Bandai B-Train Shorty

[mags_minibuilds]

@cteno Brilliant, I like that idea!

 

Here's the finished Odakyu train, the chassis and bogies needed to be trimmed to run properly. The Jacob-style is a little janky but runs surprisingly ok, though I think it would perform a bit better if I added weights to it.

[Cat]

Yes, weights are good things.

[mags_minibuilds]

It was a B-Train Shorty assembling party today and I put together 2 more sets. Here's my full collection as of now. 5 are motorized and I still have 14 unassembled sets waiting for me. I came across B-Train in 2012 at the Ponpondetta store inside Keio Department Store in Shinjuku. I just thought these kits were cool so I bought 2 sets not really knowing what to do with them. Not until a couple years ago I was curious what these kits were for and Googled it, then I found this forum and it sparked this craze.

[cteno4]

Btrains are like peanuts, popcorn, and potato chips, you can never just have one or two!

 

I got a couple way back when they first came out and slowly bought a handful more then some sales had them cheap and I slowly got crazy and had to stop when I realized the cost needed to then trick them out!

 

jeff

[mags_minibuilds]

@cteno4 Jeff, how many do you think you currently have now?

[Cat]

The half-round pine car derby weights are conveniently sized to fit into B-Trains.

Edited August 30 by Cat

[cteno4]

@mags_minibuilds Built maybe a 9 or 10, unbuilt maybe 30, maybe more, part of me is too scared to count them!! I stopped building as I wanted to experiment with couplers more and also for a while lighting before I invested more in power chassises, trucks and such. Also just wanted to think more about them before I invested more in them. There was a period there where there there were some very good sales and I picked up a pile fast. Managed to get a 16 car series 0 and 700 (my favorites) and a number of 4 car sets as well as a peck of 2 car sets. At one point I was playing with making a small sectional layout for btrain shorties to take to shows (Nick yee’s little layout is quite inspirational). I’m very intrigued how you can play with them visually by then running at angles to the viewer as opposed to seeing large side view as in a regular loop! They take on interesting looks at certain angles, not looking so short. Also want to eventually do a mini loop on a module just put out at events. Too many projects, too little time! I do need to jsut bring some of them to shows as well and run them now and then just to show the fun Japanese model trains can be!
 

jeff

[kami_illy]

On 8/30/2024 at 10:19 PM, mags_minibuilds said:

I just thought these kits were cool so I bought 2 sets not really knowing what to do with them. Not until a couple years ago ...

 

Ha, that's how it started for me as well.

Went as a student to Japan to do an internship. And not having enough money to buy real train sets (other than "junk" ones) i thought Shorties were maybe a nice substitute... back home I didn't pay much attention to them anymore. Until i realised the possibilities and variety of stock that I could afford before "being rich enough" to buy all the nice Kato / Tomix / etc. stuff. In the end I stuck with the shorties and have only few real N scale stock (I even reduced my fleet at some point). What a pity that Bandai dropped this line. And no other manufacturer was able to pick it up yet... 

[mags_minibuilds]

@SwallowAngel I was just about to start assembling a DD51 B-Train Shorty until I saw your comment in another post about it using on Bandai motor chassis only. Does the Kato motors absolutely not work because of the design of the body shell or will it require a lot of modification on the Kato chassis to make it work? Thanks!

[SwallowAngel]

To be quite honest with you I am not sure @mags_minibuilds 😅

I don't have a DD51, I was more trying to figure out how to possibly motorize one since I was curious about getting one. However it seems to be dependant on what chassis you use.

 

If you use the 2-axle chassis there is some decent "documentation" on this blog (part 1; part 2). Needless to say it requires a lot of trimming on both body and chassis.

 

I have yet to find a similar procedure being done on the 4-axle one however. There is the video @Dinosbacsi shared earlier in this thread that shows a similar conversion is possible, though not how. Another video I found shows the problem in more detail, but in the end just gives up on trying any further...

 

My personal guess is that you'd need to trim back both chassis width and the opening in the DD51 since the original Bandai Chassis is much narrower. It seems to fit (somewhat) length wise (as seen in the vid above), but I can't confirm that without having it seen in person.

That's also why I was interested in the ARU NINE chassis conversion kit in the other thread, as it seems to make a conversion somewhat possible by getting rid of the motor cover mounts on the side.

 

Alternatively you could just decide to have a DD51 shorty Dummy Unit that gets pushed along by a motor in another car. This video nicely shows this off quite nicely...

[mags_minibuilds]

@SwallowAngel Ahh, thank you for the detail explanation and the links, very useful so I know what I’m getting into. I will assemble the DD51 soon so I can take a deeper look. The two B-Train trams had narrow bodies and I had to fit the Kato 11-110, I ended up having to shave the bogies by cutting and sanding.

[kami_illy]

I recently got myself a used EF81 that came with a standard Kato 2-axle motor chassis. I didn't really like the looks of that and decided to work on it, so it could be nice enough to replace/share the work with the ED79 in front of the Hokutosei sleepers. 

Therefor I added the JR-Logo (it seems a bit large but is really close to the prototypical size I think) and replaced the chassis with a Bandai Power Unit No.5 and some trimmed boogie covers of the Cassiopeia generator car (which i don't use). They actually look quote a bit different from the prototypical ones but can replicate the general feeling pretty well. 

 

 

Pretty happy with the result. Next I'll carve out the sub-chassis (is there a better name for the black piece that holds all the body parts?) a tiny bit more so the body sits a bit lower on the chassis. 

 

[kami_illy]

This just popped up in the KATO news thread: 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/11129982?utm_source=nsl&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20241004_117_news&utm_content=11129982_en

It seems to be limited to 5V power output. But that could be enough for Shorties...?! I really like the form and size. Fits the concept of small trains on small layouts. 😁 

Now we just need a solution for connecting / powering the turnouts. 

[bill937ca]

Note it uses an USB cord rather than a wall wart. Length may be an issue.

[cteno4]

Could also run it off a 5v usb battery back up. 2m usb charging cords are cheap. 
 

you can make your own of these with a $2 pwm board and any 12v or below wall wort dc power supply. if you want more than 5v out with 5v in you can add a voltage buck up board to it to push the 5v input up to higher level. I just got an adjustable buck up board to try with a pwm board to see if this will work to have adjustable top output for kids to use at shows and be set so they can’t run the trains too fast.

 

jeff

[kami_illy]

On 10/7/2024 at 9:25 PM, cteno4 said:

Could also run it off a 5v usb battery back up. 2m usb charging cords are cheap. 
 

you can make your own of these with a $2 pwm board and any 12v or below wall wort dc power supply. if you want more than 5v out with 5v in you can add a voltage buck up board to it to push the 5v input up to higher level. I just got an adjustable buck up board to try with a pwm board to see if this will work to have adjustable top output for kids to use at shows and be set so they can’t run the trains too fast.

 

jeff

I agree; cable length is not a problem (you would have a cable with any power supply anyways). 

Probably it would be kind of easy to build some kind of power transformator but I'd be happy to just wait for the controller to be available and try and see... 😁

[kami_illy]

In the meantime i've had some time to detail some shorties. Mainly that meant to put decals and sticker and a few pantographs. 

But while working on the E3, I realized that I really don't like "the empty look" in the face of the head cars. So I drew up a few versions of head- and tail lights and had some trials to find the right one. 

 

 

Once I found the correct size and also a way of installing I put them in the according front and end of train and voila! 

 

 

Looking good (for being paper). Maybe next step is to play with LED ?! 😜 

 

Edited October 12 by kami_illy

[cteno4]

Those look great! Did you cut them into the shell at all or just pasted onto the shell? They have a great 3d look.

 

jeff

[mags_minibuilds]

I have a DIY PWM controller that runs off 4 AA batteries (6V) and it powers my shorties (Kato motorized chassis) fast enough especially running them on small layouts, any faster the trains would be flying off the tracks.

[kami_illy]

2 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Those look great! Did you cut them into the shell at all or just pasted onto the shell? They have a great 3d look.

 

jeff

Thanks. Actually I built a little box with the prints (you can kinda see it in the first pic) and then glued it inside the shell. So it is (kind of) 3d 😉. 

[cteno4]

Ah ok I didn’t notice the holes were already in the shells.

 

nice!

 

jeff