Been cold, brrrr

Early in the morning on March 7th 2008. Everything got some new fallen snow in the previous night. After it had been warmer than usual until the second half of the previous January, it suddenly got cold and feels colder than usual here.



Ice candle covers also got some snow on top of them. It seems that it will have been still cold for a while, brrrr.....

Hayaokidori website

Building the train scope and... :)

Started to set the train scope. Had to choose a train car for it and I choose kuha165 for it.


Needed to unscrew the train car body from its floor. Found an electric board. I needed to do some sensitive work there - wiring and soldering something which is a kind of annoying thing for me because my fingers are a little bit thick to do this kind of sensitive work :(



A small lamp works to express 2 tail lights. There is a tiny cover at the ceiling side of this lamp, I needed to put the scope on the cover to make it work.



Have to be careful not to hurt anything. I used a pair of wood chopsticks to slide the scope deep inside of the train car to fix it. I needed to put a 4mms thick tiny board inbetween the scope and the cover.



Done! Do you find the scope? It's at the middle window - the black stuff with a tiny hole for scope at the middle.



I decided to let ED70 ( the red loco )push the scope car. It seems that the battery for this train scope is charged only if the electric voltage gets more than 5V. I really would like to enjoy slow driving, so I tried to let EF58 push them but then the battery was not charged :( After that I put Moha 164 inbetween the 2 train cars to make a normal order. But a Moha 164 has 2 vertical motors with inside gear system which is too powerful to enjoy slow driving. That's why I choose this ED70. It has 1 vertical motor with inside gear system which is not too powerful to enjoy what I like.
Actually this ED70 is an Alternating Current loco and the 165 series train car ( orange and green ones ) are Direct Current ones so this combination never happened in real world though. But it's just toy, anything goes! :)



It does not look good maybe because the battery was not charged enough. My laptop PC does not have an input plug for movies, so wonder if it had one, maybe I can take the clip from this train scope and edit it?

Hayaokidori website

A train scope arrived!

Finally a set of train scope arrived. All the contents in the pack. I am not good at electric stuff and making something lol... Anyone can help!?


The explanation note says I have to solder the two black wires at the right end of this picture to the electricity board at the floor of a train car. Hmm it means I am to fix the scope at a certain train car. The customers who showed me this stuff some days back enjoyed replacing the scope here and there though. I should have observed it more :(

Hayaokidori website

Kintetsu trains running around the layout

At the previous weekends, a party of guests brought some of their Kintetsu train cars to enjoy our layout.

A couple of limited express train cars going 2.1% uphill. It's not easy to take pictures of moving things by fitting their speed.


800 series. The former JNR (Japan National Railways)released 70/80 series train cars for middle/long distance semi express train in the early 1950's and that series got very popular and affected other private railway companies as well as Kintetsu. So, new designed train cars at that time often had this kind of front mask.


As Kintetsu has perchased or done mergers some local train companies, there has been a lot of unique train cars there. This white and blue one also belonged to a local company which was purchased by Kintetsu.


After the Kintetsu got the company, this train car was painted in Kintetsu color. Though this one pulls some 2 boggies freight cars in the picture, actually it was before this one belonged to the former company when this was painted in blue and white as in the previous picture.


"Aozora"(Blue sky) train only for school trips. All double decked cars - the lower floor at the middle car is a machinery room. 3 train cars constitute a unit. I got on this car when I was 12 y/o for a school trip.



An old train cars for limited express train specially from Nagoya to Toba direction. Built around mid 1950's. Tobu 1700 series is one of in the same era. The left front window seems to be closed, they say it's a toilet room. Have never seen one with toilet room just besides the control room. Drivers can not see the right side, can they?


This one is painted very unique. They say it is in service at Iga line at the moment. Nowadays this kind of uniquely painted trains are in service everywhere in Japan.

Hayaokidori website

Pudding cookies

An American guest gave me some cookies she made. It was so yummy with excellent vanilla flavor. I asked her if she had used some vanilla beans and she answered that she had used some vanilla puddings.



She gave me the receipt on her checking out date.
I was surprised to find "Vanilla pudding".

Huh?


I imagined to add some vanilla puddings to other mixtures which was kinda stupid lol... I asked it to her again then she told me it was just like some powder. If I remember right, there was some instant pudding powder available. I went shopping to get some.


Because of the difference as to measuring stuff, sometimes I need to convert gallons to cc, lbs to grams but this time it is described by "cups", so it was easier. I need to convert only about 375 F into Celsis ( 190C ).







Preparing everything. When you cook dessert, you can not fix the taste latter, so you need to measure everything accurately in advance.









Mixing butter , sugar and brown sugar.



Adding powders gradually after adding eggs.

I was getting a bit nervous because in proportion to get the powder, it was getting much harder and harder than expected. Finally I decided to adjust some - I added some milk to soften it.


Done! Hmmm... looks different from the first picture lol.....
Probably because I added some milk to soften the cookies before grilling.
I should have done as described :(


I glued the receipt at my receipt book so that I can check it whenever I need.

Hayaokidori website

Escaping from sunshine

More than a month have passed since we started enjoying ice candles at night. It's alright when it's under zero celsis but when it goes over zero with strong sunshine, we have to hide the ice somewhere not to have them melting. This pic explains how we hide them lol....


Now more and more candles are going on every night to lighten up our house.

Hayaokidori website

Train scope

Last weekends a party of customers stayed in our place with their own model trains. One of them had a micro scope through which we could see the layout scenery as if we were a driver! This might addict me!!!
With this different view, it gives some new ideas e.g.
Better put more trees here and there.

Actually I have already ordered a train scope through the net :-)

Hayaokidori website