Monday 28 May 2012

My first T Gauge set!

Awaiting in my mailbox today were my orders from TrainAidsA and from TGauge.com. Very exciting!

In these orders was a Type 103 "Sobu Line" T-Gauge starter set, some extra straight track (60mm lengths), a single level crossing and a few other accessories.

Of course the train had to be run as soon as possible! After opening the pack and setting up the loop, I ignored the advice I have seen on other blogs and forums and started running the train without using the energizer pen (this was included in my starter pack). Considering that I hadn't even cleane the track, the train ran very well straight out of the box. I did not find re-railing the rolling stock to be much trouble - despite some of the reports I had previously read in other online blogs and forums - nor did I have any trouble coupling the carriages together. Perhaps I have better eyesight than the authors of those other reviews? ;-)


I have attempted to take a photo of the carriages, but the tiny, tiny size of the rolling stock made it virtually impossible to get a decent shot with a Nikon D3100, let alone my iPhone 3GS camera! In any case, here is a (very poor) photo comparing the size of the T Gauge carriages against a stock-standard Australian Two Dollar coin.

Saturday 26 May 2012

Scalescenes.com card kits

Last night I discovered the various card kits available from www.scalescenes.com.
The kits are a downloadable PDF pack that you print out yourself then assemble.

I am fortunate enough to have a colour laser printer at home (they are relatively cheap these days), so I downloaded the (free!) "Small Goods Store" kit (R002), and have printed it off to have a crack.

Although the kits are natively available for OO scale and N scale, by setting the output print zoom to 33% on the printer, the kit is printed out at the correct scale for T Scale!

The photos of completed scalescenes.com kits by Ian Wigglesworth are both impressive and encouraging, as there are a large variety of card kits available from scalescenes.com, many of which would be great to have on a T scale model railway layout.

Saturday 19 May 2012

Layout Construction - Tips

Although not strictly T-Gauge (or even model railroading!), I figured that I should post on here some of the sites that I've been looking/looked at for 'tips' on model making. Here are the links:

Airbrush Painting: http://www.model-railroad-infoguy.com/Airbrush-painting.html
Building Your Model Railroad: http://www.building-your-model-railroad.com
Scale Model Railroading: http://www.scale-modelers-handbook.com
Painting T-Gauge Track: http://1-450.blogspot.com.au/2008/09/what-little-paint-can-do.html

Happy Modelling!
-- J.P.

Wednesday 16 May 2012

*Moving* 1:450 cars!



I was watching some YouTube videos after writing my last blog post, and came across this little video gem by David K. Smith:

It's a 1:450 scale car running around on a PCB 'track'! The car is a slightly modified Eishindo product (magnets attached to bottom of vehicle), and the track and controller is by US company, IDL Motors.

Great stuff!

-- J.P.

Edit: I've just placed an order with IDL Motors for one of their track sets. I hope to write a review in this blog very soon!

"Research" - Some T-Gauge Links and Resources

I mentioned in my previous post that I had looked at a number of websites before taking the plunge and actually purchasing some T-Gauge items. Here are some of the sites that I have looked at in my 'research' into T-Gauge:
  • T Gauge Headquarters
    A very thorough information site by David K. Smith, a veteran small-scale model railroader. I highly recommend this site to any newcomers to T-Gauge, or to those interested in finding out more about T-Gauge.
  • TGauge.com
    Despite the ".com", this is a Scottish (UK) retailer. I have "pre-ordered" their exclusive HST-125 set. The photos of their prototype shows incredible detail for such a tiny model! I am hoping that the production sets are of similar, or better, quality.
  • TrainAidsA
    A US retailer.
  • Hobbies Plus
    An Australian (!!) retailer, located in Stratford, Victoria. I suspect that the retail stand I saw with the T-Gauge demonstration at the Springwood Model Show in 2009 belonged to Hobbies Plus.
  • Pokara 1:450 Paper Craft (Japanese)
    Some 1:450 scale paper buildings - print and construct!
From T Gauge Headquarters, some important info I have gleaned is that T-Gauge was developed by KK Eishindo of Japan, but is now manufactured under license by "The Railway Shop" of Hong Kong, and is available for purchase  from a number of dealers worldwide (some of whom I have documented above).

Of further interest to me are the various T-Gauge items available at the Rapid Prototyping site "Shapeways" (Search for "1:450" or "T Gauge" on the Shapeways site). Shapeways takes advantage of 3D printing technology to allow people to submit 3D models to be printed and/or sold to others - sort of like a printing service for 3D objects!

Also, as part of my 'research', I also looked at a number of various blogs by T-gauge modellers:
  • Victorian T-Gauge
    Documents the creation of a modular T-Gauge layout based on the Orbost-area in Victoria, Australia. The (Aussie) modeller responsible for this site has included a number of wonderful details on their website, including 1:450 scale fences and power poles complete with wire!! Yikes!
  • 1:450
    David K. Smith's blog separate from T Gauge Headquarters
  • An Adventure In T Scale
    A Blog by "The Other Lionel". Has some excellent information about using paper buildings in a T-Scale layout
I have also been lurking on the "Talking T-Gauge" Forums, reading about the experiences of others and products that are available.

Having gleaned a great deal of information from the above sites, I have now pre-ordered a HST-125 set from TGauge.com, and having discovered how hard it is to locate Eishindo's "starter kit", have purchased a set from TrainAidsA. Once these items arrive, I am hoping to make further purchases of perhaps some buildings, track, scenery and other accessories (Hopefully from the local dealer, Hobbies Plus!).

Happy modelling!
-- J.P.

Tuesday 15 May 2012

About this Blog

Hello there!

This blog will be about my adventure with T-Gauge model railways.

"Who am I?", you ask - I am J.P.M. I hail from Sydney, Australia. (More about me in a moment).

Photo of an Eishindo T-Gauge carriage on top of
a human finger. T-gauge track is 3mm wide!
The next question I guess is, "What is T-Gauge?" T-Gauge model railways are tiny - very tiny. The track is only 3mm between each rail, and the trains themselves are scaled at 1:450 - in other words, the trains are 450 times smaller than the real-world object that they represent.

So, about me, I am not entirely new to model railroading, but I am new to small-scale railroading. A long time ago, as a child, I (literally) played with HO-Scale trains on the floor of the family home along with LEGO bricks. That eventually led to a ready-to-run layout that my father still has in his possession, but as I got older, other things became more interesting to me.
Skip a decade and a bit, and I find myself once again immersing myself in the world of LEGO bricks. One thing leads to another, and next thing I know, I am part of a group displaying LEGO railway layouts (L-Gauge, as it has been dubbed) around Sydney and Australia. We even won the "People's Choice Awards" at one of the most respected model railway shows in the country, where we were competing against layouts constructed in the 'traditional' fine-scales (i.e. HO, N, Z, etc).
Anyway, at one of the model railway shows I attended, I was intrigued to see on one of the merchant stands a circle of track only about 130mm in diameter with a tiny little 4-carriage train running around it. This was T-Gauge! Intrigued, I started looking online for more details about T-Gauge, and started reading. the more I read, the more intrigued I became. Eventually, I made the decision to actually buy a set and have a go at T-Gauge (and fine scale modelling!), which brings us here!

I'll be sharing my thoughts and resources I find relating to T-Gauge on this blog, and I invite you to join in my little adventure (pardon the pun!) with T-Gauge model railway modelling!

-- J.P.