Another Kato new line of products?

[Bernard]

Bill - So I guess in order to work as part of the crew you must be able to push something like an elephant!! Interesting video, so a platform comes out from the track that the engines rests on and the crew pivots the engine?

[marknewton]

Bernard, as far as I know the turntable is actually mounted under the "steam" loco, similar to many track maintenance vehicles.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[cteno4]

I have a book with some pictures in it i can scan and email you.

 

the turntable only turns the engine as in the video. basically just a hydraulic piston that comes up with a plate on the top that supports the engine and they spin the engine and sit it back down. they have a couple of points to shunt the engine to the other end of the cars. i think the article has a track plan in it as well. ill look tonight.

 

this was the mechanism i was joking below i would attempt to do! although these days there are all sorts of cool servers that might actually do the trick! you could do a worm drive to raise the engine slowly, then its the 180 spin that would be needed!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Doh! mark that makes much more sense as i could never figure out how they were triggering something in the ground. they always stopped over that plate between the tracks and i figured it was coming up like a car lift, but much more sensible that its just a strong flat point for the foot to rest on!

 

the engine is actually a diesel, i dont think its steam driven.

 

older thread on it here

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,3171.0.html

 

thanks

 

jeff

[cteno4]

ok mine showed up today!

 

the steam train is the exact same moulds from the old line, right down to the couplers on the cars having no springs in them for some reason--engine does. only thing different is the paint job of being all green cars now (old pocket line cars were beige top half and orange or brown bottom half). the engine is green like the old one but with different detail pin striping and detail painting. actually looks closer to the matsuyama train now with red pin striping instead of the old gold. still not an exact match, but from 3 foot the trains look line its a match. the green is a bit lighter on the real train than the models, but again the cars and engines are not exact matches for this, just close enough to pretend!

 

packaging is more minimal now with small foam insert for the train, with acetate sheet wrapped over the top and simple cardboard box/sleeve slipping over it (the old pocketrains had individual plastic boxes with foam inserts that then went into a cardboard sleeve to hold them all together.

 

coupled length of cars is right at 70mm with axel spacing of 28mm. engine coupled length is 50mm and an axel spacing of 17mm. one passenger car uses the 2 axle pocket chibi passenger car btrain mechanism 11-104.

 

the trams are cute, but toy line in look of the design, but look like a lot of the elevated guided tire systems around. always thought it would be fun to make one of these out of something like this but making a guided viaduct it could run in with some wheels in place of the rr wheels. these metal pantographs that are standard issue kato

 

the small freight trains is cute. would make a nice little mow set. at $28 its a great little entry train! pair this up with a tomytec tram throttle (have to try this tonight) and could be a great kids starter set. 2 axle cars are easier for young ones to get on the track easily.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[David]

packaging is more minimal now with small foam insert for the train, with acetate sheet wrapped over the top and simple cardboard box/sleeve slipping over it (the old pocketrains had individual plastic boxes with foam inserts that then went into a cardboard sleeve to hold them all together.

 

So it's the same type of packaging Kato has been using for it's newer 2/3 car sets? (and for 4 when there is a an addon set with a bookcase) While they aren't the best long term case because of the extra steps to get the trains out, I certainly like the smooth compacted chip foam used - it's certainly much better then the white foam Tomix uses as inserts in its jewel cases.

[cteno4]

 

So it's the same type of packaging Kato has been using for it's newer 2/3 car sets? (and for 4 when there is a an addon set with a bookcase) While they aren't the best long term case because of the extra steps to get the trains out, I certainly like the smooth compacted chip foam used - it's certainly much better then the white foam Tomix uses as inserts in its jewel cases.

 

David,

 

yes its nice high density foam rubber like the big cases and the thin backing piece is glued onto the cutout frame piece. then just acetate cover with folded ends so it stays in place on top of the foam when you slide it into the box. nice fingertip cutouts where needed. chipboard folded box is very nicely printed. box 50mm tall x 25mm deep x 225mm long. very light weight, simple and clean, but very functional. that is except for some of the box end tabs are so well cut they really want to hold onto the flaps to well and its hard to pull them out w/o ripping them off!

 

good efficient design to store well but keep costs down.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Keiman,

 

sorry forgot to mention its 185mm from head to toe coupled up. wheels at just over 160mm so dont think it would quite fit on 151mm peco turntable, sorry. maybe make a mini 180 turntable yourself for just the engine then do the same little shunting they do with the real one. you could just cut out a disc that would spin with the track embedded in it. you could manually spin it with rubber band drive. biggest challenge is powering the deck rails. could have circular rail in the pit the disc sits on top of with brushes.

 

alternative which actually may be simpler is to just do a little lift between the tracks to pop the engine up and spin it. the engine is very well balanced so if you had a plate like 0.25" x 0.75" out of 040 styrene that were attached to a rod in the center that could move up then spin it would do the trick. could require a good bushing and a second below the layout. then use a rubber band drove on a dial/disc wheel on the front edge of the layout to spin the main rod and some sort of lever that attached to the bottom of the rod to lift it up like 3-4mm to then spin it.

 

would be really cute. all this stuff could probably be automated with servos these days as the r/c world has all sorts of specialized ones like this cheap. one to lift then one to spin 180 with a gear or carefully adjusted lever arm.

 

now i want to go mock this up!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

ok since i kept on about this i thought i would give it a quick test and low and behold the little spin lift works well! i just mounted a piece of 7/32" styrene tubing to a short length of 060 0.25" stock and drilled a hole down thru the track and the wood it was attached to. this is just finger lifting and spinning, but i think that a small servo with an off center cam against the bottom of the shaft could easily lift it. then the 180 spin will be the trick. was thinking a lever to a servo, but it has to go full 180 so thats tough. will have to noodle on that one a while.

 

 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Also shot the old vs the new. the new one is on the left in the photo

 

i also managed to knock the new one off the work bench and it fell 3' to the floor (missing the foam pad and a rug and hitting the only open 3" strip of cement!). no body damage but the front pin for the rods on one side popped out and went poof! errrrgggg. i may be able to fashion one from a pin cut down if i can find one with the right diameter shaft. other wise i guess i can cannibalize the old one for now...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[keiman]

Cheers Jeff, like the idea of the mini lift turntableuse could a bit of the Tomix Tram track insert  - other idea that I had wondered about was a peco 009 turntable and modify that

[cteno4]

Keiman,

 

is that the 151mm turntable? if so it wont quite make it as the minimum to get the wheels on is 160mm of track.

 

best of luck

 

jeff

[marknewton]

the engine is actually a diesel, i dont think its steam driven.

 

Jeff,

 

Yes, it's a diesel. The desktop controls rather give the game away!    But I must give them credit, it's a fairly convincing effort compared to some I've seen.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[kvp]

then the 180 spin will be the trick. was thinking a lever to a servo, but it has to go full 180 so thats tough. will have to noodle on that one a while.

 

How about mounting the lifting mechanism on a small turntable mounted under the table? (made from a dc motor with two end switches or a turtle turnout drive)

 

Also the cars have pantographs on the roofs, so this makes this small train a tram and also an emu:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Botchan-ressha.jpg

[Nick_Burman]

I have the electric loco. With a 10g lead slug stuck to the cab roof, a Z2 decoder, some lube and running in it runs like clockwork.

 

Cheers NB