Second anniversary !!!

January 2009 is the second anniversary of this Blog, and considering the lack of time I have had to work on it, particularly the second half of 2008, I still rather pleased with the amount of hits it is getting …

‘Enoshima’ photos

I have finally updated the ‘Enoshima’ home page with pictures taken from the latest exhibition ….

JR East’s Keihin Tohoku line

The Keihin Tohoku line is one of Tokyo’s busiest major suburban lines.

JR East ‘Shikisai’ (4 Seasons) Joyful train

UPDATE 21-04-2007 – You can now read a review of the latest model here …

http://jmtn.wordpress.com/2007/04/22/kato-10-919-review/

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JR East converted one of their Ome line 4 car 201 series suburban sets to the ‘Shikisai’ (4 Seasons) Joyful train in 2001.  

Japanese buildings

If you have never been to Japan, you would not believe the sight that is typical of most Japanese cities.  

The end of ‘Setagaya’

At exactly 17:45 on 15/02/2007 AEDT, ‘Setagaya’ ceased to be, was bereft of life and started pushing up the daisies at a tremendous rate. If you are possibly able to hold back the tears, please have a look at it’s final moments on this page

My sincere thanks to everyone for your kind comments over the last five years, and to those that were able to see it in person, it was a pleasure to meet you. Keep an eye out for start of work on the new layout, and I promise you that this one will certainly be bigger, and hopefully better as well

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If all of this sounds incomprehensible, ‘Setagaya’ was an ‘N’ scale (1/150) Japanese model railway layout that I built over a period of 5 years, took to many exhibitions, and won many awards for. It was loosely based on the Tokyu Setagaya tram line in Tokyo, but also had Bullet trains, and an underground subway and shopping mall. The layout doubled in size during it’s life, and many changes were made with the buildings and scenery etc. You can see a full photo history of it’s construction on the following pages …

1. 1st part – the beginning to Nov 2004 (versions 1,2,3) 
2. 2nd part – Nov 2004 to the end (version 4) 

Latest Japanese train simulators

They are not slow with the latest stuff in Japan

New Tomytec ‘The Truck Collection #3

Details and pictures of the items in this new series have been posted to the JMTN Blog page.

New Tomytec ‘The Trailer Collection #2

Details and pictures of the items in this new series have been posted to the JMTN Blog page.

New Tomytech & MicroAce items

I have posted to the JMTN Blog page details of …

• Tomytec’s latest in ‘The Trailer Collection’ – series #2
• MicroAce’s tentative new releases for June 2007, which includes one of my favourites – the Izukyu ‘Alpha Resort 21′ (see picture below)

Unlike the older ‘Resort 21′, which is red on one side and blue on the other, the ‘Alpha Resort 21′ is alternating red and blue on both sides.

Japanese Model Train News BLOG

I have started up another blog, to publish news of releases etc. in the wonderful world of Japanese model trains

Actually, it’s been going for a couple of days … http://jmtn.wordpress.com

You can link to it from here or subscribe to it directly. It will eventually replace the Yahoo! group that I have been running for many years now …

The world of train simulators – it could only happen in Japan !!!

Taken from Metropolis (http://metropolis.co.jp/default.asp) …

“You know how most young people (read, “younger than me”) in Japan prefer to fiddle with their phones rather than get stuck into a good book on long train journeys? Well, now they’ll be able to pretend they’re driving that very train, thanks to games firm Taito. The arcade classic Densha De Go! (“Let’s Go By Train!”) has finally made it to the small(est) screen and can be downloaded for a spot of phone-tastic fun on any of the major cellphone networks. The idea, of course, is to drive a virtual train and keep to the timetable while avoiding flying off the tracks into apartment buildings (is it too soon to say that?). Get your JR on by hitting the mobile gaming menu on your keitai.”

I couldn’t find it on the page reference they gave though …  www.taito.co.jp/game/lineup/h_keitai.html

Also Taito have just announced their first train simulator for the Wii console,  a Sanyo Shinkansen game – http://www.taito.co.jp/d3/cp/shinkansen06/

すごい　ね！　(sugoi ne)