Kato Gottardo RAM TEE

Gottardo Trans Europe Express!  This model proved quite tricky to acquire.  Kato originally released this about 12 years ago in Europe, and it was a flawed offering. Apparenly it was their rerelease of an earlier Hobbytrain mold, the original of which featured power pickup on multiple cars and a bad coupling mechanism.  for Kato's first release, they put the power pickup in the motor car and and used a brittle coupling mechanism.  This was prone both to uncoupling and cracking, rendering the trainset useless.  

Recognizing these defects Kato re-re-released this in 2009 with a new quieter motor with dual flywheels and an updated coupler mechanism.  If you find yourself shopping for one of these on eBay be very certain you get the new version. It's part number 11400 (11405 with factory interior lights), or 11401/11406 for the "grey mouse" livery used in the 1980s.

"Grey Mouse" Livery

There is an excellent blog post detailing the history of this EMU here, along with some photos of the model.  

As for my own impressions, I find the engine to be a little noisy, and like all Kato products it is setup from the factory to run very fast.  The cars couple together with a rotating diaphragm mechanism, giving a realistic appearance even on tight curves  It's rather fiddly, and I always find myself loath to uncouple or move it once it's setup in place.  That said, the cars still do not always latch together as firmly as I would like, so I shudder to think what the old mechanism was like.

The train itself is a very attractive unit, and 6 cars seems like the perfect length on my layout. I love the unique look of the TEE, and the retro-futuristic styling. 

DCC installation was a little unusual, as your only option is to buy a Kato DCC decoder.  This decoder is low cost and low frills, but it drops in easily enough via a special door under the engine carriage. Operation is reliable.  Curiously Kato chose to factory illuminate the table lamps in the dining car.  This led me to attempt to illuminate the rest of the train, not wanting only a single car lit.  I added Kato's LED interior light kits and have been quite unhappy with them, they just flicker endlessly.  Some day soon I'll remove them. The money would have been better spent on directional lighting for the front and end cars.  That aside, I'm quite happy with this train.

On my subjective scale, I give this a 7 out of 10.

Urban Development

Continuing to develop the main village today I began to lay the foundations for the hillside.  Below are a few images showing the process.

Above is my village area with the buildings removed.  Each has an outline traced on the table with a sharpie marker, and for those that will sit atop the hill I've already positioned wires to power the interior lights.

It's not much to look at yet, my base is a combination of 1/4" plywood, 1" extruded foam and strategically balled wads of old newspaper (not pictured)   It's all help in place with white glue, and masking tape in the case of the newspaper.   You can see I've use some handy bottles and cans to weigh down my foam board as the glue dries.

Here we are a few hours later.  Newspapers drop sheets now protect not just the track but the ballasted area in the foreground.  I've cut up one full roll of plaster cloth into 4" strips and applied it to my hillside.  Once this dries a second later will go on.

The flat spots will be the foundations of structures.  After the second coat goes on and dries I'll begin considering where the rock face will poke through the grass.

That's it for today. More to come soon!

Town Planning

Now that I'm back at it I've decided to tackle some of the tricky things I've been putting off first, and top of that list is figuring out how I plan to build out the main station area.  Since the inception of the track plan I had planned to build a town here, but I've been troubled by some logical issues with access and roadways.  Call me a curmudgeon, but it always irks me to see layouts with buildings with no plausible road access.  The modern world is all about the automobile and a house, industry or workshop without road access is just  wrong.  My station is ringed in by track, it's an island... so what to do?

Before I go any further I should mention that all the images below are greyblock quality only.  Buildings are placed in approximate locations, roads are drawn in with a sharpie, hills and elevations represented by foam blocks and plywood- I'm just trying to lay out the key objects in the space, to find the right balance of density and appealing sight lines.   Also, as always, just click on an image to see it in high res.

Step one was building a level crossing.  I found some miscellaneous bits and bobs and took a stab at it.  Still needs paint obviously:

Next I took a stab at my main street.  I'm planning an elevation (represented by the plywood) with a road extending from the level crossing, leading up and along the back wall.  There will be a T intersection, and from that my town's main street, heading into the depth of the image below:

The foreground is slightly older structures.  As you go up the hill, much as in the real world, the real estate improves.  Out past the station is a freight warehouse, and a freight unloading platform, as well as the signal tower I previously located on the other end of the room.   It has bothered me for months that the tower is a closer match to this station than the one it was previously paired with, so tonight I finally made the move:

Here you can see the new freight platform and the warehouse behind it.  I'll probably look for one more industrial type building to block off the street and bridge the space to the line running in the background.  You can also see my planned spot for the semaphore signal.  I'm happy to report that wiring this is very easy, it will attach directly to my switch machine and operate automagically!

The station area is still in flux.  My largest concern in that I am now using three different styles of platform!   I'm really not sure how I feel about this, it was not entirely by design, but of course in the real world we see things like this daily.  Perhaps it speaks to a narrative of expansions... First there was the passenger platform extending from the station, then a freight platform was added, and then as traffic increased a second platform was needed... I'm just not sure. Please, let me know what you think:

Front right: passenger, center left: passenger, back right: freight.

The old church site is now a farm:

And the former site of the signal tower now has a small platform.  A new signal tower is on order from Euro Rail Hobbies, it will go on the opposite side of the tracks, and so make much better use of space that the previous arraignment afforded.  While I'm still not entirely happy, this area now feels significantly less cramped.  I've photoshopped in a picture of the new signal tower in it's planned space:

A new platform now sits where the old signal tower once resided.

Finally, you may have noticed above a bunch of new structures.  Sharp eye Sir!  I've been busy building a number of new structures, many of which were Christmas gifts.  Those of you responsible, you know who you are, and I thank you.  I only wish I could have got to them sooner!

Faller 232234

Faller 232245 (Apothecary)

Faller 232245 (Bakery)

Faller 232235