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An economical way to get long commuter trains


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I would like to find the best options for getting N scale Yamanote and Keihin Tohoku line 101 and/or 103 series sets in prototypical lengths. Price is important, but they should be prototypical consists with the right number of cab/motor/trailer cars. It would be also nice if they could run on r140 curves and switches (like my Tomix 113 series), but that't not a big priority. Kits and ready to run sets and everything between them could be good, so any idea is welcomed.

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So far, the cheapest options for long commuter trains is to build them from GreenMax Economy kits. However, that requires building and so on. Another option is to buy sets second hand (Popondetta ships) and especially Kato ones. For example, a new, a full 10-car Kato 103 Series Yamanote set would cost around ¥15,000, which is already pretty cheap IMO. I think these can be bought for around ¥11,000~¥9,000 anywhere.

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check with nariichi at model train plus, he haunts hobby shops and has a personal shopper service, perhaps you can figure something out for him to keep an eye out for deals that work out for decent used equipment in hobby shops. may take time patience. he has a pretty reasonable personal shopper fee.



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Greenmax kits would be great (i like to build trains), especially the cheaper unpainted ones. That would even allow me to add a tomytec motor and have r140 running too. However i can't really find any information, much less a source for these kits.


I've found the 10 car kato set (10-514), but it's either sold out or around 400-600 dollars, which is pretty high. An older set with rapido couplers and a worm drive would probably be a better match. I don't really understand why is this train so rare on the used market, i would assume the before the 231 series, they were in every starter set from both kato and tomix, so there should be plenty of them on ebay, but so far i can't find much.


Thanks for the idea or asking Nariichi, but since i don't really know what set number or name i need i can't really ask him. First, i'll have to find out the possible set numbers (both current and past sets). If anyone has any information on this, i would appreciate it. (actually a list of kato and tomix trains from the past 20 years with a single line description and set numbers would be great, even if it's in japanese)

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HS has some generic unpainted 103 kits, called EVO kits, with JR East copyright (you can also buy marking sheets for those); that said it is probably going to cost you more or less the same amount of money to buy and complete those as to buy a KATO set.

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