Kato E5 Hayabusa Shinkansen - Unfaithful old faithful.

[Dashworth87]

Morning Guys.

 

Long story short, When I first started getting back into Model trains and N gauge in particular, I bought a second hand E5 Hayabusa starter set from Facebook. I eventually decided to buy both expansion sets A and B and well... It has never run right.

Fast forward a couple of years and I have just finished building a fairly large (for the UK) base board in my garden office which has allowed me to use a substantial amount of Double track from the standard, outer and the Viaduct expansions... I literally have 2 corners left from all three boxes. 

 

Time to try the Shinkansen.... NOPE. 

 

The powered car that came with the starter set on Facebook seems to sag to the point that it fouls on the super elevated corners or any incline/decline at all. I have taken it apart and put it back together again, I cannot see any broken clips anywhere and it fits snuggly horizontally.

The problem is, as soon as I turn the car the right way up, the whole internal assembly seems to drop about 2mm and is noticeably visible when it is sat on the tracks. 

 

I currently have two very small bits of tape either side of the slide off cover holding it in place and gave it a run this morning. The powered car seems to be doing ok now that the tape is there but will need to add unpowered coaches one by one to establish if pulling a load is adding to the problem. 

 

I hope my rambling makes sense, I will upload photos if required but with it being a forum, the process of uploading photos is a pita!

Regards

 

Dash

[Kingmeow]

Photos would help greatly.  They shouldn't be a PITA as it's drag and drop, unless of course you don't have them on the device you are replying from.

[cteno4]

Dash, yes some pictures will help here. One of the issues at times with second had trains is they may have gotten some very strange actions taken on them. But they can be a great value and most Japanese trains are good quality and hold up well to some abuse.

 

jeff

[Kamome]

The great thing about Kato is the availability of spares and you can easily fix your train yourself. 

 

What’s the reason for the sagging? If the power car sags, has the metal chassis been bent?  Or is the body the issue?

 

If the metal weight or the plastic frame of the chassis are bent, can they be straightened?

 

If the answer to the latter is no, then an Assy part order for a new motor unit may be the way forward. They’re relatively low cost *¥3000 ish and number 4836B.  The new motor unit comes with the seating interior but not drive shaft or bogies so use the existing ones if they’re serviceable. If not 2x 4836D1 need to be ordered too(roughly *¥800 each)

 

If you need a new body, 4836-1A (roughly *¥1700)

 

You can inquire about ordering parts through Gaugemaster (UK distributor) or Train Trax if you didn’t want to order from Japan directly. Otherwise use independent stores like RGR as they can give you more personal service for what you need. 

Not sure what the UK price increase would be for parts but the sets are roughly 3x retail price compared to Japan whereby many outlets have 30% off Kato RRP. Parts are seldom discounted  across Japanese retailers though. 

 

*Prices taken from the last Assypart list for E5 in 2021. They have very likely increased in the past few years. 

[inobu]

Use super thin double sided tape. Cut it about 3 or 4mm across and place them on either side.

3mm is ideal because you can slowly pry the shell off if needed. Just pull the shell outward

and hold the shell and the tape will slowly break loose.

It only has to detach 2mm of tape. The length will secure the shell to the frame .

 

I had to use this method before. It works.

 

 

 

Inobu

 

 

Edited September 4 by inobu