Bandai B-Train Shorty

[ToniBabelony]

What sometimes is done is that people take the front of a B-train and kitbash the sides and roof to make a prototype length car body. This used to be a quite popular method to get an Odakyu 4000 before Tomix released a full version: http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/ryouaki0811/7867595.html here the front is a B-train and the rest an old JR 209 Serie from Tomix.

[dabsan]

Nankai Rapit 50000 series Star Wars livery b-train shorty

 

I had a lot of fun customizing the normal blue b-train shorty into the star wars version.

 

   

 

   

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Wow desban kudos! Did you do custom water slide decals on white and then carefully trim them?

 

Jeff

[dabsan]

Hi Jeff, yes I made my own decals and very carefully cut them out, I was surprised at the quality of the decal printing paper. I used white Inkject Water-Slide Decal Paper from Crafty Computer Paper http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk/.Inkjet-Water-Slide-Decal-Paper_151.htm

[cteno4]

yes it works well! only issue is the bloody white problem! the trimming worked well on these! 

 

you have quite a unique train now!

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

OOhhh now we finally have a StarWars train! Mighty good work!

[dabsan]

OOhhh now we finally have a StarWars train! Mighty good work!

Thanks JR 500 :)

[hans-diesel]

Have you seen it:

Bandai will release ED79 (ED75) with trucks!

 

Unfortunately not powered, then it was perfect. But now the small electric locomotives wil at least look much better. And you can still mount a power unit 1 instead (as I understands it).

[Welshbloke]

I noticed that.

 

I now wonder how long it will be before Bandai make a powered chassis to fit it...

 

I may have to buy one for my Hokutosei set anyway, as I could hide another powered chassis under a coach. At the moment it has one under the generator van which does a good job on flat, straight track but needs a hand (in the form of the loco's four wheeled motor chassis) for curves or gradients.

[kvp]

Actually i think i've seen an announcement somewhere for a 4 axle powered chassis for locomotives, very similar to the DF10/DE50 variant, but i can't find an english text. (and google translate can mix up things) I don't know if it is possible to bash a type 5 motor under the locomotives as they seem a bit shorter, but having the bogies a bit farther apart could work if the couplers can clear the front skirts.

[ayvini]

Currently working with some Bandai B unit passenger and freight units and a couple of the DE10 and DD 51s. My passenger and freight cars will be permanently coupled together in unit trains. However I would like to install working couplers on the diesels like the Micro Trains T shank couplers and working couplers on the ends of the freight car cuts.

 

However I have found that the Micro Trains couplers, like the MT 1129 T shank, do not fit in the Bandai coupler box being just a bit wider. I suspect that it will be the same with the Bandai freight trucks I have on order. I have found that the Kato 11-707 will fit and a Unimate T shank will fit with some sanding of the top of the T shank portion. But neither one is an automatic coupler. Are there any recommendations on what coupler will give me a similar function as the Micro Trains coupler.

 

Thanks,

John Moore

Edited April 11, 2016 by ayvini

[kami_illy]

Actually i think i've seen an announcement somewhere for a 4 axle powered chassis for locomotives, very similar to the DF10/DE50 variant, but i can't find an english text. (and google translate can mix up things) I don't know if it is possible to bash a type 5 motor under the locomotives as they seem a bit shorter, but having the bogies a bit farther apart could work if the couplers can clear the front skirts.

 

The Unit 5 motors do fit in the chassis (with a bit of cutting some little parts). And leave some space to put some weights in it. This way one motor can pull a 7 to 8 car train... didn't try with gradients and steep curves yet though.

On my ED79 the couplers don't interfere withe the skirt. On the EF510 they do, but again with some cutting they work. The only thing missing is the boogie covers. I took some left overs from other sets. Doesn't quite look right but gives a good idea of how the appearance will be with the correct covers. 

I'll post some pics later.

[kami_illy]

As promised, here are some pics of he loco motorization. 

 

Both the EF510 and the ED79 run on the motor unit 5

 

 

I had to cut the skirt on the EF510 to give the coupler enough room. On the ED79 the skirt fits like it is. 

 

 

To install the chassis you need to cut these little hooks on each end as well as the part in the middle right on top of the pins which connect the halves. 

In the little left over voids you should put some weights. 

 

 

Basically fill all the voids with weights. ;) This way they have the traction they need. The motor seems to have enough power to pull 7 or 8 cars. 

 

 

As I said before the boogie covers are a bit sketchy since they are from an E233 and the Green Frog Tokyu 5000. 

 

Anyone any idea where to get (more or less) prototypical ones?

Edited May 4, 2016 by kami_illy

[utrainia]

As promised, here are some pics of he loco motorization. 

 

Great work! That ED79 looks really good, seems very well proportioned.

[hans-diesel]

Nice photos!

 

And indeed, what covers to use?

[cteno4]

Nice work, now I want to do that with my Btrain locos, luckily I've only powered a couple.

 

Jeff

[kami_illy]

Thanks guys. 

 

And indeed, what covers to use?

 

I had the idea of using a 3D-printer to produce them. That way you could also make them a bit generic so they'd fit more or less on any modern electric loco.

Also this way you can adjust them to the clearance and wheel sizes of the chassis / motor unit. My plan to use spare / assy parts from Kato or Tomix wouldn't work out because of the different wheel diameters. 

 

I think I'll try to build a 3D model of the covers and get it printed in a local hobby shop. I'll keep you updated.

Edited May 9, 2016 by kami_illy

[nickhp]

Nobody noticed that the Star Wars rapit was announced today as a new b train release? Trying to understand how many sets required for a 6 car train (appears 4 sets required?) and whether the decoration is decal (hope not!) or printed (hope this is the case).

 

Nick

Edited May 9, 2016 by nickhp

[cteno4]

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/10712-nankai-rapit-50000-series-star-wars-livery/page-3?do=findComment&comment=136334

[NigelS]

Hi,

 

I'm new to this forum and generally to teh B-Trains, although not to trains in general :)

 

Anyway I was wondering if anybody has been able to motorise the B-Shorty 'Thomas' http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10324603

 

I was wondering if you can't motorise the engine itself whether it would be possible to motorise one of the carriages instead.

 

Any thoughts/advice?

 

 

Cheers, Nigel

[kvp]

Most btrains are rollable and could be motorised or at least equipped with metal trailer wheels. Those coaches can be motorised.

 

Thomas however has two single non moving pieces for the mainframe/wheels/rods assembly. You can cheat and add trailer wheels and convert it into a 2 axle prop with the fixed wheels hoovering above the rails. An alernate would be to scratchbuild a working frame with wheels and everything.

[katoftw]

From memory you put the motor in one of the passenger cars.

[cteno4]

Yeah I looked hard at cheating by putting in moving pilot and trailing wheels to let and run on it with fixed floating drive wheels (maybe taking off a bit of the bottom of the drive wheels. Then put a shorty motor in a passenger car. Also looked sideways at a few old steam switchers I had at maybe dropping just the shell on those mechs. In the end I decided I wasn't into Thomas enough to put the work into the Project!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[kvp]

Most simple fix would be to add 1 rigid axle (half a bogie) in front and one full rotating b-train bogie with coupler in the back.

[beakaboy]

Neko Publishing released this kit which takes a Kato C11 chassis. I presume this price is just for the plastic loco without coaches. I purchased a pair of the Bandai ,Oigawa coaches from AmiAmi recently for around 1300 yen

 

http://www.amiami.com/top/detail/detail?gcode=RAIL-20648&page=top%2Fsearch%2Flist%3Fs_keywords%3Dthomas%24pagemax%3D40%24getcnt%3D0%24pagecnt%3D1