Bandai B-Train Shorty

[Cat]

Early one morning years ago when I was waiting for a bus, a full sized MBTA Pullman Standard 01100 Orange Line car came around the corner.  That was very surprising at a stop for Route 99 bus!  It took a long double take before I could figure out it was on a big flatbed truck.  Still can't figure out where the heck it was coming from, or where it was going, that somehow it wound up taking the corner at Clifton and Summer Streets!

Those old 01100s were the best cars ever — the motorman's cab was very small and took up just one corner of the end of the car.  The end seat across from the cab and the end of the center aisleway each had windows looking out the front (or rear) for a great cab view.  From a very young age, I learned how to balance very well while standing up in a bus or train; at every opportunity I would stand at the front center window to enjoy the view.  For a high school video project, I shot a front-view ride. 

There was a great wailing in Boston when the 01100s were finally retired in the early 1980s.

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?49687

Edited April 26, 2020 by Cat

[roadstar_na6]

Okay so today I tried to fit my E851 Shorty onto the 11-105 chassis and it didn‘t really work at all.

 

Because the "frame" of the Shorty is set up for a centered engine position it has to be cut open on the edges to fit with the motor. Once that was done the body was able to fit on the chassis but only without the white engine cover. Unfortunately that white cover is needed since it holds the pickups in place and it doesn‘t fit under the loco body.

Also, the surroundings of the coupler (don‘t know the exact term) of the loco make the bogies unable to turn at all without modifications I don‘t really know how to execute.

 

I guess I‘ll have to do some more research on the Japanese blogs and check what they did different.

 

Any hints and tips what I could do are greatly appreciated, I don‘t want to cut the front and rear brackets of the white engine cover as that‘ll probably cause some problems regarding it‘s ability to hold the engine and pickups in place.

[Montfort.]

Hello,

as I said I'm a complete newbie in Bandai B-train Shorty.

So I have a lot of questions (sorry if these questions has been asked too many times before).

I'm planning to buy my very first Bandai B-train Shorty:  B Train Shorty Type Kiha52

What kind of Kato bogie can I use ? 11-097, 11-098 or 11-099 ?
What kind of Kato power unit can fit on these cars ? 11-105, 11-106 or 11-107 ?
Thank you very much for your help. I'm a little bit lost...

Edited June 14, 2020 by Montfort.

[bill937ca]

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10159615

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10274511

[Montfort.]

Thanks...but It's not Kato stuff. And just for the record I love the Province of Ontario.

[roadstar_na6]

The power cars are all the same and just have different bogie designs (the outer plastic trim in terms of suspensions and other attachments).

[Montfort.]

Thanks. I got it. Is it easy to fit ?

[Welshbloke]

It should be. I know people have reported that some later Shorties don't come with the right floor to take the Kato trailer bogies (presumably Bandai trying to force you to buy their own trailer chassis part), but it should all clip fit. You might want to add a bit of extra weight inside the motorised KiHa as the Kato motors don't include any.

[Cat]

5 minutes ago, Welshbloke said:

It should be. I know people have reported that some later Shorties don't come with the right floor to take the Kato trailer bogies (presumably Bandai trying to force you to buy their own trailer chassis part), but it should all clip fit. You might want to add a bit of extra weight inside the motorised KiHa as the Kato motors don't include any.

I think it was just a design flaw.  We have some freight cars that the Bandai bogies for freight don't sit right!  It will take a little nibbling away on the underframe to get them to sit level.

[Montfort.]

I found two Kato 11-107 in a Hobby shop. Hope they will work.

Edited June 14, 2020 by Montfort.

[roadstar_na6]

1 hour ago, Cat said:

I think it was just a design flaw.  We have some freight cars that the Bandai bogies for freight don't sit right!  It will take a little nibbling away on the underframe to get them to sit level.

However that is even said in the instructions 🙂

[Cat]

33 minutes ago, roadstar_na6 said:

However that is even said in the instructions 🙂

 

Huh.  
 
Well, I suppose one could look at the instructions....

[Welshbloke]

As I understand it the problem was that later releases have a two part floor/bogies moulding which clips together clamshell style. Rather than a one piece floor the dummy bogies clip into for static display (which can also be used with Kato or Bandai bogies for a working model).

[Montfort.]

Has anyone already built this model:  B Train Shorty Type Kiha52 Is it equipped with dummy bogies? If so, can I use Kato 11-099 bogies with out any issue? Thanks.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Montfort.

[Cat]

Yes, any Kato or Bandai trucks fit easily on the Kiha.  We're using the 11-099 on our fleet.

The Takis and Kokis are the tricky ones.  Looking at the instruction sheet (huh), there's an illustration showing installing upgrade bogies and there are arrows pointing to the shaded nubs that need to be removed from the chassis.  It's just those nubs that cause upgrade bogies to not sit level.

[Montfort.]

Many thanks for your reply. Very helpful.

[defor]

Are there any Kato bogies that work (physically and visually) on B-train Koki 106/107? I'm not really impressed with the quality of Bandai's.

[Cat]

Kato only has the three types of passenger bogies specifically for the B-Train Shorties that I've ever seen:
https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=&target=Series&searchkey=Parts+(Bogie)&Scale=N+Scale&spage=1&Make=Kato

So the Bandai bogies are the best visuals for the sideframes.  The Kato ones have the same mounting clip as the Bandai Freight ones, the coupler will extend a little further out.

[defor]

That's what I was afraid of .. ah well...

 

I'll see what i can do to just make the frames heavier..

[Cat]

If you were ambitious, you could try splicing in the Bandai side frame pieces onto Kato bogies.

[defor]

I'm not THAT ambitious.

DCC'ing B-train DE10's as far as I'm gonna go....

[Cat]

What aspect of the Bandai freight bogies don't you like?
We haven't started running ours yet.

[defor]

I was planning to run them on a 10ft x 1ft shelf layout I designed for my desk at work, but they bounce over the Kato #4 turnouts at ANY speed and have a high derail chance...

I mean, the #4 is already a broken design as it is, and needs major tuning on lots of rolling stock, but this is just crazy.

 

Recently I've been thinking to redesign the layout in Finetrak, especially as they have less wasted space around the track, and their turnouts look overall.better built...

Just a bit sad about the investiment in #4's i've made.

[Mannick]

Hello,
I am a newbie to this forum and I'm also a newbie to B train Shorty. I have many questions (sorry if these questions have been asked too many times before). Does the Kato 11-103 powered chassis fit onto the Bandai B Train Shorty EF64 ? Thanks for your help.

 

 

 

Edited June 16, 2020 by Mannick

[defor]

39 minutes ago, Mannick said:

Does the Kato 11-103 powered chassis fit onto the Bandai B Train Shorty EF64 ? Thanks for your help.

 

It MAY, but the bogies/skirt will look wrong.. the correct one to use should be the Bandai Power Unit 1: https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10138173