Bandai B-Train Shorty

[Dinosbacsi]

On 1/15/2022 at 6:14 AM, Andrew G said:

Could someone recommend the best Kato bogies to get these tank wagons and container flats out on the rail?? Thanks in advance.

I've been also thinking about getting some freight cars recently, so this is something that also crossed my mind. The original Bandai freight bogeys are possibly even rarer than the passenger ones, so it would be good to know what the alternatives are. I suppose any shorty bogey made by Kato will pop in place, but will it look correct (as their proportions are different from the original Bandai ones)?

 

By the way, after a long time of not ordering anything new, I finally saw a yellow-striped 103-1200 series for auction and won it for a pretty okay price. Will be a great addition to my Chuo-Sobu collection ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

Also, recently I've started seeing more and more auctions selling "B Trains" that are normal in proportion and not shorties. They seem lower quality than the avarage model trains, almost toy like, but they're apparently made by Bandai and called B Train. Is this a new thing Bandai produces? After ending Shorty production they started producing regular models?

[disturbman]

4 hours ago, Dinosbacsi said:

Also, recently I've started seeing more and more auctions selling "B Trains" that are normal in proportion and not shorties.

Do you have a link to these? I don’t think I ever seen anything like that before.

[Dinosbacsi]

1 hour ago, disturbman said:

Do you have a link to these? I don’t think I ever seen anything like that before.

Yeah, here is the least recent one I've seen:

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/u352366580

 

Though after more inspection, it might be a rather older stuff than something new. The 1994 in the title might be the release year? But the description says Bandai and the back of the train also has a "B Train" logo on it. I believe previously I've also seen a 0 series Shinkansen model like this as well. So this might be something old they did before the Shorty business?

 

Edit: I've also found this 205 series, called B Train Mini.

https://buyee.jp/item/yahoo/auction/l1011725141

Edited January 16, 2022 by Dinosbacsi

[Cat]

Ah quick google-fu shows that B-Train preceded B-Train Shorty:
https://bandaithomas.fandom.com/wiki/B_Train_Shorty

[lukewang01]

From left to right: Bandai Truck F, KATO 11-097 Commuter 2, KATO 11-098 Express 1, and KATO 11-099 Commuter 1.

Personally speaking I would prefer commuter 1 as it has an old freight car vibe. Proportion-wise they seem to be really close. 

[Dinosbacsi]

17 hours ago, lukewang01 said:

From left to right: Bandai Truck F, KATO 11-097 Commuter 2, KATO 11-098 Express 1, and KATO 11-099 Commuter 1.

Personally speaking I would prefer commuter 1 as it has an old freight car vibe. Proportion-wise they seem to be really close. 

Nice! The Commuter 1 really does look pretty close with the springs in the middle, and they don't look off even despite the off-center pivot point. Glad to know, now I see no problem with getting freight cars. Thanks for the pics!

[disturbman]

The commuter Kato trucks were on sale at amiami end of last week. They might still have sone left.
 

On 1/16/2022 at 9:42 PM, Cat said:

 

Ah quick google-fu shows that B-Train preceded B-Train Shorty:
https://bandaithomas.fandom.com/wiki/B_Train_Shorty

 

 Not surprising, those looked ancient.

Edited January 18, 2022 by disturbman

[Andrew G]

On 1/17/2022 at 12:22 PM, lukewang01 said:

From left to right: Bandai Truck F, KATO 11-097 Commuter 2, KATO 11-098 Express 1, and KATO 11-099 Commuter 1.

Personally speaking I would prefer commuter 1 as it has an old freight car vibe. Proportion-wise they seem to be really close. 

Thank you for the feed back, folks. It just so happens that I have 5 pairs of KATO 11-099 Commuter 1 bogies 'on the water'/'in the air'/'sitting in a mail centre' between Topslots 'n' Trains in the U.K. and Australia. 🙂

Edited January 18, 2022 by Andrew G

[Dinosbacsi]

Yeah, I've also ordered 3 pairs of 11-099s for the 3 KoKi 106 container cars I won on Yahoo Auctions the other day. I'm thiking about getting a set of knuckle couplers as well to make them look more realistic from the start, after all I really liked the prototypical shibata coupler replacements from Kato as well.

 

I'm also thinking about getting gangways for my EMUs. Are the Greenmax 8618 and 8619 sets good? I would use them between the cars of my Chuo Sobu trains like the 205, but would also like to put gangway covers on the front of my 165 series as well.

[disturbman]

Greenmax hoods are the ones that people use afaik. I don’t know if they would fit a Shorty though, but it doesn’t cost much to try. Don’t they have two sizes?

[Dinosbacsi]

On 1/19/2022 at 9:20 PM, disturbman said:

Greenmax hoods are the ones that people use afaik. I don’t know if they would fit a Shorty though, but it doesn’t cost much to try. Don’t they have two sizes?

From what I saw, they have a square one and a rounded top one. The squared ones should be good I think, I'll add a set or two into my cart next time I order from HobbySearch.

 

By the way, I got another set of Bandai T bogeys and temporarily my 165 series got them. Sometimes later I will order Kato bogeys and mech for the 165, but until then it borrowed the chassis and bogey covers from my high-cab 103 so my EF64 could pull it around.

 

Look at the gap between the two in the 117mm curve, lol.

 

The only issue seems to be that the Kato mech in my EF64 doesn't have rubber wheels, all four are bare metal, so the locomotive seems to wheel-slip very easily on the slightest incline. I mean look at this, you can't even see the incline it's so small, it's 1-2 mm at max, yet the EF64 struggles to go up on it with the three-car 165 series behind it.

Surely this can't be normal? Did anyone have similar experiences with 2-axle Kato power units? I'm thinking about removing the power pickup plates from the 165's trucks to see if thw small reduced friction helps anything, but it's kind of worrysome of the EF64 keeps slipping like this. How will it handle the 5 freight cars I've just ordered for it?

[roadstar_na6]

24 minutes ago, Dinosbacsi said:

The only issue seems to be that the Kato mech in my EF64 doesn't have rubber wheels, all four are bare metal, so the locomotive seems to wheel-slip very easily on the slightest incline.

Get some weight into that thing and it should vastly improve pulling power 😉

[Dinosbacsi]

29 minutes ago, roadstar_na6 said:

Get some weight into that thing and it should vastly improve pulling power 😉

Yeah, not a bad idea. I'll check how much space there is between the body and the motor and see what kind of weight would fit. I belive Kato didn't made any weights specifically for these power units, did they?

[roadstar_na6]

Nah, just use whatever you can find; fishing lead or those tiny weights used to balance car tires for example

[Cat]

The half-round PineCar weights fit well in a lot of things.

[lukewang01]

The KATO two axle power unit itself is very powerful, however the Bandai bogie with power pick up has too much friction. That problem would probably go away once you swap in the KATO bogies.

[Dinosbacsi]

16 hours ago, lukewang01 said:

The KATO two axle power unit itself is very powerful, however the Bandai bogie with power pick up has too much friction. That problem would probably go away once you swap in the KATO bogies.

Well my freight cars I ordered will have KATO bogies under them, so we'll see. But I wouldn't be surprised, I bet KATO has more experience in making smooth mech compared to Bandai. An the shorter distance between the axles on each bogey must also help to reduce friction in corners, compared to the Bandai bogeys which are realistic length even on Shorty trains.

[Andrew G]

On 1/25/2022 at 8:11 AM, Dinosbacsi said:

Look at the gap between the two in the 117mm curve, lol.

 

 

I am after a closer coupling on my EMU's and DMU's for 150mm radius, which type are you using in this photo??

Edited January 27, 2022 by Andrew G

[Dinosbacsi]

15 hours ago, Andrew G said:

I am after a closer coupling on my EMU's and DMU's for 150mm radius, which type are you using in this photo??

I have Kato 11-703 couplers, though the image is pretty misleading, it doesn't bring the cars much closer than the original Rapido couplers. Here not only the curve is really tight in radius (117mm), but also the way the coupler housing is placed in the EF64's chassis results in the coupler not sticking out that much. And the 165 series also have a bit longer nose than the standard flat-faced trains, so it'll also appear to have shorter coupler because of that. So these factors combined result in the really small gap between the two in the 117mm curve.

 

Here is the actual difference between original couplers and 11-703 couplers.

It's still a bit closer than the original ones, and to be honest I can recommend them just for the looks alone, also they seem to hold the cars together much better than the original couplers (less unintentional uncoupling). But if you want something even closer, then you'll need something else, I suppose.

[Cat]

Those  Kato 11-703 couplers do look nice.  Has anybody tried them on the Tomix 103mm curves?

[disturbman]

I used to use Kato’s regular knuckle couplers, and like the shibatas, they don’t make the gap closer but they looked good.

 

You could also switch the Rapidos for Greenmax knuckles, or Kato Kamome couplers. Both would make the gap shorter—at least if you use the short shank version of the Greenmax coupler.

 

I particularly like GM knuckles as their heads are smaller than all others and looks quite realistic. And I’m sure they would look great on Shorties. Only drawback is that they don’t automatically couple.

[Dinosbacsi]

22 hours ago, disturbman said:

I used to use Kato’s regular knuckle couplers, and like the shibatas, they don’t make the gap closer but they looked good.

The Kato couplers also require some cutting to make their T shaped ends smaller, as originally they barely fit in the Rapido coupler housing and don't have any free movement at all. The Greenmax couplers have similar ends as the Rapido ones, so they should be an easier fit. The only downside is that Greenmax don't seem to have shibata EMU couplers, just the knuckle ones.

 

By the way, just now I've seen some great Shorties up for auction that have functioning lights. Just wanted to share them as I think they look really great!

 

Makes me also want to convert my Shorties to have lights, I've been thinking about it for a long time now. I wonder what is the best approach for it? I mean I get the drilling out the headlights part, but then what? Get a light unit from a real model of the same train and put it in, or make it from scratch with random wires and LEDs as a custom build?

[disturbman]

1 hour ago, Dinosbacsi said:

The Kato couplers also require some cutting to make their T shaped ends smaller, as originally they barely fit in the Rapido coupler housing and don't have any free movement at all. The Greenmax couplers have similar ends as the Rapido ones, so they should be an easier fit.

It's not an issue if you use Kato trucks 😉 But yes, even on other Rapido pockets, Kato couplers may require a bit of trimming when Greenmax's do not. As for the shibata/knuckle "debate", imo, it's really a question of liking on Shorties; and not all EMUs and DMUs use/used shibatas, some have/had knuckle couplers between cars.

MA website is a good resource to know which trains are equipped with shibatas and which are equipped with knuckles irl as they list the couplers needed on their item lists.

[MeTheSwede]

Not every layout will attract a million views on Twitter. This one did and it doesn't even have any scenary. 😆

 

https://twitter.com/Btoretsukuru/status/1486990972592418823

 

 

 

[cteno4]

Now that is fun! 
 

thanks

 

jeff