Kato “Seven Stars In Kyushu” Set

[MK]

Dwight, life is short!  You need to go back and bring an empty suitcase.  Not only are there tons of hobby stores but the trains there are about half the price of North America.

My first time to Japan was in 2023 and my head exploded!  Every minute I was awake I was speechless!  Since then, we have been going back every year with our last full trip in October 2025.  Then in January of this year, we were in the area and had to connect in Tokyo.  I asked for the longest layover possible without requiring a hotel stay.  You should have seen the agent's face.  I told him I want to go to downtown Tokyo to buy model trains and he laughed!  Well he found one that was 10 hours.  More than enough time to get to downtown Tokyo from Haneda Airport and hit a few hobby stores.  Made a huge purchase and came back to the airport in time to enjoy the lounge and catch our flight back to to the US.  Total cost from the airport to downtown Tokyo?  $15 round trip.  Only in Japan!

BTW, in Osaka, there's a huge 5-story hobby store of which the 5th floor is completely dedicated to MRR.  Joshin's Super Kids Land.  Don't let the name fool you.

This is about 1/10 of what it has.  Yes, those are bookcases of sets that you just grab off the shelve if you want to make a purchase!



Don't like Tomix?  Here's Kato.  The picture only shows 1/3 of Kato stock!



I am looking forward to the June trip as it's just me and a few friends.  We are going to meet in Tokyo and do 2 weeks of riding the local trains around Tokyo, rail fanning, and hitting every hobby store we see!

[Dwight in Toronto]

Oh man, that is crazy!  I guess that’s the buying power and business viability that goes along with a population density of, what, 40+ million in Tokyo alone.  That’s pretty much the population of all of Canada in one city. 

MK, you have to share the hobby aspects of your trip when you return!

[Dwight in Toronto]

Spent some time modifying the Kato DC factory light board to support DCC operation. 

As shown in the following two pics, this involved cutting through the circuit board traces in several locations to cause electrical gaps, and then lightly scraping away the insulating coating to create small solder pads.  I think the photos are self explanatory:







The next step is to affix the 58731 decoder to the factory board, and solder up the various wire leads.

[Scottl]

@MK I'm going in October.  It would be great if you could post some of the best shop finds from your trip.  I was going to the Tokyo Kato headquarters but any more like Joshin's would be great!

[MK]

@MK I'm going in October.  It would be great if you could post some of the best shop finds from your trip.  I was going to the Tokyo Kato headquarters but any more like Joshin's would be great!

@Scottl I'll give it a go between now and then.  What is your itinerary, like what cities?  I've been to Japan 4+ times now since 2023 and pretty much know the lay of the land when it comes to train stores (and also sightseeing).

First time for you?

I'll try to make it a minimum so as to not dilute Dwight's thread.  We can take it to PM if more info is needed.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Having re-installed the modified factory light-board back on the chassis, I positioned the 58731 decoder on top and proceeded to solder the various colour-coded wires to their respective pads.  In so doing, it occurred to me that I had pretty much upgraded the factory board into an ESU-equipped drop-in decoder.

I moved the chassis to my programming track, fired up LokProgrammer, and breathed a sigh of relief when Drivers Cab confirmed proper operation of all functions … motion, headlights, and sound effects performed flawlessly.

The final test was refitting the shell, and I was relieved when it slipped snuggly into place with a satisfying ‘snick’. 

In my haste to get everything back together, I neglected to take a photo of the final decoder install.  Apologies to those who have been following this far, but I’m reluctant to remove the shell yet again just for a pic! 

This was a gorgeous little train set on DC, but upgrading to DCC/sound has substantially elevated its appeal.  I’ll try to share a short “proof of life” video asap.

So far, so good.  Now I can focus on exploring if & how to illuminate the coaches with the ESU 50704 LED boards.  Stay tuned, I guess!

[nscaler711]

No worries here. I've been wanting to add sound to my E259 and E353 sets for while now... only problem I have is the urge to buy a lokprogrammer. that and adding speakers to every car or at least the end cars.

[peteski]

No worries here. I've been wanting to add sound to my E259 and E353 sets for while now... only problem I have is the urge to buy a lokprogrammer. that and adding speakers to every car or at least the end cars.

Speakers (and I assume sound decoder) to every car? Just for sound effects like rail clicking or flange squeal?  ESU doesn't make sound-only decoders so you will likely use another brand decoders?

[nscaler711]

Speakers (and I assume sound decoder) to every car? Just for sound effects like rail clicking or flange squeal?  ESU doesn't make sound-only decoders so you will likely use another brand decoders?

Not necessarily, I was thinking of making magnetic connections in between cars and adding speakers in random cars, well in two cases the end cars mainly due to where specific sounds would play such as the horn/whistles. Think Juul style connections. I still dont have a concrete way of making them so for now thats at a stand still...  with the E353 it might not be too hard since it operates completely different than most trains you'd see.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E353_series
So cars 1-3 i can place a speaker in each end car and leave #2 powered with the decoder. This operates as its own train hence the need for speakers in the end cars.
The other consist cars #4-12 I'd ideally like a speaker in cars 4 and 12 and possibly one or two in closer to the powered car #7


The E259 on the other hand i'd most likely just throw speakers in the two end cars as its only 6 cars long.

Honestly I'm not sure where I'd even begin. I would have to use speakers that would not overload the decoders amp, so I would have to find correct speakers that would have the correct impedance or at least match them to get to the right impedance.
 

[Dwight in Toronto]

With the loco running a charm on dcc/sound, I began experimenting with coach lighting.

When I ordered the decoder, I included five packets of ESU’s 50704 interior lighting LED boards.  I had never used these lighting kits before now.

This first pic shows the single LED lightboard on the left (it’s pre-wired to pick up dcc track power).  Also shown is a small sheet of thin brass, and two strips that I cut from it, bent 90 degrees at one end, to mimic Kato’s coach lighting method.  In the photo, one of the strips has been inserted and slid under the floorboard, to a pinchpoint where it gets pressed against the factory in-floor conductive strips:




Here, I have affixed the lightboard to the end-of-car bulkhead, using a small bit of black sticky-tac.  The LED is exposed horizontally above the wall section, so as to light up the compartment.  I had carefully shaped the top edge of the board on my desktop belt sander to conform with the ceiling curve of the shell (it’s a tight fit, but luckily it DOES fit!).  I then soldered the “AC” power leads to the two brass strips that had been inserted through the floorboard:




Similarly, I needed to install a second LED at the other end of the coach.  As it happened, I had a short strip of ESU LED’s left over from an earlier project (I had installed one of their programmable lighting strips in an observation car, and had to trim the HO length down to N scale).  The LED’s on the surplus strip are the same form factor as the 50704 boards, so I simply dremeled off an LED segment for use at the other end of the coach:




And here is the extra LED sticky-tac’d to the opposite end bulkhead, with +ve and -ve leads soldered up and “daisy-chained” off the 50704 board:




And voila!  Here’s a pic showing a few figures glued in place, and both LED’s illuminated with DCC track power:




Same shot with the shell back in place:




So, proof of concept is done, and I really like the subdued yellowish lighting effect.

I was a bit dismayed that, when in motion with the other cars, the LED’s exhibited excessive flickering, so much so that I considered it unacceptable.  As a hasty first guess, I stuck a 14g weight to the roof, which resulted in no flicker whatsoever.  I suppose the pointy axle ends, cone-shaped copper bearing surfaces, and contact points where the bogie pickups rub on the floorboard strips aren’t quite up to snuff.  Beats me.  But adding a little bit of weight is certainly doable.

And now, it’s on to lighting up the next coach.

[peteski]

Sure, adding weight will improve wheel to rail  contact.  But I also recommend cleaning the wheels (even in factory-fresh models). They might have a thin coating of oily substance used to prevent oxidation during storage, and also the blackening layer does not conduct electricity well.  I use a method I recently described in https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=60736.msg836908#msg836908  And as you mentioned, all those contact areas can also eventually tarnish, degrading conductivity.

When adding extra weight it is best to do it as low in the model as possible to lower its center of gravity.  Weight in a roof will make the model more top heavy and wobbly.  I have replaced the factory installed steel weights with lead flashing cut to the same size and also glue chunks of lead somewhere low on the car floor.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thank you Pete.  I was going to disassemble the trucks, clean the wheels and copper ‘cones’ etc before going to the bother of adding weight under the floorboards.  I will report back!

[MK]

Every time I've had Kato lights flickering it has ALWAYS been dirty wheels and/or tracks.  I would not add weights.

It's very sensitive because it doesn't have caps for keep-alives.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Thanks guys. 

I removed the trucks, then the wheels, then the copper bearings/conductors.  Cleaned everything with isopropyl alcohol.  Didn’t see much/anything in the way of residue. 

Put it all back together, and placed the coach back in its place on the tracks.  I was surprised and pleased to see flicker-free lighting for one, then two, then three laps of my 16’ Unitrack test loop.  And then the flickering reappeared.

I’ll next give the track a thorough cleaning. 

[Dwight in Toronto]

Cleaned the track with varsol/mineral spirits (it wasn’t very dirty).  May have helped to a small degree, but the flickering persists. 

I guess I’ll be adding a bit of weight after all.