Last segment was from the end of May/beginning of June and at that time, I'd added on another foot of track space. It was a real chore to add on the extra mat, stretch the overhead section and add in some extra track to stretch out what was already there.

The mat I got was not the exact same shade of the one already there, so that looked a bit weird. I also had a gap that needed to be covered and it did not end up looking seamless. Still, it is a ton better than bare plywood. I still have another 1x4 foot piece I could add on somewhere, though am not sure just where I could put it as I have display shelves in the way and no where to which I could move them.

I continue to add trains and one of the more recent additions was another Series 205 train, this time from the Saikyo line. These E-205 cars were all replaced in 2013 by E-233 series trains. This is also part of the greater Metropolitan Tokyo area and a normal consist for this is ten cars. The set is sold in two parts with the first one including six cars, the front and rear car, and the powered car. The add on is four cars. There is a chart in the instructions (all in Japanese, of course) that shows the proper sequence of cars. Each of these sets includes all sorts of stickers to put on the side of the cars, but frankly, I've not figured out what goes where so have left these all off the train.

One thing you may have noticed when looking through these various entries is that each train line has its own color code. This is to help people in making sure they are not on the wrong train. I know that when I was living in Japan, I found this to be a huge help as at some stations, the same track was used by several different lines.

Moving along, I also picked up another Tokyo Metro set. This time it is for the Chiyoda Line. It is the second busiest of the Tokyo lines, hence the ten car trains. These are series 16000 trains that went into service on this line in 2010. Interestingly, even the same series trains are made by different companies with these being built by Kawasaki and Hitachi. Like pretty much all of my Japanese trains, this one is by Kato as well. I got the full 10 car train which is made of two different boxings; one being the basic set with the front and rear cars as well as the car with the motor in it. The four car add-on consists of all unpowered cars. The instructions are the same for both and there is a diagram that shows where the cars fit in the completed train. Unlike Tomix train sets, this one has no stickers with all the information already printed on the train cars.

Back at the track, I figured how to add a fifth line. This required slightly shortening the width of the tram track to make room for the additional rails. Most of this runs inside the elevated track area. I also added another quad points switch to enable trains to go from what was now the inner to the outer line. This fifth line is the shortest of the whole batch so will probably not get really long trains. One thing I discovered is that the quad points are basically 'dead' in the middle and while not an issue if you only have one on a line, if you have two of them attached, a jumper will be needed in between the two legs. You can see this in the middle of the image of the two points sets. I'm sure the instructions mentioned this, but not reading Japanese, I did not pick up on that. Eventually, the additional track and jumpers I ordered arrived and I was able to get it all running. I also added a few more buildings to help fill things out.

Adding this extra line required one of the switches to be relocated, so that was done, and with the extra track, I was able to have two sidings long enough to hold even the 10 or 11 car trains. Though you'd think things were about full, I'm always trying to come up with other routes. Most of them involve curves so sharp that I doubt the trains would be able to negotiate them. However, one nice thing about Tomix track is that they have curves that go from 604mm radius down to 130mm radius. It is the lower numbers that make up many of the tram curves. In reality, of course, the only way I see to expand things is to do some major shuffling of the space I have in my basement and then go ahead and add a big section. Maybe some day, but I just don't see it happening now. I could put the layout in the attic, but that is far too hot in the summer and too cold in winter. And the saga continues.

Back to Silver Rails index