Carriage order of trains

[oenckie]

Hello all,

 

Having bought quite some trainsets from the second hand market, I cannot be sure all the carriages are in the boxes in the order the manufacturer (mostly Kato) put them there.

As I would like to put the carriages in the right order on the track, I am wondering if there's a way to determine that order.

Although carriages look almost the same, for example the differences are mostly in roof layout for Shinkansen.

This is mostly apperent with the 500 and N700 series I have.

 

(Maybe it's mentioned in the manuals of Kato, but I don't read Japanese :help: )

 

Does anyone know of a site that mentioned the order of trainsets?

I haven't been able to find this information using Google.

Pictures of rooftops from trains are also kinda rare....

 

Thanks for any help!

 

Greetings from the Netherlands,

 

Marco

Edited August 11, 2017 by oenckie

[railsquid]

Usually the box or manual will have a diagram showing the cars in the correct order, so it should be a case of matching the numbers. Not sure what to do if the info is missing though.

[ToniBabelony]

If no information is present, try searching with 編成表　(hensei-hyō) and the train type. That should give you the correct formations. Shinkansen usually have the car numbers next to the logo. Normal JR type trains usually have the car numbers on the bottom-middle and private railways vary with the placment of the numbers.

Edited August 11, 2017 by Kabutoni

[katoftw]

The manufacturer website have the train consist diagrams.

[Suica]

The order is also often shown in the item pictures on Hobby Search.

[Yavianice]

The dead giveaway for Shinkansens are the location of the LED destination sign. They are always on one side of the carriage, so they can only be placed in one way for it to be correct. In case of the Mini-shinkansens, they have their doors always on one side of the carriage. And as Kabutoni mentioned, all Shinkansens (regardless of manufacturer) have the car number on them.

 

Non-Shinkansen trains are a bit harder, though that's what Hobbysearch is for, for any brand, as the manufacturers (as far as I know) always put their carriages in the correct orientation in the boxes when they leave the factory.