Hello...and help :)

[Ronnie]

Hello everyone,

 

I am a new member and recently back from my first trip to Japan.

 

While I was there I became very interested in the Japan Rail system, and in particular in the Shinkansen.

 

I would like to collect models of the range of Shinkansen trains, although I don't intend to run them. N gauge seems the smallest range that has a good number of the series of Shinkansen trains, but while I was in Japan, I noticed that at some of the JR Rail booking offices, they had sets of Shinkansen trains in display cabinets. Is it possible to get these sets? They were smaller than N gauge I'm sure.

 

Any information would be welcome.

 

Cheers, Ronnie.

[cteno4]

Hi Ronnie,

 

welcome! hmm wonder what they were. how big was each car? N scale is about 6.5" per car long.

 

there have been a few candy toys at around 1/400 scale but those were only the end cars. there were 1.300 zz scale trains of a few shinkansen models but not many. same with z scale. at one point bandai did almost all the shinkansens in N scale as simple plastic models with a candy treat sold in lawsons and 7-11s but those are long gone now.

 

if you want a nice display n scale would probably be the one to give you some nice detail and be available in the full range of shinkansens. unfortunately its around $100-200 for a 7-8 car train...

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Ronnie]

Hi Jeff,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I was bought an N scale E5 shinkansen set for Christmas, which is great, but even in a 10 car set like I have it is quite long! So a full 16 car set would be VERY long.

 

The ones I saw in the JR Rail offices were much smaller, and they had about 8 different shinkansen on a stepped display.

 

I was hoping someone else had seen these, or maybe someone in Japan could explain what they are and if they are available.

 

Cheers, Ronnie.

[cteno4]

Ronnie,

 

Yep a full 16 car train is just at 2m long! Not easy at all to display!

 

How long were the trains? We're they full 16 car sets? I've never seen or heard anything like this for sale, but lots of things are Japan only and only for same in one or a few places. Maybe nariichi San has an idea on this.

 

Which jr offices were they in?

 

Jeff

Edited December 29, 2013 by cteno4

[Ronnie]

Hi Jeff,

 

I'm really annoyed I can't remember exactly which stations I saw these. I am 90% sure I saw them at both Tokyo and Kyoto (although it could have been Shin-Osaka).

 

I reckon the train sets were around 1-1.5 metres but I can't remember how many cars were in each set. I thought they were 12/16, but I may be wrong.

 

I didn't go to Japan because of the shinkansen, but became more and more interested and ended up going to the railway museum at Saitama (http://www.railway-museum.jp/top.html). I am now reading "Shinkansen" by Christopher Hood which is very interesting and I can recommend it to anyone who is interested in the detail of the shinkansen development and culture.

 

I wish I could "nip" back and seethe models now I know what I need to know and maybe ask questions of the JR staff!

 

Maybe someone here can shed some light :)

 

Cheers, Ronnie.

[Martijn Meerts]

A 16 car shinkansen is about 2.5 meters long, give or take a few centimetres. They look absolutely fabulous when complete, but they either require a huge layout to run, or a layout where they only run fairly slow, for example when entering/exiting a station, and hide most of the rest of the shinkansen track.

 

As for those trains you saw, might those be the Bandai shorties? I'm not really into them myself, so I don't know what kind of shinkansen (if any) are available from Bandai. They're basically shortened versions of the real thing and can be used on N-scale once converted to a motorised train.

[Ronnie]

Hi Martijn,

 

Yes, 2.5 metres long is what I get it to!

 

I don't intend to run mine, just have them as a display.

 

I haven't heard of the Bandai shorties. I'll go and have a look for those. I don't think it's what I saw in Japan. I think they must be smaller than N gauge models made specifically for JR. I think I'll just have to re-visit Japan and pay more attention!

 

Thanks for your suggestions :)

 

Cheers, Ronnie.