Adding passengers to my Kato N-scale tram

When I purchased my Kato Portram model, I've bought some N-scale passenger figures along with it. That was over two years ago. It's really about time I installed those :)

The passengers figures I will be using came in two kits:

• Kato 24-205 containing sitting people
• Kato 24-274 containing various railroad staff members

The tram model manual features really nice disassembly instructions. Obviously it's all in Japanese. But there are also some good pictures to guide us, and the whole process is not really that complicated.

The manual seems to promote the usage of toothpicks for opening the chassis. That's an interesting coincidence - I always use the toothpicks, too!

The upper part of the tram consists of two independent elements. Those are however connected at the top and you have to remove both in a single step. Otherwise the fragile joint between the two will be broken.

A big surprise! The lower part of the tram is completely flat and does not feature any real "leg space". The miniature people will not fit there at all..

I have no choice but to remove the legs from every single figure that I intend to use. They look really bad after this operation...

...but as soon as they are glued to the chassis, their appearance improves a lot. Maybe this was a good idea after all!

Some minutes later my tram is full of passengers. They do look funny without their legs but I double checked it, and yes - they're at the correct height here.

The end result? Pretty good! The engineer really adds to the look of the tram.

Due to the partially covered windows, the other passengers are not very prominent...

...but the difference between an empty car and my upgraded model is very clear.

I love the outcome. This tram feels much more alive now!