SIDE 1 - 'Edogawa'
- Japan
in the days of late steam. 
SIDE 2 - 'Enoshima'
- modern Japan with
Bullet trains.
SIDE 1 - 'Edogawa'
- Japan
in the days of late steam.
SIDE 2 - 'Enoshima'
- modern Japan with
Bullet trains.
The Concept - who is involved and how it started.
End of 'Setagaya' - commencement of construction & decision of the layout's names
Construction log
Other pages you may be interested in ...
22nd July 2007
This is the momentous day that construction actually started !!! Yes, it has taken too long (4 years) from the initial concept being born, but that is due to many factors, including my laziness, others not following up on commitments, the life of 'Setagaya' being extended more than originally planned and not having enough space to start work. Now that the garage & train room has had two trailer loads of rubbish taken to the tip, space is available, and the timber for the module frames was purchased last week.
A good part of Sunday was spent first cutting out all the required pieces from 2.4 & 2.7m lengths of 19mm pine.
- these are the
pieces of timber for Doug's modules
- these are the
pieces of timber for Ed's modules
Then assembly of Ed's modules commenced - four were built (which was all he could fit in his car to take home), and one of them took three attempts due to miscalculations :-)
- here is the
first 2 of Ed's modules - we did another 2, but the light was not good
enough to
take a photo. They are both corner pieces, and one is higher than the
other to
allow for a river to be cut down into the scenery.
25th August 2007
Today all the front modules for Doug's side were finished, and here is a photo of them lined up in the driveway so you can get an idea of the length of the layout. It seems that due to a calculation error when the timber was cut, that the extended depth of Doug's modules will now be 460mm, not 475mm.
September & early October 2007
A lot of work has been done to re-arrange the available space in Doug's train room to accommodate the length of the new layout, and virtually all of the furniture (desk, cupboards, shelves etc) has had to be moved to another somewhere else to free up the middle of the room. Also 2 trailer loads of junk from there and the garage was taken to the tip !!!
Some of Ed's boards need to be multi-level, so work was done over a couple of Sundays to cut out the tracks that needed to be on risers, and mount all the boards at the appropriate heights. Here are some photos of them after they were finished.
These are the 4 modules that will form the storage yards at the back of
the
layout. Each mainline will have 4 tracks, and the yards overlap so that
extra
length can be gained on such a short width board. The gradient on the
'down'
tracks (LH side of picture) is a lot steeper (3.2%) than that of the
'up' track
on the RH side (2.0%).
These are the 2 middle modules from the front of the layout. The end
modules on the RH end
were made higher so that the Edo River could be cut down into the
baseboards, so
after the station module that will be on the right, the tracks fall
down to the 'normal' baseboard level
on the left.
We then tested Ed's longest train to make sure it was Ok with the
gradient.
The next stage is to add the legs so that the modules can be 'stood up' and then the joining method finalised.
Late October
Testing was done with various mechanisms relating to the hinged legs and methods of securing them for transport. Also the hinges that I intend to use to mate each module together.
Unfortunately haven't been able to do a lot of work due to late working hours, and some weekend shifts. However as of Australia Day 26th January, I have fitted ALL the hardware to the 4 yard modules. The legs are hinged on one end and secured for transport with roller catches. When standing, the legs are supported with aluminium strip braces that attach on the leg and frame with T-nuts. The modules are joined together with hinges that have removable pins. All of this has been designed to have the minimum of separate parts to carry around, and the minimum of things that have to be bolted or screwed together.
February 2008
After having recently received a number of exhibition invitations (see end of page), I have drawn up a project plan to ensure that everything is covered to get it finished in time.
16th February
After setting up all 4 yard modules, several things were discovered that mean that changes will need to be made to the designs already created ...
23rd February
A bit more fiddling was done with the leg arrangements, and also the design of the 2 level storage yards. The layout room has had all 'unnecessary' items taken out, but still needs more tidying up to allow the modules to fit in - this step has not been done yet !!!
1st March
Still actually working out the module fittings !!!
This picture show how the modules stand up - each one has one fold-up
leg, and
they piggy-back on to the next one in line. Only the large corner
modules have 4
legs and can stand by themselves.
Here you can see underneath, with the braces and leg fittings.
This is how it looks when folded up.
8th March
Laid out all the modules to check on track positions, yard throat configurations and the lengths of storage needed for each train.
15th March
All hardware has now been mounted onto the modules to allow them to be joined together. Of course no track laying done yet.
22nd March (Easter)
This weekend I cut out the timber for 4 more crowd barrier
bases, and put
them together, along with the necessary hardware to make the barrier
chain
supports. Unfortunately the idiots at Bunnings Warehouse do not stock
the same
type of plastic chain that I originally used, so I am not sure what to
do about
getting more :-(
Still no track laying.
29th March
Finally finished all of the module & leg hardware, and helped Ed to finalise his designs. Started to paint the crowd barrier bases, but had trouble with the spray paint soaking into the MDF, so had to apply a barrier coat first.
5th April
This weekend I puttied all the modules sides, sanded them down smooth, and then painted them all matt Jet Black. Also finished painting the crowd barrier bases and supports.
12th April
Some time has been spent clearing the room, and bringing the modules inside (they were stored in the trailer) - hopefully it will be finished by the weekend.
19th April
Enough space was cleared to assemble all the modules - space is tight all around the sides, but I will just have to lose weight :-))
Here is how it looks, ready for track laying ... 
26th April (ANZAC Day long weekend)
During the week I decided to simplify things, for two reasons - time & money. The suburban line will be eliminated as 4 tracks on the front take up too much room. Also this leaves more room at the back for the mainline yard. It also means that the suburban station coming out from under the city on the LH end will not be used, and I can save on 2 automatic train controllers. The Enoden line will terminate in the city are with just one track (like the Fujisawa elevated terminus), and again this will save on an extra automatic train controller.
This weekend I have been juggling track pieces around to see how they fit best, and work out what else I need to order. Also spent ages separating the Tomix brown, gray and Finetrack pieces, so I knew what I already had. The brown track will be used for the Enoden line, and the mainline will be Finetrack. The older gray track pieces will be used for hidden or yard track. Most of the overhead Shinkansen line will use the new concrete slab track. Here are some photos of the progress thus far ...
- this is looking from the RH country end towards the city end.
- this is looking from the LH city end from as far back as I can get in
the room
(the other end is viewed through a doorway!!!). You can see the Enoden
track
dropping down to ground level from the station, and the elevated main
line
behind it, with the Shinkansen line behind that.
- this is around the middle of the layout, and you can see the Enoden
street
trackage in place using the Tomix tram components. At the far end it
will disappear
into a tunnel under the mainline.
May
Final placement of virtually all the
track has been decided, and now it is just
a matter of permanently fixing it down. The first train has been run -
appropriately
the Shinkansen test train !!!
Also the placement of several industries is being decided - here is a
bus depot
under the Shinkansen track, taken from an idea I saw of a Japanese
display
diorama. 
Also the creation of the Fujisawa
station is going ahead - I think I can use
some Greenmax & Tomix kits to make a reasonable replica of the
building
based on the ONE photo I can find of it (which was taken from a video).
Final position of the tracks are
being decided, and the bullet train track is being tested.
June
The Enoden yard is in position, and the location of the various tunnels
is being decided.
Here the location of the buildings around the street trackage is being
worked out.
The Enoden line is in place (showing how it was originally to rise to
an elevated station), and also I worked on a series of structures to
fill in the space under the bullet train line.
You can see how how the suburban main line's storage yard looks, and
how it swings around to avoid the cluster of controllers, which are
permanently mounted to this module.
This shot shows how the Enoden line appears from under the main boards,
and curves up to it's storage yard.
The broad curve here is flex-track, but with the appropriate painting
and ballasting, it will blend in OK with the Tomix Finetrack, which I
am using everywhere else.
A view of most of the front of the layout on the 29th June (one month
before the exhibition !!!!!).July
Early in July I did all the wiring, for the power connections to the 3 lines. Each track has jumpers from one module to the next, so the the extendible track connectors between each module are not being relied on to carry the track power.
Thanks to our billions of friends the Catholics, I got virtually nothing done during the week of 13-18 July because of World Youth Day, which strangely enough seemed to last for a week !!! Even though I was pleased to see that I got early shifts and could come home in the middle of the afternoon and get some layout work done - each day I was asked to do another shift in the evening to help move the 'pilgrims' :-(
A view of most of the front of the layout on the 19th July (a week and
a bit before the exhibition !!!!!).19-20/07/2008
The
upper Shinkansen level tracks were finally laid, and the boards cut
to
size. This track will rise from each end so there is more clearance to
reach the mainline storage yard underneath at the back of the layout..
21/07/2008
I have holidays from work all this week, so that hopefully I can get some semblance of a finished layout to the show, but the last week before the exhibition was rather hectic, and if you saw photos of the layout on Thursday even you would not think it was going to the show !!!
Today the tracks were ballasted, and it looks good in that it is hard to tell which is Tomix Finetrack, and which is flextrack :-)
22/07/2008
I finally worked out a way to have the two level storage tracks at the rear easily accessible. The top level boards sit on dowels that sit on bolts that are screwed into the baseboards. This way you can set up everything on the lower level before you add the top level, and it also makes the boards thinner and therefore easier to transport.
23/07/2008
My colleague Edo spent all day re-colouring nearly 1,400 trees which I
got from China via eBay, as they were a green colour that was too
bright. We just made up a mixture of methylated spirits
and cheap water-based hobby paint (Pine Green!!) and dunked the trees
in it momentarily. As the amount of dunking time and level of paint
left in the tin changes, you do get a variation in colours, which is
better than 1,400 trees all the same but a new colour.
24/07/2008
I created all the scenery terrain from foam sheets and painted it
either green or brown. Thursday night I went to bed at 4am and had to
get up again at 7am to take my wife to the station.
25/07/2008
During the day Edo planted most of the trees, and I did more work on the other scenery aspects, including adding all the backboards.
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Doug Coster.
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