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Tomytec - New Releases


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On 1/22/2023 at 5:50 AM, maihama eki said:

 

Now, when do we get the red and green DMVs?

 

I guess the only way now is to get 3 copies of the upcoming blue one and paint them into red and green ~ 😛 !

 

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5 hours ago, bill937ca said:

<Groan> I figured that Utsunomiya line tram was coming.  The tram and a a starter set with an island platform   We haven't had that platform before..

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10966526/30/3

I ordered it. Note that this is a package with the tram and the center platform.  At least it won't be here until August.

 

Edited by bill937ca
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Dencha is an interesting choice. Those sets normally feature obscure cats, this had already been done by Greenmax. Thought this Tomytec version is a fifth of the cost.

 

I might see it I can get a the 2 cars off yahoo when the set gets released.

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11 hours ago, bill937ca said:

I ordered it. Note that this is a package with the tram and the center platform.  At least it won't be here until August.

 

 

I, too, figured it had to be coming along as a model sometime, because it's just too colorful and attractive to ignore or resist. And I see that you did not resist it for long...  🙂

 

Rich K.

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New buildings! (Or are they?! These were originally released as Diocolle Combat DCM17 and DCM18 fake buildings with openable backside.)

Edited by katem
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On 4/13/2023 at 7:21 PM, Aleks said:

And new trams, looks like, Tosaden?

Bingo! Hobbysearch has already opened preorders for them:

According to the HS profile, this is the first time Tomytec has done a Tosu-specific model. According to my 2022 Japan tram fleet guidebook, both of the cars being modelled were built and entered service in 1952, and so far as I can tell without buying the 2023 version before travelling to Japan, they're still in service.

 

Bit of pointless pedantry, and I'm sure @200系 or @brill27mcb will correct me if I'm wrong, but the Tosaden 200-series cars run on what look to be Japanese derivatives of the Brill 77E equal-wheel truck. While they're not exact copies, looking at the Tomytec drawings the springing arrangement may be slightly different, they do look to have a striking resemblance.

 

Alastair

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From memory, Tosaden 200 series have Hitachi SA-W2 trucks. They are similar to 77Es, we looked at them as possible substitutes when searching for trucks for the restoration of VR car No.41 and Fremantle No.29.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited by marknewton
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1 hour ago, disturbman said:


Like all the other retailers.

Preorders duly placed....

 

I am wondering if there is a point about buying more than one of these (i.e. two 209s or two 210s). I am getting a sense it may actually look good to be able to put two identical trams on a line, would look similar to how tram networks operate around the world (perhaps outside Japan itself, since Japanese systems tend to have many kinds of cars).

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From an international perspective, this is a good-looking tram. With its basic shape, 10 side passenger windows, 3 equally-sized end windows, the rounded ends, doors at all corners and so on, it could be used as a starting point to represent a tram or trolley from any number of cities. A little filing or sanding, where needed, along with a repainting  and change to trolley poles could make this a very good stand-in model of many American streetcars, for example. And the total ease and relatively low cost of getting the shell and powering it makes it a very attractive proposition.

 

Rich K.

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Alastair, thanks for the summon, and I'll see what I can do for you😅.

 

A bit of a preface though, though I am most certainly really interested in Japanese streetcars, that's a lie I absolutely love Japanese streetcars, but as I'm more of a heavy rail person I can't say my streetcar knowledge is at the same level when compared to heavy rail related subjects. To add to this, I'm more or less solely focused on Japanese prototypes, as well as development, when it comes to streetcars (mostly true for heavy rail as well, though I do make a couple of exceptions in that case) which means some of my knowledge on non-Japanese streetcars or components, like the Brill trucks mentioned here, is limited to where they intersect with developments in Japan. As such I have no issue acknowledging that there are multiple members on this forum which are probably more knowledgeable on certain issues related to Japanese streetcars, streetcars in general or even Japanese streetcars as a whole.

That being said, I do think I might be able to add something to this particular conversation.

 

 

Mark is indeed correct, though not for the entire series. 201 And 202 do indeed run on Hitachi SA-W2 trucks, while 203 and 204 were fitted with similar trucks built by Keikoku Sharyō, the TB-20 type truck. 206 Through 210 however, were fitted with Hitachi KBD-12 type trucks, with the KBD-12 being a further development of the KBD-6 type truck first introduced in 1949. 211 Through 214 were fitted with Hitachi KL-21A type trucks and 215~221 were fitted with the Kawasaki OK-14 type trucks, the design of which I covered a couple years ago if I'm not mistaken (similar trucks, OK-18 type, were also used for the (1st) Keikyū 1000 type cars for example).

 

Hitachi SA-W2 type truck:

 

https://rail.hobidas.com/bogie/archives/2008/09/saw2_200.html

 

Keikoku Sharyō KB-20 type truck:

 

https://rail.hobidas.com/bogie/archives/2007/01/tb20_200.html

 

Hitachi KBD-12 type truck:

 

A fascinating look at the development of the cam type bolster hanger developed for the KBD type trucks, as well as an interesting look at the design and development of, among others, the KBD-6 and KBD-12 type trucks, courtesy of Hitachi Hyōron:

 

https://www.hitachihyoron.com/jp/pdf/1953/08/1953_08_11.pdf

 

A great overview of the KBD-12, as well as a detailed look at the bolster hanger can be seen at page 1230, with figure. 15. and .16., while the specifications can be found in table. 3. at page 1232. 

 

Hitachi KL-21A type truck:

 

https://rail.hobidas.com/bogie/archives/2006/03/kl21a_200.html

 

Kawasaki Sharyō OK-14 type truck

 

https://rail.hobidas.com/bogie/archives/2005/12/ok14200.html

 

So the prototype of the new Tomytec models should be fitted with the KBD-12, which though similar to the Brill 77E at a glance (it is significantly smaller though, the 77E has a wheelbase of 1,829~1,981 mm vs 1,400 mm for the KBD-12), isn't a direct derivative per se. Brill designs were built by Sumitomo Kinzoku Kōgyō and Nippon Sharyō during the Taishō and early Shōwa period, which I believe was done under license, though don't quote me on this please, and Hitachi did built a number of Brill like designs in the same period, though as far as I know they never did acquire the license to do so. As such they may either have been superficially based on existing designs, or they may have been unlicensed copies, which considering the time period could also be a possibility. That being said, the postwar designs would've been based on indigenous development, though their prewar experience of course shine through in the design itself.

 

This would be true for most manufacturers, which is where the second part of my response comes into play (you certainly didn't think I'd end it there did you? 😉),

 

Though carbody, and overall construction of Japanese streetcars has for the most part been handled indigenously since the very beginning, the Japanese industry relied heavily on imported equipment up till the mid Taishō era (1912~1926) which is when a domestic manufacturing base for electrical and mechanical equipment was truly established. This included the manufacturing of trucks, and as such large numbers of Brill and Baldwin trucks were imported between the 1890's and early 1930's, with practically all streetcars built during the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa era riding on either Brill or Baldwin trucks, with Brill taking a large share of the market. As such when domestic manufacturing started, designs would initially be based on license built (and sometimes otherwise...) copies of existing technology, which for streetcars would be the existing Brill and Baldwin trucks. This meant the initial development of domestic built streetcar trucks would be based for a large part on the experience gained manufacturing licensed/copied foreign truck designs which resulted in the designs that were introduced during the early decades of domestic manufacturing still being heavily influenced by their imported ancestors.

 

This continued until after the end of the pacific war, when the Japanese industry had advanced to a level where they were able to fully match, and later exceed, the equipment put out by the American and European railway industry not just on a qualitative level, which had been more or less been achieved during the early Shōwa period, but also on a technological level. which saw the introduction of numerous indigenously developed designs entering service starting in the early 1950's (though to be fair there were a fair number of truly indigenous (as in not based on existing technology) designs (equipment wise) had been introduced during the late 1930's as well).

A similar trend can be seen in terms of electrical equipment, with manufacturers initially relying on license agreements with foreign manufacturers with Shibaura Denki (later to become Tōkyō-Shibaura Denki, better known as Tōshiba) signing a license agreement with General Electric, Mitsubishi Denki with Westinghouse, Tōyō Denki with Dick, Kerr/English Electric (Dick, Kerr was taken over by EE prior to the signing of the agreement) and Hitachi copying GE equipment while trying to develop their own fully indigenous designs, which they managed to in the mid 1930's. As such electrical equipment designed and built by these manufacturers prior to the mid 1950's, and even at that point there were still numerous influences and licensed designs being used, was heavily influenced by GE, WH and EE designs they were building under license (well most of them anyway), even if it had been further redesigned to better fit Japanese operating conditions.

 

The Tosaden 200 type is actually a good example of this development, as it was built during this transition period. With 201~215 delivered between April 1950 and July 1954 still being delivered with slightly more traditional, though domestically developed, trucks, while 216~221 were delivered between August 1955 and June 1957 received truly modern indigenously developed trucks in the form of the KL-21A and OK-14 types. It was however more or less around this time that Japanese streetcar design peaked. The the period between 1948 and 1955 can be regarded as the precursor to the period of high economic growth which started in December 1954 (1954~1973), though Japan was still in a terrible condition in 1948, the post-war recovery had progressed to the point that even though materials were still scarce, the economy was still strained and the social situation was still horrible with the possibility, and actual, starvation still a daily reality for large parts of the Japanese population, the Japanese (railway related) industry was slowly recovering and could actually focus on introducing new designs and technology instead of having to built wartime designs, as mentioned above. The Korean War would further help kickstart the Japanese economy, as Japan thanks to her proximity and US presence (well, occupation still at that point in time) would see large quantities of goods and services being procured by the US from Japanese companies with a value of between 1 to 3.6 billion dollars depending on the source. With the San Francisco Peace Accord, referred to as the Peace Treaty With Japan in Japan, coming into effect in April 1952 Japan regained full sovereignty with the country also returning to the international community (though not always smoothly for obvious reasons), would further improve the situation. The period of high economic growth would coincide, though obviously related to, with the technological growth of the railway related industry mentioned above, with various advanced designs being introduced one after another by the manufacturers including, but not limited to, drive systems, brake systems, main controllers, construction techniques etc. Though the majority of this influx of technology was designed for use on heavy rail designs, with the first high and new-performance type trains being introduced by both the National Railway and all of the major private railway companies between 1953 and 1961, a number of new streetcar designs introduced during the mid 1950's would also benefit from this development, with cardan drive, multi-stage indirect controlled designs appearing at a number of streetcar systems. 

 

Though the period of high economic growth would propel railway development, it would also set in motion the decline of the streetcar network. With increased spending power the sales of luxury items increased as well, which included the sale of private automobiles. With private automobile ownership increasing significantly through the late 1950's and 1960's, streets became more congested which started to hinder both road traffic and streetcar lines. With streetcar timetables becoming less reliable due to traffic congestion, ridership went down sharply which meant less revenue for the, mostly city owned, systems. This in turn meant that if these systems wanted to survive expenditure had to come down, and one way to do so was through reduced rolling stock expenditure, which meant the demand for more modern, though also more costly to acquire and maintain, equipment dried up for the most part with orders for new-built streetcars usually specifying the use of older, cheaper, technology or in a lot of cases using re-purposed equipment taken from scrapped cars, either their own or purchased from one of the recently closed systems. This is why you see a sudden reversion to things like nose-suspension drives, direct controllers, straight airbrakes etc. during the 1960's and 1970's, as the surviving systems simply didn't have the financial capital anymore to acquire high-performance type cars in a meaningful quantity. Interestingly, this would be somewhat reversed during the 1980's as the first use of three-phase AC powered traction would be on new-built streetcars with the introduction of RCT (reverse current thyristor) VVVF (variable voltage, variable frequency drive systems on the Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau 8200 series in 1982 being the first example of a VVVF powered railway vehicle in Japan. This led to somewhat of a renaissance when it came to the introduction of modern technology on new streetcar designs, though the combination of financial hardship, relatively low ridership numbers and a sometimes skeletal network coverage (even the Hiroden is a shadow of its former self in terms of network size) means you can still find a sizable number of older cars fitted with even older technology, including nose suspension drives and direct controllers on most streetcar systems to this day (in fact the only representatives of the aforementioned technology in active service are to be found on the streetcar systems, though numbers are starting to dwindle rapidly).

 

Anyway, to loop back to the topic at hand, as a result of the decline mentioned above, a sizable number of Brill, and Japanese (license) built copies, trucks would be re-used for "new built" cars which combined existing equipment of scrapped cars with a new carbody to form a new series. As the equipment was usually still in a very good state this made a lot of sense, taking into account the situation those systems found themselves in. A good example of this would be the Hiroden 900 type cars. They were originally built for the Ōsaka Municipal Transportation Bureau as the 2601 type cars in 1956, though they would be re-using equipment originally built for the 1001 type cars introduced between 1920 and 1921, which included Brill 77E type trucks, original and Sumitomo Kinzoku Kōgyō built copies, as well as the traction motors etc. A total of 14 cars would be bought by Hiroden in October 1969, with another 32 being sold between 1966 and 1969 to the Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau as the 800 type (of which 15 cars donated their equipment (unfortunately without the trucks) to the new-built 9500 type cars between 1995 and 2000). Most were scrapped between 1998 and 2020, though 913 should still be in service.

 

-> Hiroden 911 in 2017. Note the direct controller (hand notched (*), and an almost instantaneous response) as well as the characteristic, and beautiful, gearbox growl of the nose suspended traction motors. 911 Was scrapped in March 2019. (video source: ecodaichi)

 

-> Hiroden 913 departing Ebashako in 2013. You can clearly see the Brill/Sumitomo 77E trucks as she passes. (video source: superknightrider3000)

 

So in summary, 209 and 210 used Hitachi KBD-12 type trucks which were a postwar indigenously developed design by Hitachi. As this truck was obviously designed using prewar experience, there might be some Brill or Sumitomo/Nippon Sharyō influences in their own prewar designs though that is rather speculative. The Japanese railway related industry did gain its footing by building license built, and otherwise, copies of mainly American electrical and mechanical technology which is what influenced Japanese railway related engineering and design up till the mid 1950's. The bit about the technological regression of Japanese streetcar design was kinda tacked on to complete the story, as well as a correction to an earlier exchange between yourself and @Aleks on streetcar technology in Japan, which I should've responded to at that point in time. Finally I think I can wrap up this post by stating the fact that Japanese streetcars are awesome, Japanese streetcar technology is awesome, Tosaden is awesome and the Tosaden 200 type cars are also awesome (to the point that I'm seriously considering buying reserving both, despite trying to limit the establishment of yet another sub-collection...), which I think covers all I guess?😅

 

(*) Hand notched indirect controllers did of course exist in Japan, though they were mostly limited to electric locomotives, with most EMUs using automatic acceleration capable unit-switch or camshaft based main controllers. There were a number of exceptions to this rule, which includes the well known (among those interested in Meitetsu at least) Meitetsu HL (hand loaded) cars, a group of cars using Westinghouse HB (hand acceleration, battery voltage), or GE MK (Mo 770 type), based main controllers. The controller shown in the video is however clearly a KR-8 type direct controller, the KR-8 itself being the most ubiquitous direct controller in Japan.

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10 hours ago, disturbman said:

It's a question of taste. I like to have several similar trains running together.

 

Glad to hear it's not just my fancy. Uniform style can itself introduce an element of esthetics into the layout.

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On 4/14/2023 at 5:16 PM, 200系 said:

Alastair, thanks for the summon, and I'll see what I can do for you😅

Don’t say 200 three times in a row…

 

jeff

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I can't help but notice I've been downgraded from encyclopaedia to Yūrei, though perhaps upgrade would be more accurate in this case...

Guess I'll get to upgrade my place of residence from bookshelf to old well, yay!

Edited by 200系
encyclopaedia of course, not dictionary...
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Wow! @200系 does it again! Thanks for the detailed explanation of both truck and tramcar development in Japan. Agreed, trams are awesome, which is why I'm buying the Tosaden cars and a couple of the powered chassis to go with them. And I will likely buy more when I'm in Tokyo and Hiroshima, just to engorge the 'sub-collection' that wasn't meant to be until I got suckered with a Kyoto 2000-series on Yahoo! Auctions, and then got out of hand.

 

Funny that @marknewton should mention VR trams as the trucks currently under our restored Christchurch one-man car #178 are actually re-gauged ex-VR 77E's! We got I think three of them at some point to replace a pair of ex-MMTB trucks which weren't the right type, but were available when the Society restored #178 in the late 1960s. We also got two Japanese standard-gauge 77E's at some point as well, but these weren't used at the time. If I recall a conversation with our Society President correctly, they only have a single motor per truck, which may have been a deciding factor. For the time being they're now holding unrestored tram bodies, but may be called upon one day when the bodies of our other two one-man cars are called in for restoration.

 

1 hour ago, cteno4 said:

Don’t say 200 three times in a row…

Ohhhhh Jeff, must I.... OK....

200! 200! 200!🤣

 

Alastair

 

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On 4/14/2023 at 5:16 PM, 200系 said:

Brill designs were built by Sumitomo Kinzoku Kōgyō and Nippon Sharyō during the Taishō and early Shōwa period, which I believe was done under license, though don't quote me on this please, and Hitachi did built a number of Brill like designs in the same period, though as far as I know they never did acquire the license to do so.

Author Debra Brill has established that Brill was notorious for not protecting its patents in foreign markets.

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19 hours ago, 200系 said:

I can't help but notice I've been downgraded from dictionary to Yūrei, though perhaps upgrade would be more accurate in this case...

Guess I'll get to upgrade my place of residence from bookshelf to old well, yay!

@200系 you are the master and we are just striving to become grasshoppers! It’s always a joy to read your posts!

 

jeff

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