Bandai B-Train Shorty

[Dinosbacsi]

28 minutes ago, disturbman said:

I used to run 6-car Shorties with these, with no problem whatsoever.

Wonder if they change something to them or you just had bad luck.

That's weird... These ones wheel slip so easily that first I though they don't even have any traction tyres at all! I was about to remove the traction tyre from the broken Bandai unit and put it on this one to try it out, but turning it upside down I noticed it actually does have one, so I really don't understand how it has such horrible traction.

 

Even the 3 car 165 series is just barely managing to drive. At first it kept getting wheel slipping and stucking in curves, I could only get it going around reliably by putting the weight above the bogey with the traction rubber (instead of spreading them out evenly in the middle) and rotating the car 180° so the traction rubber wheel is on the other rail.

 

Of course, I do have to admit that my shelf is not entirely level. Not much, but it's definitely off by 1° or 2° - can't be seen with eyes, but uncoupled cars can roll away on the track. But I don't believe such a small inclide should be a problem?

I also have some quite tight R117 curves, which I could imagine being a problem (even though my Bandai unit can take them with minimal problem). But the 1 motor + 3 trailer train can't even leave the straight siding track properly, so I can't even blame it on the curves.

 

In any way, I will try getting more weight and see if that helps. Also oil the motor in the 103, hopefully that silences the weird noise. I will also want to install the usual shibata couplers instead of the rapido ones, but so far I havn't figured it out how to remove the bogeys from these Kato units. Do you know how to take them off?

[bill937ca]

Any reason you are using the old 11-106? I'm surprised they are still available.  New power units since 2021 are 11-109 and 11-110. There is a 11-108 but it is a tram poser unit with no couplers.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10646051

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10646049

Edited January 24, 2023 by bill937ca

[Beaver]

8 hours ago, bill937ca said:

Any reason you are using the old 11-106? I'm surprised they are still available.  New power units since 2021 are 11-109 and 11-110. There is a 11-108 but it is a tram poser unit with no couplers.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10646051

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10646049

 

Those are the four wheelers. They replaced old products 11-103 and 11-104.

 

The shorty bogie chassis have not been replaced. They are codes 11-105, 11-106 and 11-107 depending on the sideframe design.

 

https://1999.co.jp/eng/10030554

https://1999.co.jp/eng/10032823

https://1999.co.jp/eng/10032821

Edited January 25, 2023 by Beaver

[disturbman]

10 hours ago, Dinosbacsi said:

That's weird... These ones wheel slip so easily that first I though they don't even have any traction tyres at all! I was about to remove the traction tyre from the broken Bandai unit and put it on this one to try it out, but turning it upside down I noticed it actually does have one, so I really don't understand how it has such horrible traction.

Actually, my memory is defaillant. It was four cars, not six. But I still didn't have the issues you are describing. My units were zipping around.

Beside adding weight to the motor car, you could also look at puting some Bullfrog Snot to the other motorized axles. It would give more traction to the motor car.

 

10 hours ago, Dinosbacsi said:

I will also want to install the usual shibata couplers instead of the rapido ones, but so far I haven't figured it out how to remove the bogeys from these Kato units. Do you know how to take them off?

Sorry, I don't remember. It's been too long. But I think you can manage to swap the couplers without removing the bogeys.

[Dinosbacsi]

8 hours ago, disturbman said:

Beside adding weight to the motor car, you could also look at puting some Bullfrog Snot to the other motorized axles. It would give more traction to the motor car.

Hmm, I checked their site out, looks like an interesting product. Might give it a try sometimes. My EF64 with the 2-axle Kato unit could also use some more traction.

[EF57]

It’s long been known that the Kato units are far inferior to the Bandai, see earlier in this thread.

[Beaver]

The Bandai stuff is out of production, as part of the winding down of the B-Train brand. There will be no more. So there isn't really much choice.

 

The new Kato 4 wheel units are much better than than Bandai one was, but the bogie type does indeed have shortcomings. With Kato now making use of coreless motors there is the possibility for an improved shorty bogie chassis, if demand justifies it. The current bogie unit was designed in 2002/3.

[Dinosbacsi]

On 1/26/2023 at 12:33 AM, Beaver said:

With Kato now making use of coreless motors there is the possibility for an improved shorty bogie chassis, if demand justifies it. The current bogie unit was designed in 2002/3.

Yeah, I wish they did a redesign. They could do a pretty much complete copy of the original Bandai 4-axle one with replacable bogey covers. I always thought that is a great feature of the Bandai one - have a single design, then the trains themselves comes with their own covers and you just put them on. Sure, currently they also have 3 versions with different bogey designs, but those don't match all trains.

 

Anyway, had some success with the other Kato unit as well. I took it out of the 103-1200 series it was inside in my previous post and instead put it in my 201 series, alongside 3 pairs of Kato bogeys that I originally had under my KoKi freight cars. Looks like the Bandai trailer bogeys have more rolling resistance and the Kato unit struggled with them, but with Kato bogeys it runs better. The Kato bogeys just seem to run more freely. Still had some wheel slip in the tight R117 curves, but I found a screw that conveniently fits just between the motor and the car body, acting as weight (as I didn't have any proper weight left).

 

Here are some picture of it in action! The 201 series was my second train following the 205 series when I started collecting them, so it's really nice to finally see it in moving on it's own.

 

I still couldn't figure out how to take off the bogeys from the Kato motor units, so for now it's still running with the stock Rapido couplers between the cars. But will do it someday and also put gangway covers between the cars, as I have ordered another batch of them.

[onthelam]

Recently dug my B-Train Shorty collection out of storage and was wondering if anyone knows of a replacement for the Casco YP-528 foam insert? I bought one set years ago and it seems it has been discontinued. Thanks!

[Dinosbacsi]

I believe they tend to show up on Yahoo Auctions quite a lot.

 

Is this it?

https://www.fromjapan.co.jp/japan/en/auction/yahoo/input/u1081222159/lgk-link_top_search

[Cat]

I prefer the Casco (16) 21m car caskets, each one holds 32 shorties with no excess foam eating up space.  The Tomix WAMU case can hold 18, just takes a little trimming of the foam at the ends of each slot to fit the cars.

[onthelam]

2 hours ago, Cat said:

I prefer the Casco (16) 21m car caskets, each one holds 32 shorties with no excess foam eating up space.  The Tomix WAMU case can hold 18, just takes a little trimming of the foam at the ends of each slot to fit the cars.

cool, I’ll look into the Casco 21m foam insert. Thanks. 

[disturbman]

There is a better solution, Shorties fit neatly inside Casco 12-car B case for 20-m cars. These can store up to 24 shorties without them bumping into each others as each 20m slot comes with a divider.

[bill937ca]

Japanese Wikipedia has a short blurb on the demise of B-Train Shorty. Machine translated text:

 

 'It was developed as a bridge product between the railway toy Plarail and the N-gauge model train [1] , and the upper grades of elementary school were also considered as sales targets, so when the series was first sold, it was said to be "targeted for ages 8 and up". , In order to improve the details as a model, it was raised to over 15 years old [2] .

Due to the restructuring of the Bandai Namco Group on April 1, 2018, the sales source was transferred from Bandai to BANDAI SPIRITS, but in October 2018, the Hakone Tozan Railway 2000 type 2-car set and Odakyu were released as business limited products. After the 70000 series GSE 4-car set, new products were discontinued, effectively ending the series [3] [4] [5] . Bandai has not made any official announcements regarding the release of this product at this time.'

 

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bトレインショーティー

 

Its been five years now. I found an article years ago by the project manager for B Train Shorty and he was completely surprised by its success. I have a feeling it has surpassed by the success of Tomytec's Railway Collection.

[cteno4]

I remember the interview with the project manager and they were taken completely by surprise their main market were adults and kids market became a very distant second… I think these kind of collecting fads go in cycles, big boom then usually declining sales over a few years and then on to the next one. Same think sort of happened with the Tomytec vehicle sets. When you strike a gusher it gushes then peters out!

 

jeff

[mags_minibuilds]

3 hours ago, disturbman said:

There is a better solution, Shorties fit neatly inside Casco 12-car B case for 20-m cars. These can store up to 24 shorties without them bumping into each others as each 20m slot comes with a divider.

 

I am interested in this, do you have any photos showing how the Shorties fit in this case? Thanks!

[Beaver]

2 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I think these kind of collecting fads go in cycles, big boom then usually declining sales over a few years and then on to the next one.

 

Nonetheless, the essential concept of the shorty train remains popular, as demonstrated by the success of Rokuhan Z Shorties. I suppose it is too early to tell whether the new M-Train series will succeed. But as long as kawaii culture lasts I am sure there will be an appetite for some sort of 'kawaii densha' products.

 

I'm not really interested in shorties as such any more but can see the potential to make some interesting interurban cars out of the current Showa style M-train releases  -  some interurbans are basically 'natural shorties'..........

Edited February 12, 2023 by Beaver

[disturbman]

12 hours ago, ZandT said:

I am interested in this, do you have any photos showing how the Shorties fit in this case? Thanks!

Not at hand, I'll take one tomorrow - with my single Shorty left. But they fit perfectly, I tested it again yesterday. These cases are made to also store up small 2-axle freight cars by dividing up a longer slot. Shorties are about the same length as these 2-axle cars.

If you zoom in on the manual of one of these cases, you can see a divided slot. Marked as "(5)". https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10871852/20/1#

[mags_minibuilds]

4 hours ago, disturbman said:

Not at hand, I'll take one tomorrow - with my single Shorty left. But they fit perfectly, I tested it again yesterday. These cases are made to also store up small 2-axle freight cars by dividing up a longer slot. Shorties are about the same length as these 2-axle cars.

If you zoom in on the manual of one of these cases, you can see a divided slot. Marked as "(5)". https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/image/10871852/20/1#

 

It does look like a nice fit from what the foam looks like. Now the challenge is to try and find a place that has it in stock?

[disturbman]

Hobby Search has several in stock. I'm sure you can find them easily. The urethane is also planned for re-release, but I don't remember if it fits Casco Silver cases.

[onthelam]

Has anyone used the Syokuden B-Train Shorty lighting kits? I ordered some off Amazon.JP and have tried installing them on my Hokutosei set but they don’t seem to want to light up. When I place the board directly on the tracks and line it up just right, the LEDs will turn on. But after installing them, none of them seem to work. I’m using the Bandai “T” trucks for B-Train Shorty so I shouldn’t need any additional items to make these work.

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Syokuden-Lighting-Interior-Supplies-Compatible/dp/B07XGQ5ZHF/ref=sr_1_2?crid=15GRQB32KRCDX&keywords=syokuden+b+train+shorty+lightning&qid=1676425619&sprefix=syokuden+b-train+shorty+lighting%2Caps%2C359&sr=8-2

 

[cteno4]

You will need the bandai trucks that have the pickups in the truck or add the separate pickups that Syokuden makes.

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Syokuden-S36-402-Vehicle-Interior-Lighting/dp/B089W84SD4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15GRQB32KRCDX&keywords=syokuden+b+train+shorty+lightning&qid=1676425619&sprefix=syokuden+b-train+shorty+lighting%2Caps%2C359&sr=8-1

 

jeff

[onthelam]

21 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

You will need the bandai trucks that have the pickups in the truck or add the separate pickups that Syokuden makes.

 

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/Syokuden-S36-402-Vehicle-Interior-Lighting/dp/B089W84SD4/ref=sr_1_1?crid=15GRQB32KRCDX&keywords=syokuden+b+train+shorty+lightning&qid=1676425619&sprefix=syokuden+b-train+shorty+lighting%2Caps%2C359&sr=8-1

 

jeff

Yes, I’m using the Bandai “T” trucks. I suppose I’ll have to just make sure the brass pickups are making good contact with the brass strips from the kit but as far as I can tell they are. 

Edited February 15, 2023 by onthelam

[cteno4]

Hugh. Do you have a multimeter? Could be issues with contact wheels to pickup or truck contact to brass strip or brass strip to board.

 

with a multimeter you can check for current getting through each step.

 

jeff

[Dinosbacsi]

These lighting kits do look interesting, but judging by the pictures they seem to be too bright and white colored. Are they like that in real life as well?