Let’sトレ活！ (Let's Torekatsu!) Thread

Let’s Torekatsu!” (Let’s Training) on BS FUJI JAPAN was posted on the official YouTube Channel. The show is hosted by joshitetsu announcer, Kuno Tomomi.

The 17th episode is about “The History of Model Railroads” and it features weather forecaster Fujitomi Sato and Hayama Ken (former Editor-in-Chief of RM Models).



The episode begins with a look at a huge diorama at toy store – N Scale Town Nishiike located at 1-18-2 Nishi-Ikebukuro, Toshimu-Ku, Tokyo Fujikyu Building West No. 1 Building B1F.

Kuno meets weather forecaster Fujitomo Sato who is a big tetsudo mokei fan and Hayama Ken who is currently the editor-in-chief of “Rail Magazine” (formerly he was editor-in-chief of RM Models).

For his job interview for Rail Magazine, Hayama presented a model train that was in the process of being assembled and once he finished assembling it, he would write his first article in a magazine under his name.

Hayama then shows off a set he owns of a Tomy N Scale box set from 1970 (before the company would use the name Tomix).  Hayama then shows them how N Gauge railroad tracks looked at the time and how they used small joints back then.,

For Fujitomo, he loved Plarail.  But he received an N Gauge as a Christmas present when he was in the fourth grade which was the Tomix 90010 First Set 1 which featured a C Type Diesel.  While it was a small train, he would eventually get a bigger train and his first was the Tomix 2371 J.N.R. Electric Car KUHA-103.

But what is his favorite?  Fujitomo shows his Hankyu Kyoto Train (7000 series/Garaku) with Top Coat.

The promo is for the original N Gauge Tokyu Electric Railway 8500 series for BS Fuji Shopping.

The next segment shows some classics and Kawasaki-san from KATO  is the C50 from 1965.The first domestically produced N Gauge.  Hayama said its the first time seeing this and all three go on the ground to get a closer look at this classic railway model. And while it may look simple, the paint finish omitted but the size and length were the same.  And how they couldn’t make the motor smaller than a certain size at the time, so it became a trend among world’s N Scale manufacturers to make it bigger.  And how the engine was not in the train but inside the tender.

Kuno sees the admiration that Hayama has towards KATO and Hayama talks about it.

Hayama then talks about how as a younger, he would to to Tokyo Station and Ueno Station early in the morning to take photos and also turning the headmarks around.

Fujitomo then talks about how he played with his trains out in the garden when he was younger.  But he wanted to find a way to make things cooler for pictures, so he purchased a Tomix embankment when it was on sale and take a train and the embankment using real life outdoor locations as the background.  And he stores it in his Ikea bag to make things more compact.

Hayama then talks about model trains evolving and feels that what makers wanted to do with model railroads have already been realized in a sense. But what he is looking forward to and he says the ideas of breakthroughs such as the control  DCC (Digital Command Control) that allows digital control of lights and sounds but feels we need a technological breakthrough for model trains and believes it will happen possibly the next 5-10 years from now.  Those are a few of the big dreams he has when it comes to model trains.

Fujitomo said he loves model trains as it calms him down like meditation.  Especially on days he is overwhelmed with work, when he starts fiddling with his model trains, his heart really calms.  It’s part of mindfulness.  He enjoys tetsudo mokei.