T- thoughts

First things first. Another T gauge blog has appeared fellow tgauger Michael Denny, from Canada has started a blog detailing his experiences. It is linked to over on the right here. The T gauge circle is widening. Why don't you join in?

Recently I've been doing a lot of thinking about how my T gauge modelling should develop. What sort of layout, what prototype, etc. and I think I've reached a decision. 

Firstly prototype wise. I think that I'll model some kind of Japanese railway scene. After a while of thinking about it this became a quite logical decision. I remembered back to all the other scales I've been involved in, be it OO, HO Gn15 or what ever. I've always learned about a new prototype. When I started in HO scale I learned about American Railroads. Gn15, I learned all about the work of Sir Arthur Heywood. So it seemed  quite natural given that T gauge is Japanese to want to learn about Japanese Railways.

Up until a few weeks ago all I knew about Japanese railways could be summed up in one word Shinkansen,  the high speed train network. That was it. I've since learned that there are/has been 15 different types of Shinkansen. From the very first E0 series to the N700 tilting trains and beyond. I'm not even counting the experimental vehicles such as the MagLev types. 

But there are no Shinkansen available in T gauge, not yet. Though it wouldn't surprise me if one did appear at some time.

So until then I have to learn about the different types of EMU offered by Eishindo and where and how they operate on Japanese Railways. Learning about the prototype is one of the fun aspects of railway modelling that can often be overlooked. Its something that I enjoy and I am looking forward to it.