Tomix Shiki-Shima Motor car broken on arrival

[Shinjinkun]

Hi guys!

After several weeks waiting, I got the package with the Tomix Shiki-Shima train.

However, I was dissapointed that some of the parts were out of place, like you can see in the pictures attached.

For the first car, the wheels and the spring were out, but somehow I was able to put them back together.

However, for the motor car, the two bogies were completely off. What do you reckon I should do?  Contact AmiAmi and let them sort it out, or try to put it back together?

I mean, I don't think it makes much sense to send back the whole package if it is possible to be avoided, IMHO.

Is it something very difficult to put back together by myself?

I will be waiting for your responses.

Thanks and regards,

 

S.

[disturbman]

It happens. More than you think, the package must have been shaken quite badly during transit.

 

The power bogies can be just popped back in, one side first, then the other. For maintenance, you are supposed to open these.

For the other bogie, unscrew to put back the spring, replace the pickups in place, and then replace the wheelset.

None of these should be broken. Maybe check if the transmission bar still sits correctly in place.

Edited October 25, 2022 by disturbman

[JR East]

41 minutes ago, disturbman said:

It happens. More than you think, the package must have been shaken quite badly during transit.

 

 

follow the recommendations of @disturbman, I get exactly the same issue in my latest RGR package (despite he's really taking care of making the best packaging as possible including add. foam wedges inside trains boxes).

 

Exactly the same one on a motor car, the other on a trailer. I did what @disturbman explained above and now it's running perfectly. 

 

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by JR East

[roadstar_na6]

The instructions sheet might even mention how to put the power bogies back in place 😉

[disturbman]

😂 

 

That’s actually true, they usually show how to take them apart (and back).

[bill937ca]

I found this happened too often.  One of the reasons I stopped buying model trains from Kato and Tomix.

[Shinjinkun]

3 hours ago, disturbman said:

It happens. More than you think, the package must have been shaken quite badly during transit.

 

The power bogies can be just popped back in, one side first, then the other. For maintenance, you are supposed to open these.

For the other bogie, unscrew to put back the spring, replace the pickups in place, and then replace the wheelset.

None of these should be broken. Maybe check if the transmission bar still sits correctly in place.

 

Ahh, I didn't know I had to take out the power bogies myself... I am still new in the hobby, hehehe. I was able to pop them in. However, there is a small spring that I don't know what to do with it. Should I attach it before popping the bogies?

For the other, I was able to put it back together without unscrewing... but knowing that I can remove it, next time I will be more careful.

What do you mean with the transmission bar? Which part is it? 😛

 

 

2 hours ago, JR East said:

 

follow the recommendations of @disturbman, I get exactly the same issue in my latest RGR package (despite he's really taking care of making the best packaging as possible including add. foam wedges inside trains boxes).

 

Exactly the same one on a motor car, the other on a trailer. I did what @disturbman explained above and now it's running perfectly. 

 

 

 

I did as he told me, and it worked great. Yes, I agree that the package was perfectly padded and with a big box to fit both boxes. They may have hit the box quite a lot.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Shinjinkun

[disturbman]

@Shinjinkunis that the small white spring visible in the picture of the motorised bogie? If yes, it probably hooks to a tab located on the coupler, looks like what Tomix uses to recenter their couplers.

 

By transmission bar, I mean the small bar that transmits the movement of the motor to the gears. If the motor car runs funny or makes too much noise, you will know one or both is not put correctly.

Edited October 25, 2022 by disturbman

[Shinjinkun]

2 minutes ago, disturbman said:

@Shinjinkunis that the small white spring visible in the picture of the motorised bogie? If yes, it probably hooks to a tab located on the coupler, looks like what Tomix uses to re enter their couplers.

 

By transmission bar, I mean the small bar that transmits the movement of the motor to the gears. If the motor car runs funny or makes too much noise, you will know one or both is not put correctly.

 

Yes, I meant that little spring. Just hooked it in the tab you told me, and now seems to be in the correct place.

I can't test it right now, but in my opinion, seems to be back to normal. I will let you know later.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

[Shinjinkun]

Finally I can put it all together. Isn't it beautiful? ☺️

[disturbman]

You are welcome. As long as everything moves freely, you will be fine.

 

And this is good training for when things do go wrong and/or you need to do maintenance on your trains 🙂 

Edited October 25, 2022 by disturbman

[Shinjinkun]

2 minutes ago, disturbman said:

You are welcome. As long as everything moves freely, you will be fine.

 

And this is good training for things do go wrong and/or you need to do maintenance on your trains 🙂 

Yes, definitely I learnt something new today. Thanks again. 😄

[cteno4]

Good job! Always good to learn this stuff and it’s mostly by just doing we learn it! Lots of folks here that may have suggestions to issue and fixes. Also just feels good when you fix something like this yourself.
 

Sadly returning things to japan has gotten very costly so it’s part of the hobby to learn some basic fixit stuff.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest]

I’m surprised you’ve never experienced this before. I’d put my own experience at 50-50 that something comes dislodged during shipping.

[cteno4]

Wow 50-50?! im maybe 5% and most of those are super minor like a wheel set popping out and that usually just fro a truck that was a bit too wide to begin with and needed some squeezing. Even boxes that show a good drop happened I rarely find anything amiss at all inside my Japanese packages.

 

jeff

[Guest]

Just recent E4 Max last run, had the lower cover on the powers bogie just ever so slightly popped off. Train ran just fine on straights but would get caught up on a turnout.  Always minor things thankfully.

 

Japan vendors don’t realize how rough shippers are outside of their country.  The thin cardboard doesn’t hold up to “Ace Ventura” delivery treatment we get. I would say 90% of the shipping boxes are damaged  when I receive them from Japan. But thankfully Amazon JP shrink wraps and secures the contents inside.

 

[disturbman]

Amazon is the worst of the packers, if you only shop with them, I'm not surprised that 50% of the items arrive with something dislodged. I think that RGR goes overboard with their packing, but at least items are well cushioned from any blow.

 

I'm more like Jeff, probably around 5% of my packages had something dislodged. Worst case was a set that went on a nine month hike back and forth from Japan on surface. When it arrived, some of the air con units had popped out of the roof.

[Kamome]

Even domestic shipping suffers from these issues from time to time. I have received both N scale and HO scale products with parts off from a number of retailers. All easily reassembled and good to learn the nuances of how each manufacturers parts go together and attach.

[cteno4]

Yeah Amazon.jp can be pretty horrid in their packing. I’ve had a 6car Tomytec set (flimsy box and plastic not a full solid bookcase) shipped in a padded envelope! i was lucky it only smooshed the box some and I was able to resurrect it and no damage to the cars amazingly. I’ve had the amazon.jp shrink wrap board come loose from the bottom of the box when it had a full bookcase in it. The smaller bits on top (mostly Tomytec parts) got their boxes smooshed up a bit by the bookcase, but thankfully not internal damage.
 

Most of the usual shops for me (mtp, hs, amiami, rg rokko, hlj) do excellent packing and nothing disturbed even if a big gash or corner bang. Rg rokko definitely goes the extra mile with inserts for all the cars so no wiggling in the casket. Plaza japan from ebay there years back started to use very lightweight boxes that could get mauled with very loose packing material. I haven’t ordered from them for a few years so don’t know if that’s still true.

 

jeff

[Shinjinkun]

7 hours ago, Bob Martin said:

I’m surprised you’ve never experienced this before. I’d put my own experience at 50-50 that something comes dislodged during shipping.

Well, I am fairly new to the hobby, so it shouldn't be strange for me to experience this first time. It has been less than a couple months that I bought my first N-gauge train (although I had several b-train shorties before). So far, I own all these Tomix trains: E259 Narita Express 98460, Romance Car 70000 GSE 98744, JR N700S 98425, Shiki-shima 98307/308 and mizukaze 97912. I should be receiving soon a Romance Car 50000 VSE, JR Tohouku E5, JR Tohouku E6 and next year, Nishikyushu N700S Kamome. And that should be all 😛