Bandai B-Train Shorty

[disturbman]

A good practice is to check the YJA closed search. It gives you a better indication of how often your desired items are available and at what price they sell.

[Cat]

Hmm, it's very unusual not to see any power units.  For my searches, I go to the B-Train section and then search for:  動力ユニット

I've got that search page on ZenMarket bookmarked.  I've also done that search on Buyee where it's easy to save the search and turn on notifications for emails. 

I'm back shopping on ZenMarket now, because one of my long slumbering saved searches on Buyee alerted me to some track piers that hadn't been available in a year of hunting!  So bought those, and now that I'm committed to shipping a package, making full use of the free 45 day storage to pick up other items on the wish list.  Mostly power units, lots of junk B-Train parts for Kiha conversion projects, and a few odds and ends.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Cat

[5lyp3t3]

Wow this thread is a goldmine! Thanks everyone.

 

In the past few months I've been getting into N scale and enthusiastically acquired Unitrack, due to its 'plug and play ease'. I'm really delighted with the track and layout possibilities but was a bit frustrated with some of the pernickety larger rolling stock when it comes to tight curves! I'm not at all interested in being prototypical, and want to maximise fun in a relatively compact space.

 

Then I found B train shorties! Hooray! 

What a shame Bandai have given up on these.

Either way I've ordered a few sets from Hobby search and Plaza Japan. I've also got myself a couple of Kato 11-105 and 11-110 (still awaiting).

 

One thing I'm finding hard is knowing what chassis will fit with what model. I appreciate the gold standard for ease of fitting seems to be the Bandai stuff but I've not ventured in to ZenMarket and therefore am a bit scuppered by being a zero bidder (and also paying UKP 50 for a power unit is a bit steep!)

 

I wonder does anyone know of a resource where the shorties are listed with their best fitting chassis from various manufacturers? Or is there a code whereby the Kato chassis can be matched with its corresponding Bandai? Also has anyone tried the tomix chassis, which seem to be readily available?

 

TLDR: is there a way of knowing in advance of buying which set will fit which Kato chassis?

 

Thanks very much everyone!

[lukewang01]

Yahoo Auction Japan is going to be your best bet. It's going to be a whole new world after you start using that. The older (not the oldest, I found out that those have the hole too big that KATO bogie will fall out when you lift it up) one piece chassis will fit KATO bogies no matter which one you use. The newer two piece chassis will not work with KATO bogies. 

[Dinosbacsi]

5 hours ago, 5lyp3t3 said:

What a shame Bandai have given up on these.

Yeah, it really is. Especially when there obviously is demand for them, as there are many model sets around, yet rolling chassis and motor units are so hard to find for them.

 

And the worst thing is that even though there are plenty of Kato replacement for motor units and bogeys, as likewang said, many Shortys have this stupid 2 piece chassis that don't allow proper rotating bogeys, so you can't install the Kato ones. You need to replace them with those Bandai chassis that come in 3 chassis per box, but they're also getting pretty rare.

 

Wish Kato started making their own free-rolling chassis. What's the point in manufacturing bogeys if you can't use them on your models?

[disturbman]

@lukewang01, I think your 3D-printed chassis replacement is the only true long-term solution for those who want to use Kato's trucks.

[lukewang01]

Should I put it onto For Sale Fourm? Or should I leave a post somewhere so people can find me.

[disturbman]

It's an idea. I'll discuss it with the other mods. I wonder if Shapeways could be a solution.

[lukewang01]

Thanks. I feel like advertising myself every time when this topic is brought up is against forum rules unless someone else mentions about me. I can also look into etsy since I'm not going to be mass producing them. 

[Dinosbacsi]

31 minutes ago, lukewang01 said:

Thanks. I feel like advertising myself every time when this topic is brought up is against forum rules unless someone else mentions about me. I can also look into etsy since I'm not going to be mass producing them. 

Yeah I saw your 3D painted chassis a few pages back. What are the plans with those? You are printing them yourself and selling them that way, or you're just selling the 3D file for people to print themselves?

[Cat]

6 hours ago, 5lyp3t3 said:

TLDR: is there a way of knowing in advance of buying which set will fit which Kato chassis?

Welcome to the wonderful world of Shorties!
 
The Kato chasses don't exactly fit Bandai.  Choose desired style of 4-wheel or 8-wheel, and then tweak a bit to fit as needed.

[lukewang01]

44 minutes ago, Dinosbacsi said:

Yeah I saw your 3D painted chassis a few pages back. What are the plans with those? You are printing them yourself and selling them that way, or you're just selling the 3D file for people to print themselves?

I print them myself. I can also sell you the file for you to print as well. I need to go set up Thingiverse and look into putting the file there. 

[cteno4]

@lukewang01,

 

it would be wonderful if you made these available for sale here or sale thru shapeways. I just got s few more washer sizes to mess with making my own from grinding off stuff from the split chassis, but it’s looking like the printed chassis would be a lot easier route for the few I have that need this.

 

we let folks have a topic on the suppliers forum to cover a little side offer/biz like this. In your topic there you can present products and discuss questions and such. Enough Btrain folks here that your biz topic will get linked to by them (I know I will!) from the other appropriate topics or when it comes up in new topics. Later if you decide you want to do a special topic there for poll for a new product or such we can see about adding that as it’s been requested before by a couple of garage biz doing a few little pieces. We are fine bending the rules for very specific things on the commercial stuff if asked first and we can talk it thru before happening. Commercial presence on one of the other japanese train groups was a real bad problem and actually one of the reasons why JNS was created and why we compartmentalize the commercial posts.

 

We had to compartmentalize the business stuff over there and keep business folks from discussing it in the other forums as in the past we had some get a bit zealous in linking to and pitching their stuff in a lot of places. We keep the classified as more of a short term, just members selling a few extra trains and such off to each other, so your chassis could get a bit lost there and confusing that it’s more of ongoing sale.

 

sorry for the long response, jsut wanted to get explanation out on this as it doesn’t come up very often and the forum has a long history now!

 

thanks for thinking about doing this!

 

jeff

[lukewang01]

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to set up a supplier post for now and see where it will lead me.

[cteno4]

Luke set up a supplier page with more info on ordering or getting 3D plans for his chassis here:

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[metaldirtnskin]

Really glad to have found this - I stumbled across the B-Train Shorties a while ago and thought they were a perfect combination of compact, low-stakes and maybe just a little weird (the good kind of weird). Like a lot of people on here I had a hard time finding just the right combination of parts that fit... I got a bunch of the Kato bogies and it looks like the Shorty cars I found are the later ones that won't take them without modification. Looks like the 3D printed chassis will sort that out.

[Dinosbacsi]

3 hours ago, metaldirtnskin said:

I got a bunch of the Kato bogies and it looks like the Shorty cars I found are the later ones that won't take them without modification. Looks like the 3D printed chassis will sort that out.

Looks like business is already starting for lukewang, lol

 

Now that I tried buying from Yahoo Auctions via FromJapan I also keep regularly checking it out. Sooner or later I'll definitly not be able to hold back and will end up buying something again. If that happens, it's likely I'll also need his 3D printed chassis. I already saw a 4-car yellow 201 series set that I really liked, but I should wait a bit before buying more shorties.

[5lyp3t3]

Wonderful thanks everyone.

Luke, that sounds like a wonderful solution to the bogies problem (as it were), thank you! Do you have a similar chassis for Kato powered chassis, or am I over simplifying things?

 

Of note, in my adventures so far I've experimented with the Kato 11-105 and the 109.

I have to say that I've found the 109 so much more powerful! It's also a better fit when it comes to the Shorty bodies I currently own. Shame it's only 2 axle.

 

Can anyone clarify what date the old chassis was phased out please? Hobbysearch has the release dates on product info which might help locate some of the older more suitable models.

[Cat]

1 hour ago, 5lyp3t3 said:

Can anyone clarify what date the old chassis was phased out please? Hobbysearch has the release dates on product info which might help locate some of the older more suitable models.

That's a bit of a trick question.  The best clue is whether HS recommends Kato trucks or T-Kai to go with the model.  However, some earlier models had the chassis changed in later production runs.  I have Cassiopeia cars from different sets with different chasses.

[lukewang01]

I didn't exactly get what you mean by chassis for powered chassis? I've seen on Youtube people have used 11-109 on locos that were designed with 2 axles (EF 510, early EF 81) I suspect Bandai was in the process of redesigning their locos but the whole product just got cut off, I'm not sure if KATO had that in mind when they were designing these pocket line series to get the market for motorizing B-trains locos.

 

From what I have seen, the chassis development went from left to right. 

(Please pardon my messy desk, I'm in the process of putting interiors to my Cassiopeia)

 

The one on the left doesn't hold KATO bogie well because the hole is slightly too big, KATO bogie will fall out when you lift it up it's only going to work with Bandai chassis T. The middle one is what everyone is after. The one on the right probably came out after Bandai announced they are going to sell T-Kai hence the name (T改) meaning improved chassis T. 

 

There is also this B-train wiki website that closed a couple month ago, there are some useful information on there.

http://kim.s329.xrea.com/btwk/

 

[lukewang01]

Just found that out:

http://kim.s329.xrea.com/btwk/?cmd=read&page=Nゲージ化パーツ&word=シャーシ#motor

So product released near 2014 probably can't take KATO bogies directly. 

[5lyp3t3]

7 hours ago, lukewang01 said:

I didn't exactly get what you mean by chassis for powered chassis? I've seen on Youtube people have used 11-109 on locos that were designed with 2 axles (EF 510, early EF 81) I suspect Bandai was in the process of redesigning their locos but the whole product just got cut off, I'm not sure if KATO had that in mind when they were designing these pocket line series to get the market for motorizing B-trains locos.

 

From what I have seen, the chassis development went from left to right. 

(Please pardon my messy desk, I'm in the process of putting interiors to my Cassiopeia)

 

The one on the left doesn't hold KATO bogie well because the hole is slightly too big, KATO bogie will fall out when you lift it up it's only going to work with Bandai chassis T. The middle one is what everyone is after. The one on the right probably came out after Bandai announced they are going to sell T-Kai hence the name (T改) meaning improved chassis T. 

 

There is also this B-train wiki website that closed a couple month ago, there are some useful information on there.

http://kim.s329.xrea.com/btwk/

 

Thank you for all your information! This certainly is a niche section of an already quite niche hobby - just my cup of tea! I'll get reading 😁

[Dinosbacsi]

By the way, can anyone tell me how the stickers that come with Shorties work? I was thinking about applying them to give my model more detail, but how do they work? From what I can see, you need to cut around them manually? Also they are simple peel-off and put on stickers, or those weird watery types?

[roadstar_na6]

The ones on my TaKi1000 were just peel off stickers, where the numbers and stuff was printed on a clear sticker foil. I wish they were die-cuts, but they aren't 😞

[Cat]

Yes, they are trim to size, peel off, place carefully, burnish in.

Personally, I always prefer water slide decals.  They are much easier to position properly, and with a decal solvent they are much closer fitting over crevices and bumps; professionally made like MicroScale ones are quite thinner too.