All former JNR(Japan National Railways) colors!

　A customer who stayed in our place a couple days ago brought many train cars, locomotives which were all painted in JNR color. Of course they ran the layout. The EMU train running in the clip is the former JNR 153 series train provided for the limited fast service around Kansai area - Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. Both end cars were with lower windows at the control rooms.


A streamlined train car 52 series which were built for Kansai area fast service train soon after the WW2 was over. They moved around here and there and at their last years, they were active in Iida line ( Toyohashi in Aichi prefecture - Tatsuno in Nagano prefecture ). In 1977 when I was a senior high student, I talked about getting on this train with my friends but we were not able to make it. We can not do anything after something disappears so we should do make it while they are avaiable!




Old passenger cars local train pulled by a DF50 series diesel locomotive. It reminds me of the old Fukuchiyama line, San'in main line local trains. DF50 was a type of diesel locomotive which holds motors as well as a diesel engine. The diesel engine worked as a motor generator to provide electricity to the motors. Then the motors worked to run the locomotive to pull passneger cars, freight cars etc. In short, the engine on this DF50 did not work directly to drive the wheels, just worked to provide electricity. This type of diesel locomotives seemed to be a major system for the former JNR but it anyway had more complicated mechanics and heavier weight compared to the other type of diesel locomotives like DD51 which drive wheels directly by their engines. So, the latter type of diesel locomotives got major.


DD51 diesel locomotive pulling an old passenger cars train. This kind of scene were available in the good old days anywhere in JNR lines which were not electrified.



A DD51 with a DE10 as a leading helper running uphills beside a cross country sking trail.




An Ozashiki(Tatami matt) train pulled by an EF65(500). I think this coloring is a best fit for EF65(500).




An old passenger cars train pulled by a steam loco C55. The white line at its waists looks cool.




DF50, C53?, DE10? (left to right ).
Just an usual scene in good old '60s.



I enjoyed the former JNR trains which I don't have after a long interval. Also enjoy our customers bring their own trains to drive in our layout. The customer this time seem to build everything by himself. I envy him, wish I could have that skill! :(


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Repairing ED70

Unscrewed some to check the inside to see how lines are connected. Wrote it down to find what and where is wrong. Since I am not good at this kind of stuff and don't get used to it, accidentally I cut a line :( Also wrote it down. I need to check everything to find the problem.

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Train (model train) magazines

Drove my car to Oomachi city today to find some magazines for references to repair my ED70 loco. But I did not find anything for it at all and bought 4 magazines that are not related to it at all. :(
I would read them from now on at my craft desk, hope I can find anything which helps to repair my ED70. It's rare for me to buy this many train magazines at a time.

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Repairing ED70

　A little bit before I mentioned about my ED70 electric locomotive was bad condition. I am not good at electronics and as is often the case with that situation I just left it as it was. Now I got curious about it again and unscrewed it to check things.
I know I need to connect the motor to plus and minus even if I were so bad at electronics. But if there's something inbetween the motor and the rails, I really don't have idea what to check. I have a tester but not sure what I should check. I don't want to destroy anything when I go ahead not knowing anything right.　
Oh, I should have listend to what teachers told in the class in school!!
(^^;; I was so allergic when I heard "electronics".

Something just popped up in my mind now. The floor board of this ED70 does not reach to the end of the body, which may enable me to put another motor easily. If it's possible, I can make it way stronger to pull extra passenger cars.

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Hakuba model train - former JNR 457 series express train running the layout

Now I have totally 10 passenger cars of former JNR 457 series, ran them in my layout.

2 green cars (1st class passenger cars) and 2 buffet cars, which looks alike the good old days for old express trains. I ran it a bit slower than usual and found it was better than doing it faster as it looked as it was. I hope I can find 1 more basic set of 3 passenger cars with engines of this series to make 12 cars.

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Went to a model train shop

Went to a model train shop T&T in Matsumoto city. It's located in southern Matsumoto city almost at the border with Shiojiri city. I went there to get some stuff for DCC(Digital Comand Control). But in proportion to talking about it, the shop master wondered if there's any profit to make it for my plan.
He said it would be interesting if the truck was an endless one with some side tracks for escaping but if it's something I am planning like a tennis racket form with a singler track and a reverse line!
He and I looked at each other for a while without saying anything when both of us started thinking the difficulty.
I stopped thinking about it for a while and started looking around.

I found a basic set of JNR/JR 457 series express train in the original coloring. I have already had one but want at least 2 more because I have already gotten 2 x 1st class train car and 2 x buffet train car of this series. Someday I would like to run a train of this series which is probably 10-12 cars. Because when I was a small kid, this series connected Osaka and Kyusyu region, Osaka and Hokuriku region.
I decided to buy it. Should get anything you like when you find it because model trains are not like "available anytime". They always produce some certain amount and if all of them are sold out, we never know when they produce it again.

As a HO gauge collecter, it's a bit sad that I can not find as many stuff as N gauge ones. Now in Japan N gauge trains are popular and HO is not that popular. Probably because houses in Japan are not enough big to make a layout for HO.

Found an old track which I saw often when I was a kid. We called it something like "Auto-3 wheels". They express even stains on it.




Cherry blossoms. It's nice to have some of it to express Spring in a layout. But cherry blossom trees are not easy to find, so I was really lucky to find it.
It takes 1 and half an hour for me to drive from my place to this model train shop, but it was worth doing that yesterday. I found a lot.


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New snow after an interval

It seems that it has been the warmest winter ever since I moved into Hakuba 20 years ago. We had some snowfalls last night, it made the scenery look like real winter as trees got some snow. Maybe because of some clouds around the top, lower slopes were crowded this morning.

It's always fun to find footprints of animals when we get new snow. I guess they are probably ones of a fox. If it's a rabbit's one, it looks pretty different.

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