Greenmax Tram Kits?

[scott]

There are some Greenmax tram kits on eBay that are so cheap that I assume the trams must be built and painted, and that they're unpowered. Are the tram bodies sized to fit one of the Greenmax motorized-chassis kits?

[bill937ca]

Its an unpainted kit.  I have the Greenmax trams and I have never found a N gauge chassis that fits these trams.  You could use Z scale drives and track, but compared to N gauge Z scale drives and switches are expensive.  Greenmax may have offered a drive for these at one time.  Perhaps sales died after the introduction of the Modemo trams.

 

There is a Kato single trucker being re-leased which very affordable. Although its an European car, there are cars like this in Japan at Hiroshima and Kochi.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10003890

[scott]

Thanks, Bill--it sounds like the Greenmax trams would mostly be good for dioramas, stationary equipment, etc.

 

I really like that Hiroshima tram, but--we have what appears to be that same model in German "Arbeitwagen" form, and I have a hard time getting it to run well at all. Which is odd, since it is so simple. But it is used, and I don't know much about its history.

[scott]

This page says that the sets of four unpowered Greenmax trams for sale on ebay can be powered "with a Kato 'Shorty' powered chassis, which just slides in."

 

Anybody know for sure which Kato chassis they mean?

[Tenorikuma]

You'll notice those are sold as part of Green Max's "structure" series and are intended as display models in a city diorama, rather than for operation.

 

However, some Googling suggests that the Kato 11-106 or 11-107 motor unit might fit — they're designed for trams and other short train cars.

[scott]

Oh, OK--well, maybe I'll find something less structural then; thanks!

[bill937ca]

Anyone with any of these Greenmax 46-1 kits might want to look into some videos posted by 177140103 on You Tube.

 

Alas, 177140103 deleted his You Tube account and we no longer have those videos to watch.  

 

He's done it up as a Metietsu 600v car and powered it with a Tomytec TM-TR01 power chassis. It runs on C103 and C140 curves.

[Bernard]

Nice video....it shows you what is in the kit.

[Carlos Filipe]

There's  set of videos showing Akihiro Morohoshi using these Greenmax kits to power them. the links I had for those videos are not working anymore, but remember to have found new ones just by chance. The title of the work is Nostalgic box.

Basically Morohoshi cuts the tram sides under the windows and replaced by thin evergreen, 0.5mm I think. This gave room for Kato or Tomytec power units.

Sorry couldn't be more precise.

[kvp]

I've built the two trams in the N scale Tokyo tram kit and both work perfectly with the Tomytec TM-TR01 motors. Essentially you just have to put the shells on the motors. (after gluing and painting them) You don't have to modify the Greenmax shells, just be careful to assemble them exactly. You get 4 shells in the kit, two of each type. A nice touch is to add movable etched metal pantographs to the trams instead of the plastic ones.

[Carlos Filipe]

Thank you for the info kvp. I bought 2 boxes with those kits and have been postponing the "surgery". Your suggestion is much more motivating.