Issues with World Craft 1/80 replica of Ginza Subway

[Danny G.]

Hi there,

I just recently purchased three brass models of the 1928 Ginza Line subway cars.  They are individually motorized.  So I was running them and they ran fine then all of a sudden one of the cars just stopped moving even though the engine was revving up.  The other one moves but when you put it in reverse, there are issues.  Attached are pictures of the model in question.  I don’t have the skill to assess what is up and don’t want to further damage these beautiful models.  They are not KTM brass models.  I will include the “instructions” that were included in Japanese of course.  Any idea how to proceed to fix the issues?

[cteno4]

Sorry you are having issues Danny.

 

Sounds very much like the drive shaft issue. This can be many points in the drive shaft like a snapped drive shaft if plastic (this happens on n scale now and then as the drive shafts are pretty tiny), stripped universal joints on the ends of the drive shaft (the big culprit in n scale as these little joints rely on very tiny fingers that pop into the coupler cup joint), slipping worm gears, or cracked main drive gears in the top of the trucks. I’m not all that familiar with HO and what is most prevalent there when there is a drive train disruption like you are seeing, but some good HO folks here. World craft stuff I have in n is all kits but good quality. Can’t speak to the prebuilt kits though, but it’s probably not quite as robust as a full production model where things are designed to be tighter fitting and much more cast bits as these kits rely a lot more on folded etched metal bits that can’t hold moving parts quite as well as a 3D cast housing can. But the only way you will probably get some of these odder trains done, especially in Japanese HO, is thru a small run kit like this as a full production designed and manufactured run would be prohibitively expensive.

 

on any instruction sheets try the translate apps you can download on your phone, they work well to suss out whats being said.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Danny G.]

Hey Jeff thank you for responding. So that piece of paper that looks like instructions it’s just a basic description of the model. I did try the translation app with the picture and that’s the reason why I know that the model is from world craft corporation. Other than that there are no specific instructions for the train. I will keep this post up for as long as I need to with the hopes that somebody will give me some concrete information. I thought it was the same thing that you mentioned because I also have a set of KTM 1/80 Ginza line 2000 series where what you mentioned happened and I was able to fix it. The WC model mechanism seems a bit more detailed so I don’t want to really scree it up.

[Danny G.]

Oh, I forgot to ask, do you have an actual website for world craft corporation? I am having a doozy of a time trying to find it. I purchased those models on eBay not directly from World Craft.

[cteno4]

It’s actually World Kougi 

 

ワールド工芸

https://world-kougei.com/

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

[Kamome]

These were produced to commemorate 90 years of the Ginza  line opening by World Kogei, and I assume only 200 pieces were produced. 

 

It does sound like either the gearing in the trucks or the drive shaft if the motor still turns. Sadly my searches in Japanese haven’t found any building/dismantling pictures or instructions nor any info on their website.

 

 

[katoftw]

They do look like they would pull apart like any other dmu/emu model. But if you don't have the knowledge or skillset, then don't do it. Find someone local to do it for you.

[Danny G.]

Kanome, I tried that earlier as well with no success.  Katoftw I agree.  Problem is trying to find someone local. I'm in the Boston, MA area and am hoping that there is someone in the area who will read this thread and can either fix the problem for me or at least point me in the right direction.

[cteno4]

Danny,

 

do you have any local shops that do repairs? Im pretty sure a good person at cracking open ho trains could probably figure it out and maybe diagnose the issue and see if any other parts from other manufactures may fix the problem. ive done frankenstiening like this on n scale trains using driveshafts from other manufacturers.

 

if you have a local ho club you might contact them as usually there is a chap in the club good at this sort of stuff and some will do a little side work fixing stuff like this.

 

jeff

[Danny G.]

So using Google translate, I sent an inquiry to World Kogei asking if they have a schematic of the train which details how to take the motor and wheel housing apart so I can try to fix (if the problem is simple) it.  Hopefully they do and have instructions in English.  If that fails then I’m going to go with Jeff’s plan B, thank you Jeff.

[Danny G.]

Hey Guys,  a couple of years have passed since I posted for advice.  I finally managed to get in touch with World Kogei, sent the replicas over to Japan to be repaired but, like a big dummy, did not do my due diligence regarding tariffs and duties.  I thought because I was sending them over to be repaired that it would not be an issue well…..as these models were not cheap and I declared a value on them for insurance purposes, I had to pay 10% of the declared value in taxes and duties even though I wasn’t selling them just having them repaired.  So an already expensive shipping cost with the added cost of taxes and duties would have far exceeded that actual repair cost.  So I just had them returned to me.  What a mess.  I removed the motors myself and am going to try to find motors to install and if that doesn’t work then will just have them on display.  One thing though, I will never buy from World Kogei again.  The models look nice but the motors used were junk as they burned out after minimal use.  Lesson learned. On a brighter note, I scored some KTM replicas of the 2000 and 1500N Ginza line series as well as some N-Scale replicas. 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Danny G.