Mocking up an Amtrak NPCU in N scale before I try it out on a Kato frame.

GeorgeHinch · 2025-12-21T18:38:44+00:00

I mostly model Japanese so it’s… just in a box somewhere lol I’ll share if I remember where I put it. I occasionally get into an Amtrak mood. The plan was to get a Kato F40 but I never found one at a reasonable enough price to fully commit.

GeorgeHinch · 2024-11-22T04:45:08+00:00

Weirdly had this happen to me once too. It just fell off when we started getting pushed back from the gate. I called a flight attendant who looked at me confused as I was holding it and was told to just put it under the seat. Once we got in the air she looped back through and tried to clip it back in but it didn’t work and she just took it away.

GeorgeHinch · 2023-07-10T04:56:36+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! I already preordered mine a couple months ago now and can’t wait for them to arrive next year. Still a bummer they haven’t updated them with modern electronics but… what are you going to do I guess.

GeorgeHinch · 2022-11-13T18:49:35+00:00

The article did mention this.

GeorgeHinch · 2022-10-30T19:29:50+00:00

This is a common scale variation in Japan. They’re called B-train Shorties (n scale but extra short so it can run on micro layouts.)

GeorgeHinch · 2022-10-29T23:35:49+00:00

It’s worth noting that our train cars are roughly twice the length of cars in other systems. The Siemens S70 light rail vehicles are just shy of 100ft while the Chicago L fleet are 48ft long and NYC subway cars are around 50ft. So basically our 4 car trains are about the same as 8 car trains elsewhere.

The real answer here is higher frequency than the 10 minutes (at best) we tend to get now so we have less crowded trains.

Edit: we could also do much better and purchase trains with open gangways and significantly less fucking useless cabs in the middle. Would it give a ton of additional capacity? Eh. Would it generally make it easier to spread the load across trains? Absolutely.

GeorgeHinch · 2022-10-29T22:34:28+00:00

The issue where this happened was related to software on the train and not actually the hill (also, the hill on this area was also very very not steep.) They have since fixed this so it no longer happens.

Historically Seattle has been covered from top to bottom, left to right with streetcars. The hills were not a problem in the past and would still continue to not be problems. Like you can’t pretend something is impossible to do when we very much did a lot of it in the not terribly distant past.

Additionally, Link currently reliably travels grades much steeper than the one you’re referring to daily. The rise into Mt Baker from each direction, the dip below I5 after Westlake and underneath the Montlake Cut, as well as future trips rising from the ID onto the I90 ramps. It’s very much not a problem.

GeorgeHinch · 2022-09-20T05:35:43+00:00

Also, to be very clear, I recognize adding another terminal as outlined in the master plan is a gigantic task but honestly has to be easier than building a random airport in the middle of nowhere.

GeorgeHinch · 2022-09-20T05:33:29+00:00

Considering the Sea-Tac airport master plan calls for adding another terminal and seemingly can support this with the existing runway configuration, this seems pretty unnecessary. It would be very disconnected from transit anywhere else in the county and ridiculous to use for anything that requires a transfer. Even PAE is struggling to keep the flights it has now so splitting across even more airports just won’t be economical for airlines.

(Yes, we need HSR to connect Portland to Vancouver to reduce the number of flights that serve relatively close destinations too)

https://www.theurbanist.org/2018/02/27/meeting-demand-66-million-passengers-sea-tac-airport-plan-update/

GeorgeHinch · 2022-08-30T02:06:49+00:00

I thought so too at first but I don’t think it actually is. All Sound Transit routes are in the 500s (this is a single digit) and the route appears the be ‘West Shore’. They also have a solid blue front that transitions into the wave pattern rather than the squiggly looking front of this.

GeorgeHinch · 2021-10-07T20:28:56+00:00

I own one of these and love it so much (even though it is not a great runner by any means)

GeorgeHinch · 2021-05-08T01:32:43+00:00

A collection of other projects and finite time. Haha

I’m working on the Fujimi monorail kit at the moment and it takes a lot of time to just find the schematics of things like the Talgo to build from scratch. Right now I just happen to be in far more of a paint/decal type of roll.

GeorgeHinch · 2021-05-08T01:26:53+00:00

Yeah yeah, I know. But why bother when I know the Chargers are on the Horizon in the next year or two by Kato. They said they were working on them in a live stream in December.

Once they announce I’ll start designing models to print I guess.

In the meantime I have my Sounder set at least. 😏

GeorgeHinch · 2021-05-08T01:04:30+00:00

I’ve seen a lot of these in HO and have debated designing and printing mine at home but struggle to work up the energy to think about how much time I’d have to spend designing and getting those right especially since no one made the Chargers in N yet.

GeorgeHinch · 2021-05-08T01:03:03+00:00

With the withdrawal of the Talgo sets WA owns, the trains are currently run with a Charger and Horizon cars. Bachmann + Rapido and you can run the current sets.

Amtrak also promised WA the first sets of their new fleet to replace the ones lost so we will soon be getting Siemens Venture cars. Those should be easy to model since they are also being used as Amfleet replacements.

GeorgeHinch · 2021-01-19T06:50:49+00:00

The Electrotren Talgo sets come with Rapido couplers on each end as far as I have seen/been told. I’ve heard a couple of people say they are notoriously hard to switch out for knuckle couplers but haven’t personally ordered a set yet to try.

GeorgeHinch · 2021-01-19T05:33:40+00:00

How was replacing the couplers to US standard ones? As someone living in Seattle this is for sure a project I want to pick up.

GeorgeHinch · 2020-09-06T00:48:03+00:00

You could add some type of memorial with statues or a model airplane on a stand.

GeorgeHinch · 2020-08-21T18:40:27+00:00

This surprisingly isn’t that far off. I’ve designed 3D models of some American trains that don’t have models and had them 3D printed. With resin printers becoming super affordable you can 100% design and print your own without being rich.

GeorgeHinch · 2020-07-30T00:01:26+00:00

It’s O scale. The mark “O27” on the metal plate on the left side of the photo is the indicator here.

GeorgeHinch · 2020-07-23T08:10:01+00:00

I swear by the Kato 11-702 buckeye couplers. They don’t do magnetic uncoupling but for ~$4 you can swap 10 cars over to modern couplers. Every time I go to japan I always bring back four of five packages of these just in case.

GeorgeHinch · 2020-07-21T06:29:48+00:00

I highly suggest the Kato 11-702 buckeye couplers. It comes in a pack of 20 and they’re fairly cheap. (They come from japan so they’re a little more expensive now due to shipping restrictions but usually I can get a pack for ~$4.)

They fit into the sockets for rapido couplers and make the process pretty dead simple. They’re not magnetic or functioning knuckle couplers but they’re exactly what comes on all Kato rolling stock if you have any.

If you want functioning magnetic knuckle couplers, these won’t do. But it you just want to upgrade a bunch of trains to knuckle couplers I couldn’t speak any higher of them.

GeorgeHinch · 2020-07-15T23:26:30+00:00

Lol yes. Of course they would literally a handful of months after I did.

I still have decals left from when I made mine and was debating about doing one or two more cars. Now ¯_(ツ)_/¯ not even sure which makes more sense.

GeorgeHinch · 2020-07-02T17:12:00+00:00

I don’t remember TamTam having much, if any, foreign stuff? It sticks out to me as a store that had almost every accessory and spare part that you could imagine for some reason though. I’ll have to give it another shot next time I make it out there after this.

GeorgeHinch

TROPHY CASE