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Bandai B-Train Shorty

Welshbloke

By Welshbloke
in Rolling Stock

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splifdfx

splifdfx

Posted
Posted (edited)

Cute! But isn't the sonic a 7 car set? you would have an extra car like this...

 

Yes, you have to buy two sets to build the full-length 7 cars train.

Which would put it between 8000+ and 10000+ yen, but without motor or trucks...

Edited by splifdfx
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adrianKeith

adrianKeith

Posted
Posted

You'd need a middle man [emoji1474]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Is this....

 

you? 

 

Do we need to meet in some dark alley? :P 

 

I just recently got into B-Trains on a recent trip to Japan (well, I became a huge train nerd after this most recent visit) and picked up about 9 different ones. I'd like to get them running but even just static displays for now would be fine so I don't blow my entire paycheck on a million different trains haha. They're already addictive and assembling them in my leisure time is a lot of fun and quite relaxing.

 

I'm still learning all of the terminology and nearly everything I can about them in my spare time. I just logged onto Bandai's site and saw that release and was excited to pre-order but realized its a bit more complicated for someone like me in the US.

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cteno4

cteno4

Posted
Posted (edited)

Adrian,

 

Unfortunately many shops and companies in Japan don't like to sell overseas, usually because they then need someone speaking the language being ordered from.

 

There are some services that let you buy stuff in japan (if they accept your cc) and ship it to a Japanese address. These consolidators then take your orders and repack and shop them to you. There are fees for this of course! This is the way most folks outside Japan bid on yahoo.jp auctions (yahoo is the big auction site in Japan (expecially for trains), but the services usually will also take orders you make that are shipped to them and some will do ordering for you as well which is handy if they won't take your cc or trouble filling in Japanese order form.

 

Here is a thread to get you started

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/801-how-to-bid-in-japanese-auctions-for-dummies/

 

Nariichi San of Modeltrainplus.com use to do personal shopping like this, but now only does a little as he has a full retail shop to run, but with asking.

 

Jeff

Edited by cteno4
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adrianKeith

adrianKeith

Posted
Posted

Adrian,

 

Unfortunately many shops and companies in Japan don't like to sell overseas, usually because they then need someone speaking the language being ordered from.

 

There are some services that let you buy stuff in japan (if they accept your cc) and ship it to a Japanese address. These consolidators then take your orders and repack and shop them to you. There are fees for this of course! This is the way most folks outside Japan bid on yahoo.jp auctions (yahoo is the big auction site in Japan (expecially for trains), but the services usually will also take orders you make that are shipped to them and some will do ordering for you as well which is handy if they won't take your cc or trouble filling in Japanese order form.

 

Here is a thread to get you started

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/801-how-to-bid-in-japanese-auctions-for-dummies/

 

Nariichi San of Modeltrainplus.com use to do personal shopping like this, but now only does a little as he has a full retail shop to run, but with asking.

 

Jeff

 

Jeff, thanks for the link and all the helpful information. I've already begun looking at the sites mentioned there :)

 

I have another question and I apologize if it's been answered somewhere here but being new to the model train scene, I have a lot of questions. I have one of these --

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10350110

 

Is there a boxed set of another 4-6 cars or do I just buy another one of the same to increase the length? Also, is there a good introductory thread on assembling these trains and building your first track complete with the terminology I should know? I've been reading about bogeys, etc and am kinda getting a bit lost. I'll be searching the forums deeply over the next few weeks to get fully acquainted but would love to be able to talk with people as well. 

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cteno4

cteno4

Posted
Posted

Adrian,

 

Yes the terminology can be daunting as many things have different names around the world and it's become a mash up who uses what when! Bogies are also trucks, track switches are also points and so on. I don't know a good place to get an overview of all the terminology but I expect someone will have a good idea!

 

For the additional cars, btrains are actually odd beasties in that they were made first as toys for kids and the adults got into them and then collectors. They then started doing more special run sets that have larger sets of cars as well, many of the simple 2 car packs are and end and middle car with the idea that two boxes makes a nice 4 car train. Of course to get get the prototype length you may need to buy extra sets and ditch some of the cars to just get the particular car you need. Some sets come with two different end pieces for a car so you can make either car that is similar. Some sets have like 3 different 2 car sets to choose from to make different combos. Then there are a few sets that are complete prototype trains all in one box.

 

So you can see it can get difficult to be totally prototypical with btrains. Usually folks sort of so shortie trains that are like half the number of cars. This works well with 6-8 car trains being 4 car shortie trains. One motor unit runs a 4 car shortie very well, but as you add more cars it can have issues. The max seems to be around 1motor per 8 cars. Weight is an issue in the motor cars as well as the kato mechs only have one of the two trucks powered, whereas the bandai have both trucks powered.

 

For layout construction it's the same as any layout except you can use tighter radiuses than regular prototype model trains. Btrains looks the worst side on but really nice at an angle so minimizing long side views. If you look at nick yees video you see how he packs a lot in a small space and takes advantage of this.

 

 

As you dig around the forum you will find a lot of bits of btrain layout work, here's a few

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/12183-b-train-small-layout-2/

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/7973-another-b-train-shorty-layout/

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/7889-b-train-layout/

 

As for getting started on a layout, I would suggest first getting some kato unitrak (this is carries by a lot of us shops and easily gotten) or tomix finetrak (very limited distribution in the us and pricy here due to walthers markup, but easily ordered from Japan) and a controller and start playing. The tomix and kato sectional track is super robust and great to just slap down and go on a table or even floor. You can do a lot just by plinking down some construction paper, building and bits of scenery w.o doing a permanent layout. This is a great article on doing this and very good with small btrain layouts. http://japanrailmodelers.org/pages/modelingjapan/tempoary.html

 

Also there are a number of inexpensive to free track planning software systems out there to play with as well as a lot of sites with track plan ideas. few are btrain specific, but you can adapt them to tighter radiuses and shortie compact style. You need to decide if this will be btrain only or also want to run prototype model trains as well, as they will need larger minimum radius curves and clearances.

 

That should get you started and I'm sure lots of folks will chime in.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

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kvp

kvp

Posted
Posted

A few bits of extra info: Btrain cars are around half the length of normal trains, which means they could run on half the radius of curves. For most japanese trains this is around 280 mm and btrains run well on 140 mm. Accidentally this is the minimum radius for most trams and shorter Tomytec train collection trains (they are similar kits like btrains just not compressed). Tomix sells mini curves and points that are 140 mm, while the nearest Kato size is 150 mm. Tomix mini platforms are also available that match the 140 mm curves and points.

 

ps: Your selected yamanote kit has one end car and one middle car which could be built either as a pantograph car or as a plain one. If you buy two kits then you can have a 4 car set and two extra front cars. A 10 car consist could be built from this kit by getting 8 boxes. The 11th car is the platform door car that could only be found in a special pack having middle 7 cars, so you only need two basic sets and this extra pack if you could find it. Usually btrain colletors don't build whole prototypical sets just what could be assembled with the suggested number of sets that leave no extra cars. As Jeff said this is usually 4 cars for basic sets and 6 to 8 for advanced sets. If you want to motorize i would suggest 1 bandai motor for each 4 cars.

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tossedman

tossedman

Posted
Posted

We have run 16 car 700 Shinkansen with 3 motor cars on the club's level double viaduct. The big issue was the slinky effect with all the rapido springs and play with any small change in speed due to track, that ends up fighting the power cars and then usually causing an uncoupling or derailment.

 

Todd has good luck with his 16 car 0 series, but can't remeber how many power cars he uses in it.

 

For my smaller the 1 power car for up to 4 works well and then 2 for 6 or 8 car works great. I still have not outfitted my 16 car 0 series yet...

 

Jeff

Just saw this. We're using two Bandai power units (with weights) with our 16 car 0 series Shinkansen. We also use the Kato trucks on all the other cars as they seem to roll better than the Bandai. You can see it here. No slinky effect.

 

 

Cheers eh,

 

Todd

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kvp

kvp

Posted
Posted

The Kato trucks are better rolling, but can't use the Bandai bogie sideframes, which is a problem. If you don't want any slinky effect, the Bandai body mounted coupler bars are a good alternative, but that has to be selected during shell assembly as you have to use the right center piece and cut off the rapido couplers from the bogies. Putting all the motor units next to each other in the middle also reduces any fighting forces on the trailer cars and haves the slinky effect in case of rapidos.

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adrianKeith

adrianKeith

Posted
Posted

A few bits of extra info: Btrain cars are around half the length of normal trains, which means they could run on half the radius of curves. For most japanese trains this is around 280 mm and btrains run well on 140 mm. Accidentally this is the minimum radius for most trams and shorter Tomytec train collection trains (they are similar kits like btrains just not compressed). Tomix sells mini curves and points that are 140 mm, while the nearest Kato size is 150 mm. Tomix mini platforms are also available that match the 140 mm curves and points.

 

ps: Your selected yamanote kit has one end car and one middle car which could be built either as a pantograph car or as a plain one. If you buy two kits then you can have a 4 car set and two extra front cars. A 10 car consist could be built from this kit by getting 8 boxes. The 11th car is the platform door car that could only be found in a special pack having middle 7 cars, so you only need two basic sets and this extra pack if you could find it. Usually btrain colletors don't build whole prototypical sets just what could be assembled with the suggested number of sets that leave no extra cars. As Jeff said this is usually 4 cars for basic sets and 6 to 8 for advanced sets. If you want to motorize i would suggest 1 bandai motor for each 4 cars.

 

Thanks for that helpful info! Is this the bandai motor you're referring to?

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10123652

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nickhp

nickhp

Posted
Posted (edited)

A few bits of extra info: Btrain cars are around half the length of normal trains, which means they could run on half the radius of curves. For most japanese trains this is around 280 mm and btrains run well on 140 mm.

 

From what I have seen they are between 1/3 to 1/2 length, which is why BTrains run without issue on Kato 117mm and Tomix 103mm radius curves (or smaller!).  See my layout which uses 117mm kato track with no issues at all.

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/12183-b-train-small-layout-2/

 

And again, I do not weight any cars other than the one with the motor in it, and I have never seen slinky effect on my 10+ car trains when using Kato trucks with rapido couplers.

 

Nick

Edited by nickhp
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cteno4

cteno4

Posted
Posted

Nick,

 

I got the slinky some on my 8 car 500 and had coupler issues and always seemed to be when there was a hesitation and there was a bit of compression of the whole train due to the kato rapido springs and then when it sped up uncoupling would happen. After fiddling with ihe couplers for an hour or so at a show but finally put it aside for now and trying the sharfenbergers. I rarely have issues with 4-6 car trains and have not built my 16 car or my other two 8 car sets waiting to figure out if I want to move to other couplers or not.

 

The 16 car 700 one of our members has can show a good bit of compression and extension. I think they are all kato trucks. It ran much better but it did have oscillations. I don't want to think how many kits it took Matthew's club in japan to buy to make him the correct 16 cat 700! It was a very nice parting gift.

 

Anyhow that's just my experience and you've run more btrains than I have I expect!

 

Jeff

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Rmsinsd

Rmsinsd

Posted
Posted (edited)

FWIW, I checked, and B-Trains work fine on Unitram trackwork, turnouts and crossing. They look good in an urban setting!

 

post-1699-0-81056300-1493058314_thumb.jpg

Edited by Rmsinsd
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railsquid

railsquid

Posted
Posted

 

I'm going to bet on a data entry mistake which is propagating itself through various catalogue databases.

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bill937ca

bill937ca

Posted
Posted (edited)

A 600 x 900 layout with double track main line, four track station, engine house and small yard. i would suggest the Tomytec single track engine house may appear more aged, but still this is nice for the space. Video by superknightrider3000. 

 

 

Edited by bill937ca
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