Bandai B-Train Shorty

[Blevins18]

I am impressed! Nice job. I just got the series E653 Hitatchi Express, the EF510 set, and container car set 3 in the mail Friday. Let the building commence!

[JR 500系]

So far I know the anime is about girls using historic tanks to battle each other in some sort of weird thought-up school setting. I didn't really like the idea so I didn't watch it, but apparently it's popular if it's getting both a Tomytec bus and a b-train shorty.

 

You know, it's really really wierd! Ancient Tanks and girls? Battle? School? What kind of a combination is that??? Manga is getting stranger every minute!

 

But i'm not so complaining about the bus/ B-shorty design though.. Perhaps anything with a painted anime design on a N scale train/ bus/ truck will look appealing to me now!

[Densha]

Yeah it is JR500, it sounded that weird so I decided to skip it. But truth told there are many manga and anime with very strange settings that can be either interesting or awful. Meanwhile I'm waiting for more anime about trains though.

[nickhp]

Talking of buses, have you guys seen the bandai shorty buses? They seem the same size as the tomytec small buses. I have a pack of 12 buses and will try an post photos of a couple of them in the next few days.

[cteno4]

Nick,

 

When bandai was making vehicles (tomytec drove them out of the market pretty fast) they did do one set of 12 small busses. these were not shorties but just small busses like the tomytec set of prototype small busses. perhaps you have a set of those.

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

Talking of buses, have you guys seen the bandai shorty buses? They seem the same size as the tomytec small buses. I have a pack of 12 buses and will try an post photos of a couple of them in the next few days.

Bus Hype! Did someone mention bus?

 

Hehe ~ I would reckon you are referring to this : http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10046349

 

Like Jeff mention, Bandai did a series of vehicles perviously, known as the working vehicle collection. It ran from 1-8, and each series was very nice actually, except the buses..  I think mini buses dont do that well... Tomytec had a series of mini buses too, and it didn't sell well either. http://www.tomytec.co.jp/diocolle/lineup/bus/minibus1.html

 

Thing to mention is, the other Bandai working vehicles series, especially series 3 working delivery truck series, is very nice! The painting does not lose to Tomtec in any way, and detailing is there almost same par as Tomytecs. Also, the painting on some of the trucks are so beautiful!

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10041981a/20/1

[cteno4]

All in all the bandai working vehicles were good, but tomy tec painting and moulding was always a tad better, probably why tomytec won out (and btrain shorties were just taking off so I expect they wanted to focus on that market). They did do some interesting sets like the tv trucks, but few folks could use a dozen of these so they would only go on single sales...

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10051925a/20/1

If anyone is really looking for one of these let me know I have a couple extra -- I have to rescind this offer for the moment as i cant find my stash of extra tv trucks right now... if you really want one contact me and if i locate them ill let a few go, sorry for the mess jr

Jeff

Edited July 25, 2013 by cteno4

[Keikyu]

I really dislike how Bandai is taking the way trains couple together now.

 

Like on the older trains the couplers fit straight into the trucks. Now the part they clip onto is attached to the train itself. If you want to swap a motor around you have to pull apart the entire train.

[tossedman]

Keikyu, I'm not sure what you mean. I use Kato trucks and the the coupler is on the truck itself.

 

Todd

[macdon]

How big of an improvement (if any) is power unit #3 compared to #1?

 

Been looking at Btrains recently for a small project and noticed in HS that the PU#3 has improvements over the PU#1. Unfortunately, the Btrains im looking at suggests the PU#1.

 

Mardon

[Keikyu]

Keikyu, I'm not sure what you mean. I use Kato trucks and the the coupler is on the truck itself.

 

Todd

 

No no, not the trucks you can attach.

 

If you buy a train they have released recently, your train, from the front, used to resemble this:

 

l [o o] l

 

The 2 holes were to slot the front or back of your train on, and the entire [o o] part held the 2 sides together. Now it's like:

 

l [o o] l

     l

 

Where the typical shorty coupler clips onto the shaft at the bottom. Before you used to just remove the floor of the train and slot the motor inside. Now you can't do that because the shaft on the piece that holds the sides together gets in the way. So you have to take the sides and front off, take off the part that joins the sides together, and then use an older style joining thing so the motor isn't hitting the shaft.

[nickhp]

Mardon,

 

Power unit 1 is 2 axle, power unit 2 is 4 axle but only 2 axles are powered (like the kato chassis) and power unit 3 (and 4) are 4 axle with 4 axles powered.  PU 3 is therefore improved over PU 2, but completely different form factor to PU 1.

 

Cheers

 

Nick

Edited August 10, 2013 by nickhp

[nickhp]

Keikyu,

On the more recent kits, you should have BOTH types of end piece in the kit.  I don't use the end piece with the pin on the bottom, I use the old style.  Did you check the parts to see if the old style end piece is in there?  Unless you are just playing with b trains with plastic wheels, there is no reason to use the new style end fitting.  Of course, you can also just trim off the pin with a knife or cutters...

 

Cheers

 

Nick

[Keikyu]

Keikyu,

 

On the more recent kits, you should have BOTH types of end piece in the kit.  I don't use the end piece with the pin on the bottom, I use the old style.  Did you check the parts to see if the old style end piece is in there?  Unless you are just playing with b trains with plastic wheels, there is no reason to use the new style end fitting.  Of course, you can also just trim off the pin with a knife or cutters...

 

Cheers

 

Nick

 

You do get both end pieces, but the trouble is the plastic truck doesn't come in the style it used to where you could clip a coupler to the front of it.

 

So to fully finish a model, you have to use the new end piece and attach a couple to it, then to power it you have to pull it apart and replace the end pieces. It's rather annoying if you prefer having your models fully constructed but like to swap the motor and trucks around.

[brill27mcb]

Mardon,

 

Power unit 1 is 2 axle, power unit 2 is 8 axle but only 2 axles are powered (like the kato chassis) and power unit 3 (and 4) are 4 axle with 4 axles powered.  PU 3 is therefore improved over PU 2, but completely different form factor to PU 1.

 

Cheers

 

Nick

 

Really? I think you mean 4-axle where you say 2-axle for PU 1. But the thought of 8 axles under a B-train unit is really intriguing!!

 

Rich K.

[nickhp]

Thanks!  Corrected...

[Keikyu]

 

 

[Blevins18]

Nice weathering!

[Keikyu]

I just put paint on and rub it off where I don't want it. It works alright on containers but i don't want to mess up my trains.

[Blevins18]

I'll have to try that. I agree though, I don't want to mess up my trains!

[tossedman]

Noah and I got a couple more B Train Shorties in the mail last week. They're both Enoden 600 series. Got 'em from Yahoo Japan for ¥400 each. Shipping and service charges tripled that but not bad for about $25 eh? Still need to get the proper chassis as these are the B Train Shorty toy ones. They came with Greenmax pantographs.

 

 

 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

Edited April 9, 2021 by tossedman

[cteno4]

Btw hobby link Japan still has a few of the tram sets in stock at 15% off

 

http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist?Sort=std&Maker1=BAN&searchpage=rld&qid=9JOHBWCA&GenreCode=rld&DisplayMode=images&set=1&Dis=2&inStock=1&Page=2

 

They had full 16 car zero series sets a few weeks back and I broke down and ordered one... Ill probably be a while before I but all he wheel sets and a couple of power chassis for it though (that costs more than the model!)

 

Jeff

Edited August 31, 2013 by cteno4

[tossedman]

Thanks for the heads up Jeff. The zero series Shinkansen is cool, I like the way it tracks around corners. Might not be realistic because of the length of the cars but in some ways it's more realistic in that the short cars are more in scale with the tighter corners we tend to have on our layouts, It's a fun train. Ours goes fine with two powered cars, Enjoy.

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

[cteno4]

Todd,

 

welcome, hlj has an odd stock now and then so always good to peek there now and then. also with the virtual bin you can build up a few odds and ends you find there over a couple of months and ship it all together to bring down cost. but limited and odd stock there and they dont always get enough of preorders so you may have to wait and hope they get a second batch in to fulfill.

 

yeah i do like them and keep thinking about doing a little layout like this to have fun with them and take to smaller shows

 

http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/btrainshorty-pt1.html

 

one of our club members has a 12 car 700 that we run now and then with the full 700 on the other track, makes folks do a double take.

 

one issue ive noticed with the kato trucks is that there is quite a bit of springyness in the couplers and at times an oscillation can set up in the train and sort of do a funny slinky/inch worm effect as the train goes around. does yours have this issue? i was thinking of maybe doing direct coupling in groups of 4 or going to all close couplers instead of rapidos.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[tossedman]

I've never seen the slinky effect Jeff. We've got a 16 car 0 series and a bunch of 8 cars trains and no problems. I'll look for it though.

 

You know, I think it was Nick's layout that turned us on to B Train Shorties in the first place. It's great.

 

I do check HLJ from time to time. Haven't looked much ever the summer holiday though. Time to let the wallet recover for a bit.

 

Todd