Bandai B-Train Shorty

[kvp]

1 hour ago, nickhp said:

I guess I wasn’t clear.  I know what can be done with B Train Shorties, I was looking to see if anyone else would be interested in a mini project “challenge”, a 1x2’ b train layout, say by the end of the year?

I am actually working (very slowly due to health problems) on a Z train shorty layout, but it's just a loop of mountain track with some scenery. Operationally you can go clockwise or counter clockwise and stop at the platform or not with isn't much.

 

ps: Rokuhan's Z scale shorties are just like the N scale Bandai shorties, but in Z and with much less detail.

[TimWay4]

2 hours ago, nickhp said:

I guess I wasn’t clear.  I know what can be done with B Train Shorties, I was looking to see if anyone else would be interested in a mini project “challenge”, a 1x2’ b train layout, say by the end of the year?

 

Nick

 

That's 1 foot by 2 foot right? I'll see If I have a board that size available, I love B Train Shorties and as my current project is fairly close to completion, I would be up for something like that 🙂

[cteno4]

I don’t think you want to selectively scale one dimension on scenery as that will start to get things very oddly out of proportion and go against the mind’s eye memories too much. The train cars being shortened doesn’t warp them out of reality as a shorter train car works with windows and doors that are human proportion, just a shorter car. If you narrow buildings It will get them out of useful proportions and I think just look too odd.

 

what looks nice on the btrains is the compressed scenery like nick did. It screams for that jammed packed look. Btrains also look nicer on curves as at an angle the shortness does not scream at you as it does looking at them side on in a straightaway.

 

Nick yee’s layout shows this well and also shows btrains can also look nice in not an ultra compressed scene as well and he did a nice job of curves and over and under and visual obstructions that are not obvious to make the trains pop in and out nicely in a small layout. Granted it’s not a micro layout, it’s jsut that they can look nice in other arrangements.

 

they cna look pretty silly on larger layouts. Never felt right in the JRM big double viaduct. I figured if I ever did a small btrain I would use single viaduct and maybe make my own to be smaller. The. Have a center platform with Y points on either end and store another Shinkansen there and alternate them running. Another way to comresss things possibly. I liked how the shorties looked on nick’s viaduct sections.

 

love to do this, but I’m pretty jammed up with club layout stuff this year. If you want and there is enough interest we can get this going as a project party, we have been talking about trying to get more of those going! 

 

Cheers

 

jeff

[kvp]

How about 3 inch x 3 inch (~7 x 7 cm) dioramas? That's about the size the single car mini dioramas had on one of the japanese links. It's enough to display a nice small scenery with a single B-train shorty car and many people could have the time and space to build one. Also many B-train builders have leftover head cars from multi pack sets and a single car mini diorama is a good way to use one of them.

[gavino200]

Can someone explain the attraction of these little shorties? I don't get it. 

[bill937ca]

33 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

Can someone explain the attraction of these little shorties? I don't get it. 

 

They were intended for teenagers, but instead Japanese train modelers found they could run full length trains on their space challenged layouts.

[nickhp]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

Can someone explain the attraction of these little shorties? I don't get it. 

 

SPACE. 

 

If you are running a full length 8 car n scale train on a layout with 200-300mm radius curves, they are going to overhang on curves, look poor doing it and require a 8' long station to accommodate the train.  Given the amount of space this kind of train requires, it will cost a lot of time and money filling that space with scenery, especially if modelling a city area.  Running an oval is hardly going to look prototypical, so why the complaining about B Trains not being prototypical?

 

With B Train Shorties, I accept that the trains are smaller but use this advantage to either run full 8-12 car trains even on a 4x2' layout or condense things even more and run on amazingly small radius curves with short trains.  I also condense the scenes I am modelling so that it packs a lot of detail and content into a small space without a huge investment of time and money to do so.  It is a case of accepting the lack of realism and embracing it to achieve a cohesive result that I could not manage with regular length stock.

 

I can transport my layouts to shows, on my own, using a regular SUV and be ready to run in 10 minutes.  I can transport my layouts if I relocate and not have to tear down or carefully disassemble a large layout and risk damage to do so.  I can get layouts built in a short amount of time and have multiple layouts with different themes so I don't get bored with a specific layout theme/setting.

 

Nick

Edited July 6, 2018 by nickhp

[cteno4]

Gavin,

 

get a small one and play with it, you may be surprised. They are fun and interesting to do some fun micro layouts with. It’s one of those things you sort of need to experience and play with a bit. No guarantee it will trip your trigger, but it does for a lot of folks and was a Uber popular in Japan for quite a while.

 

jeff

[chadbag]

Does anyone make "Chibi" style figures or similar in n-scale?   To me, the "Chibi" style people and appropriate buildings etc look like they are made to run with the B-Shorty trains.

[MichiK]

15 hours ago, nickhp said:

I guess I wasn’t clear.  I know what can be done with B Train Shorties, I was looking to see if anyone else would be interested in a mini project “challenge”, a 1x2’ b train layout, say by the end of the year?

 

Hmmm... if we could make it a generall Shorty group build - regardles whether B-Train or Z - I'd be with you!

Size limit for Z maybe 420 x 210mm? That's about 610mm * 150 / 220 = 415.9...mm, and it would be possible to use 95mm radius.

 

I am, however, completely overbooked this year, thus I could only participate with the micro I'm already building procrastinating, anyway...

 

 

11 hours ago, kvp said:

How about 3 inch x 3 inch (~7 x 7 cm) dioramas?

 

Seems to me perfectly within the 2' by 1' limit! 😉

But that's already dangerously close to a common beer mat... 😉

[defor]

I just finished a 1' x 7' track design for the shelf above my desk at work- going to start the initial terrain builds this week. This was actually the reason I started looking at B-Train, as only a fraction of my existing rolling stock could make the R117/R150 curves. I'm using fullsize buildings etc however for the build.

 

As far as a 1' x 2' group build, I'm in. This sounds like a nice extension to my current mini folding experiments.

[nickhp]

14 hours ago, defor said:

I just finished a 1' x 7' track design for the shelf above my desk at work- going to start the initial terrain builds this week. This was actually the reason I started looking at B-Train, as only a fraction of my existing rolling stock could make the R117/R150 curves. I'm using fullsize buildings etc however for the build. 

 

As far as a 1' x 2' group build, I'm in. This sounds like a nice extension to my current mini folding experiments.

 

Do you have the track yet?  I hate to break it to you but 150mm curves and 12" wide shelf won't work.  150mm radius is the measurement to the center of the track.  So your 300mm diamter circle = 11.8".  Now if you measure Kato track, it is 1" wide.  So on top of your 11.8" you need to add 1", giving you 12.8" wide.  Now you probably don't want track right up against the front edge of your shelf, so add 1" either side of the track and you are now looking at 14.8".

 

Hope this helps!

 

Nick

[gavino200]

On 7/5/2018 at 7:01 PM, cteno4 said:

Gavin,

 

get a small one and play with it, you may be surprised. They are fun and interesting to do some fun micro layouts with. It’s one of those things you sort of need to experience and play with a bit. No guarantee it will trip your trigger, but it does for a lot of folks and was a Uber popular in Japan for quite a while.

 

jeff

 

I showed these B-shorties to the little man and the loves them. Are these things even DCCable?

Edited July 9, 2018 by gavino200

[kvp]

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

I showed these B-shorties to the little man and the loves them. Are these things even DCCable?

Yes, pretty easy to do. No headlights, just one or more motor cars. Just add small wired decoders to the motor cars (2 pickup, 2 motor wires) and cut off everything else. The digitrax dz12x series is a good candidate. For more than one motor car, just set all decoders to the same address.

[cteno4]

Ha! See he has taste! Maybe make him a mini layout of his own to play with as well as scenic some. Can start out non dcc easily and concert later. Might be fun for him to have in his room to play with too or even take to school. You can do pretty tight curves with them and the mini tomix points work well for mini layouts.

 

You can add your own lights in with doc easily as you are the light pipe master! Get some clear acrylic rod to play with, you can even heat it up and bend it or a bit of plastic fiber optic. Put them up against a 3mm led and seal with heat shrink.

 

Cheers

 

jeff

[nickhp]

And since they are kits you can put them back together if they take a tumble...

 

I have a bunch of b trains listed on eBay though most of the auctions are ending literally as I type this, they will be back up later today.  PM me if you are interested in any items and I can do a better deal than I can on eBay.  My username on eBay is bftc200 .

 

Nick

[gavino200]

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Ha! See he has taste! Maybe make him a mini layout of his own to play with as well as scenic some. Can start out non dcc easily and concert later. Might be fun for him to have in his room to play with too or even take to school. You can do pretty tight curves with them and the mini tomix points work well for mini layouts.

 

 

jeff

 

This is a great idea! I pitched it to him and he's excited about it. Time to check out the shorty market. 

 

[gavino200]

Found them: 

Edited July 9, 2018 by gavino200

[gavino200]

Ok, I admit it. Shorties are cute. Fun little things. We sat and put them together, one each, side by side. He's going to run them in DC on the floor. I'm going to step back and let them be his thing completely to mess with. Definitely a hit!

[cteno4]

It’s a gateway!

 

jeff

[gavino200]

Kitty likes the shorties too....

 

[JR 500系]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

Kitty likes the shorties too....

 

 

At first I thought Hello Kitty EVA 500 is coming to B-Shorties haha 

 

That's one impressive looking Lego Technics plane you have there on the table! 

[Welshbloke]

On 7/6/2018 at 12:03 AM, bill937ca said:

 

They were intended for teenagers, but instead Japanese train modelers found they could run full length trains on their space challenged layouts.

 

I often wonder if attempts to introduce something similar to the western world would meet any success. It appears that B Train Shorties and Tomytecs bring a new audience into model trains in Japan.

 

I remember emailing one major shop here about them years ago and getting a dismissive "don't think they'd sell here" brush off response. Sad really. When you look at some of the blind bag toys now on sale (and how well they sell) you do wonder...

[kvp]

1 hour ago, Welshbloke said:

I often wonder if attempts to introduce something similar to the western world would meet any success. It appears that B Train Shorties and Tomytecs bring a new audience into model trains in Japan.

I remember emailing one major shop here about them years ago and getting a dismissive "don't think they'd sell here" brush off response. Sad really. When you look at some of the blind bag toys now on sale (and how well they sell) you do wonder...

Actually Maerklin sells similar trains in their under 15 years old range, they are battery operated shorty sets with IR remote controls. Every car is 2 axle though, probably to further cut down on costs. In this regard they are more like the Tomix mini sets.

[Welshbloke]

True, I bought one a few years ago out of curiosity and found it was actually pretty fun. Mine's the ICE painted as an SBB unit which looks vaguely similar.