Builder: Philip C
Owner: Martin E
Description:
This was my first T-Trak module, built in early 2008. It represents a small town station somewhere in central Japan.
The station and platform, and the shops are from the Tomytec Machiami (Town) Collections. These are pre-painted and weathered plastic kits that are very good value for money. Initially, these came in sets of 12, but they are now sold individually or in sets of 2. The yellow building is a resin "Hole in the Wall Cafe" kit made by a small manufacturer in Pennsylvania. I turned it into a hole-in-the-wall karaoke bar. It's painted Wisconsin Central yellow, which turned out to be a brighter shade than it looked in the bottle.
A koban, or police box, is next to the station. In Japanese cities, only the main streets have names. Cities are divided up into areas of a few blocks, called chomes. Within each chome, buildings are numbered according to construction date, not by position. Maps are placed on street corners, but often the only way to locate a particular address is to ask the police. Generally, there is a koban in every chome, and they are often located close to stations.
Kawanaga ("river middle") is the name that came on the station, so I decided to stick with it.
Eiden Kirara 900 on Kawanaga. The Eiden (Eizan Dentetsu, or Mt Hiei Electric Railway) is a light railway that runs into the mountains north of Kyoto. This and the Randen, or Keifuku Electric Railway, are the main prototypical inspiration for my modules. My layout could possibly represent a freelanced line connecting the two.Both are subsidiaries of the Keihan Railway, a major private railway company in the area. "Keihan" is an alternate pronunciation of the characters for Kyoto and Osaka.
Module viewed from the opposite side.
Aichi Loop Railway 2000 cars at Kawanaga station.