If You Are Into,

Hello Kitty!

 this is the post for you! beginning on November 1, 2018, Tokyo-based railway operator Keio Corporation will begin rolling out trains on the Keio Line, as well as the Toei Shinjuku Line, that are fully decked-out in the Hello Kitty theme,

 That means full-on pink, rainbows, flowers, and of course all your favorite Hello Kitty characters will adorn the exterior of the trains,

they have even created custom-designed Hello Kitty caution stickers to be adhered to the doors, (Caution! Mind the cute closing doors),

 traphangers will be able to ride all around Tokyo in adorably cute train cars,  the design overhaul (PDF) is part of a broader agreement between the railway operator and Sanrio Entertainment, who owns the rights to Hello Kitty, along with Sanrio Puroland, the mecca of Hello Kitty that’s accessible via the Keio Line,

 both companies hope that the new trains will boost ridership, as well as attendance to Puroland, which is just steps from the Keio Tama Center train station,

 the train station has got its own Hello Kitty facelift about two years ago, 

 the entire station is adorned with Hello Kitty – everything from the signage and seating to the clocks and ceiling art,

 the new Hello Kitty trains will begin operating on November 1, 

which is the birthday of – you guessed it – Hello Kitty, if this looks and sounds familiar we made a post of another Hello Kitty train last May, the bullet train, I wonder if any of the UK train networks will take a similar theme on board?

We Have Been To A Number Of Strange Museums,

over the past few years,

 but none with a title as strange as the hall in this one, the Exhibition Hall of Historical Accidents,

 JR East in Japan recently completed an expansion of their exhibition hall, “We want our employees to never forget the accidents of the past so that we can reflect on the incidents and learn from them” said the company (PDF), reasserting the importance of this initiative,

 the new exhibition hall consist of video footage, slides, panels and digital signage, combined with newspaper clippings, reports and other documentations from accidents, in the newly added reference hall are real-scale replicas of trains that have been in accidents,

 Japan’s train industry, responsible for transporting millions of people each day, understandably takes safety very seriously, and their introspection and dedication to not repeating the past was on full display recently when JR East, one of the country’s major passenger railway companies, unveiled the new expansion to their “Exhibition Hall of Historical Accidents” (事故の歴史展示館),

the new exhibition hall was unveiled to the press on October 9, 2018, but here is the thing, unfortunately, it is only open to employees of the company and is not for the public, photography courtesy Sankei Photo.

High Speed Trains,

or Hyperloops,

as they are sometimes called, above is the Dubai Hyperloop which is being designed by Virgin Hyperloop One and BIG, seem to be getting nearer to us lesser mortals, and now some thought has been given to how we would view the outside world as we race through it at up to and even above speeds of 680 miles per hour (1,100 kilometres per hour), it appears that the best way to view the outsides at this speed is through a rounded window, 

passengers will have the illusion they are travelling in a transparent tube, the high-speed transportation system's tubes will feature small circular windows that work in the style of a zoetrope — a device popular in the 19th century, which creates the illusion of motion, when hyperloop pods move at fast enough speeds views through the windows will merge to create the impression of a continuous view, the Video shared on Twitter by Virgin Hyperloop One's chief technology officer Josh Giegel, design lead at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), show how the effect would work. how neat is that? 

Not Much To Do Today,

so a little bit of time on the train set,

the slight problem with the bit I am doing now is that it is in full sunlight,

so it is a bit hot unless it is cloudy, luckily today was a bit overcast so on with the ground cover,

slowly getting the effect I like,

it will hopefully look a lot better when the trees are in place,

hard at work!

the table is 16 feet long, the ends and back are almost finished, the front I will leave till all of the work is done as I keep having to lean on it,

looking from left to right at the model,

the trees at the front are waiting to be 'planted' on the hill at the top of the picture,

this is a view from the back,

the unfinished back, again this will be left till last as I have to lean on it to reach over to the center,

looking from the back to the front,

but enough of trains, in the evening we went out with Mike and Riza to the Wild West Saloon, above Diana and Riza with owner Reg,

we were also joined by Babe,

although it does not look busy there were a number of customers here as we arrived,

then with a giant lighter the owners wife Lisa called over to say hi,

which was appropriate, as in a flash the lights went out as a huge rainstorm swept in,

so we all had to share a candle, I know how romantic!

the girls looking as lovely as ever,

the good news was that although the power was off for nearly an hour the group carried on playing and singing, then once restored the band was in full swing in no time,

a quick hello from the singer Joan,

and of course if you want to have a go at belting out a tune the floor is yours!

Diana and Riza joined by the singer Joan,

and it is goodbye from Reg and Lisa then home to 388, after we said our farewells to Mike and Riza it was feet up for a couple of Sherlock Holmes, we have watched these before but decided to have a rerun, then off to bed.