Utrainia's relationship with Japanese railway technology is well known, but recently a new face has been sighted in Utrainia:
What is this splash of orange with the super-hero mask you ask?
It sure doesn't look very Japanese. Nope, this is the TGV: Train à Grande Vitesse. French technology (from 1981!) is now rolling the rails in Utrainia. (The platform at Raparapa might need some yellow safety striping installed.)
It seems that I just can't get enough of hand laid turnouts! Which is odd, because it's a pretty tedious process making them. And yet, here I am, a month later building a crossover for Raparapa. Now that trains are running, the Operations Dept has been fairly vocal about how inefficient the current system is. With a small crossover at Raparapa, they argue, trains on the second track would no longer need to reverse half the length of the country to get back onto the first main line. A fairly compelling argument I have to admit, so with that in mind I fired up the computer and drew up a template for the crossover.
Templot to the rescue again, which means about 3 minutes of drawing the turnouts, another 3 hours adjusting the sleeper spacing in 50,000 different dialog boxes, and then another 3 hours trying to convince it that just because I have a black and white printer, doesn't mean I shouldn't be forbidden from changing any of the export options. But at long last I ha a 1:1 ...
Tonight I would like to introduce you to Utrainia Broadcast, bringing you the finest news from around Utrainia.
Their first feature is this short video of a coal train along the coast, and the express sleeper service speeding through the canyon.
The supremely observant will notice that the diesels appear to have GE motors, yet EMD bodies. What can I say...
I guess the question on everyone's lips is: when will we see a Shinkansen???
Big day here in Utrainia, and the result of many days work. First of all though, a little bit of background...
While building the bridge module I could feel that I was very close to making a complete loop of modules, all I needed was this and one more corner module. At that point I realised I had another corner module, my previous base for the bridge module. So I had the required number of corners, however neither had track, and it would take me a while to complete the bridge scene. I felt frustrated that I was so close, yet so far.
Then it struck me that I could cheat a little... if I tacked down some track on each module, they could act as stand-ins until I got around to completing them. Hmm...
So that night I quickly made up a pair of spacer modules. The first one I just put down some track over the existing foam, on the second one (the new bridge module) I made some joists out of 3mm MDF and a tack base from some foam board. End result was two corner modules...
Now that trains are running on Utrainia, I've been enjoying running some of my trains. So far I've been running the "blue train", which is a collection of Japanese rolling stock I've acquired over many years. I've always fancied the Japanese blue trains, I think because as a child my Granddad had a similar set and it's left an impression. While in Japan I made an effort to ride one of the blue sleeper trains, but my timing was off and I ended up in a dreadful series 14 unreserved cattle-class carriage during a summer student migration weekend; a rather sub-par service.
Luckily in Utrainia there are no series 14 carriages on the sleeper trains, and so all passengers are treated to a most luxurious overnight ride instead.
Usually the sleeper train departs late in the evening, travelling through the night before arriving early in the morning at its destination. During the summer months, passengers are often treated to a spectacular sunrise as the train skirts along the S...
Taking a break from the city module, I decided to work on the long-delayed bridge module. So far I've made up two towers and made a rough start on the module itself. However I was finding the existing module a bit restricting, so after a bit of brain storming, decided to make a fresh start.
A plan was quickly devised and then construction started. This module is a new style for Utrainia, having a smooth curved fascia, and being of a monocoque form, where the fascia forms the structure itself. Enough talking though, it's time to assemble the materials:
6x 300mm 45x20mm knotty pine spacers 4x 260mm 45x20mm knotty pine verticals 2x 300x150mm 12mm ply ends 1x curved 3mm MDF base
Pairs of verticals were connected to...