Close but no cigar I'm still searching for the perfect Safety Yellow.

Just use your imagination that this model is painted in the perfect Safety Yellow detailed with black wheels silver hubcaps and black Outriggers plus the JR Railways logo. But alas this is what I have for now soon it's getting a dunk in the paint remover for another shot when the Badger Modelflex Railbox Yellow shows up.

Aru Nine Models builds

I've always liked brass trains but never could afford it fast forward to 2023 I've found Aru Models. Aru Models is a Japanese company that makes etched brass kits and mechanisms in HO and N scale. Ive recently completed Model A1007 & Model 1006. Not to shabby I must admit all that's needed is to stuff a decoder in it then paint and add some acetate for the glass effect. 

In pursuit of the perfect Safety Yellow.

Im looking for the perfect Safety Yellow for MOW trains as one who has never painted Safety Yellow this has been quite the challenge for some reason. With some detective skills and Bard GPT ive come up with a few possible solutions that I think may work.

Vallejo Golden Yellow - Too bright out the bottle, Solution to mix possibly with Red, Purple, Black or other color. 

Citadel Contrast Imperial Fist - This is a new fancy ass paint thats supposed to solve world hunger and other things. It looks like a good candidate for Safety Yellow from the videos that Ive seen I have high hopes for this. 

Badger Modelflex Railroad Color Railbox Yellow - This is another one Im holding out hope for as a good shoe in for Safety Yellow. 

Im back on the commuter train kick I guess, Kato 10-1703 inbound

I ordered the Kato 10-1702 by mistake and Ive had it for a while now its grown on me. I usually dont like big sets this is 15 cars large, I like 8 cars or smaller its cheaper. I tried to purchase this set from another place but they didnt have it in stock, So I got it off ebay. I plan on getting the B & C sets eventually to complete the entire set. 

Today I got a tiny decoder ESU LokPilot 5 Micro

I want something smaller than the Digitrax DZ126T I really didnt think that there was anything smaller boy was I wrong. I got an ESU LokPilot 5 Micro decoder and boy is that thing small, I would say that its half the size of the DZ126T thats ridiculous to me lol. This decoder will be going in the new Aru Model kit because the DZ126T isnt small enough and doesnt have enough features. 

Aru Nine Models

I was pretty scared to take this project on but yesterday I decided to start working on it. 
One tip I can give is to clean the model first so your solder will stick to the metal. 
The build in its entirety wasn't bad to assemble even though the instructions were totally in Japanese. 
This kit takes a KATO 10-105 chassis for power, I added a DZ126T decoder to this kit.

DCC'ing the KATO 11-105 Chassis

This is part of a project with a Aru 9 Models brass Boxcab kind of train which is not based on any prototype. I got the instructions from The N Scale.net the link is below. 

https://www.nscale.net/forums/showthread.php?36812-Kato-11-106-DCC-friendly

Adding the decoder is fairly straight forward.

• Gently remove the tan cover. It holds the motor in and adds weight, note the chunk of metal in it..
• Carefully move the motor out of the way, keeping the drive shaft in constant view. You can't get replacements.
• Pry up the circuit board off the bottom of the chassis.
• Remove the two contacts that feed the motor.
• Solder the Orange and Gray wires to the motor.
• The tabs are tiny, use lots of flux and pre-tin.You may want to leave longer wires so you could later add diodes or resistors to limit power.
• Solder the Red and Black wires (leave more wire here too) to the contact strips and pop them back into the chassis. They most likely fell out when you remover the circuit board and motor contacts.
• If you got a standard decoder with lighting and you want headlights add them now. Otherwise fold the wires up and wrap with tape, you may change your mind later.
• Put the contact strips back into the chassis.
• DO NOT REPLACE THE MOTOR CONTACTS.
• Replace the circuit board
• Place the motor back in place. Tweezers or forceps will help guide the drive shaft back into the cup.
• When the motor is settled, snap the tan cover back on.
• Use tape to attach the extra wires and decoder to the cover.
• TEST!
• Figure out how to slow the loco down.
• Goto 14 until satisfied
• Reassemble the loco.

These are my pics below and no I havent tested them yet. 

Im thinking about shortening the motor wires and keeping the lighting wires the same. 

The pics below are the shortened wire version, The long wires were bothering me so I shortened them. I left the lighting wires long because there are lights on both sides of the Boxcab.

The pics below are the V1 version of the above with long wires.

Finally returning home from Kato 3 E235 units

I'm finally getting my E235 end units and motor car returned to me today. They've been with Kato since April 27 2023. Yup almost a year which seems like forever in dog years. I guess I should explain why they were sent to Kato in the first place 

I wanted directional lighting in my trains and I run dcc that means I need a decoder. I needed two FL12 decoders and they're pretty easy to install and get working but mine did not work. I went online and asked questions about the installation of the decoders but nothing worked. 

I called Kato and explained the situation and they said send in the end cars as well as the motor car I guess so they could be programmed as a group. No biggie I sent them in with the knowledge of the long wait times for repairs even the website says there's a 6-8 month wait. 

So Kato USA couldn't fix the problem possibly because they didn't have the right parts because they are Kato USA. Off my trains go to Kato Japan for some undetermined amount of time and returned because Kato Japan couldn't fix my trains either. I'm thinking Kato Japan couldn't fix my trains either come on give me a break.

Personally I don't think my trains left the USA because it doesn't make sense that Kato Japan doesn't have a part for one of their more popular trains. I'm sure the part needed is a common part in their line of trains so it doesn't add up. 

I have to say Kato USA & Japan both make great products but their customer service is lacking. If you can fix something without sending to Kato USA do it and don't send it in. 

To Kato USA's credit they did replace the circuit boards in the end units 

Got some used gear from a friend today

Today I received some some used gear from a friend. A ten set of Kato tank cars and a Tomix tank car which is my first full set of freight cars. I also have a long Engine House from Kato and some Kato track.