.g
"Washu" ( Wings of eagles ) : Osaka <-> Uno
"Hiei" (A mountain name ) : Osaka <-> Nagoya
"Kanmon" ( The channel between Honshu island and Kyushu island ): Osaka <-> Shimonoseki
"Bingo" ( A region name around east part of Hiroshima pref.) Osaka <-> Mihara
"Naniwa" (An old name for Osaka ) :Osaka <-> Tokyo

etc are still in my memory. They say "Naniwa" had been still in service for some couple of years maybe until October 1968 even after Tokaido Shinkansen got in service from Tokyo to Osaka that's why I have some memories about "Naniwa".
In proportion to Shinkansen started its service further beyond Osaka towards Okayama (1972), Hakata (1975), this 153 series was not able to find any other lines to be active. When I took this pic above in 1976, "Washu" was only available 153 series express train in San-yo main route, but the symbolic big butterfly form signboard was already not located at the front.

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Disposable body warmers

It's snowy and cold place here in Hakuba, so an old man like me needs to have something to warm myself up e.g. at my knees, waists especially when I need to go out for some.

Disposable body warmers have some descriptions which says something like

Hold this side out - not to your body

I am not sure why there is a face side and back side at a body warmer. What is the difference, anyone?? And.... for an old man with far sighted eyes,

It's very tough to read these small alphabet!!! lol...

If it's like the one in the pic above, I know it's for outside, not to my body side but some have stripes as well as descriptions in the same color which confuses me a lot. So, if I can ask....


This above is very much simpler and better to understand :)
( The large kanji combination says it's "outside".[ not to your body side])

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Take care of your teeth

Now I got my artificial tooth out of my gums. The artificial tooth is what I got when I broke my own tooth there by my ski pole when I lost balance when I skiied roughly 20 years ago. It hurt a lot when a pole hit the tooth, it even hurt my nerve all over all the way to my brain!
The hard part is now I can not pronounce English "th" correctly due to no tooth there. Silent "th" is okay, I guess but if it's noise "th" e.g. moTHer, oTHer etc, it's hard to do it.
And... I avoid laughing when I talk with my guests now. It's too funny to see me laughing without a tooth there when I see it in a mirror lol....
Until when I go to see a dentist next time - some more days - I need to stay with this situation which kinda sucks :(

Hayaokidori website

Making a layout #22 A river and a lake

Now time to make a river and a lake.Made an upper stream by Woodland "Realistic Water" provided by KATO.

Water Effect. Looks pretty white, but it gets almost milky white when you leave them for 1 day. Water Effect is to express waves etc at the water surface.

Making the bottom of a lake by some plaster sheets. Cut some 4mms thick board for the lakeside to stop water.

Trial for water gradation. Lake Aoki looks like green but Azusa river looks like blue.

Looks different when you put some realistic water there.

Hayaokidori website

A wheel cleaner

Improved the wheel cleaner which a regular poster to our J-blog presented me.

It seemed that electricity didn't reach the rails, so I added a wire around the red arrow to improve it. It works but a function to control motor cars' direction doesn't work now maybe because of this improvement. But anyway it now cleans wheels, yay!

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Tip of a soldering iron

Replaced it.Actually I have seldom soldered anything, have learned that tips of soldering irons are articles of consumption. They say we had better put some solder at the tip after getting rid of everything by wiping there so that the tips could not be oxidized.

Rail cleaning car at work

Click here

When it comes back, it looks like this.

Messy!!!!!!!!!

Hayaokidori web site

Metro in Madrid '82

Metro in Madrid when I traveled around Europe in 1982

I wondered why train cars of subway in Europe were smaller than ones in Japan inspite of people there were bigger than Japanese. Same in Athens and Paris. Additionally I found that seats in Metro in Paris were what we called "box seats" on which people sit face to face having the window on their side. When I got on a metro in Paris, I had to turn a handle at the door clockwise and when I got off, I had to turn it counterclockwise!! It was a big culture shock. Perhaps there were no "rush hours" there.

Hayaokidori web site.