ZZ Scale Shinkansen - World's smallest?

[JR 500系]

Might be old news, but came across this while browsing youtube:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VZvIyBqLak

 

ZZ-scale! Too bad no lights. They don't look good and look more like toys than actual scale models, but nonetheless amazing for being so small and able to run!

[E231-500]

Yes I think this video is from around 2005.

 

I believe that T gauge is actually smaller than this. Also T gauge has working head and tail lights. However, like the ZZ trains, T gauge seems to be disappearing slowly.

[bill937ca]

All it would take is a single speck of dust to shutdown that train! 

[Ken Ford]

T isn't sticking?  That's a shame...

Edited July 24, 2014 by Ken Ford

[cteno4]

T is sort of finding its niches, mostly not in Japan surprisingly. Also when the company moved from Japan to Hong Kong there was some backlash with Japanese distributors apparently. There is now a t scale ICE in Europe, and a Diesel engine coming in the us soon. Other partners are helping t get into these other niche markets. It is very fiddly to work with so takes a narrow band of users that are wiling and able to fiddle very small. They require periodic cleaning and that is micro surgery, but its not past most modelers' ability out there if they have the drive to do it.

 

ZZ was pretty much a toy. It ran on batteries held internally on plastic track. They did come out with about 6 trains though. Was pretty much gone in a year. I have a couple of sets here we use to run around at shows, but it ate up watch batteries pretty quickly. ZZ is 1/300. T is much smaller at 1/450. I did see one person do a Shinkansen in T. Like the ICE that was done a Shinkansen shell could be made for the mechs. Someone just has to pony up the development and production costs. T really needs a power car every other cat to run well for these kinds of trains. Main problem is traction, that's why the wheels are magnetized and the track mostly steel.

 

Jeff

[Densha]

I once saw a T gauge layout in person, and damn it was small. It looked like the throttle was at full speed though and with the multiple tracks next to eachother looked like that Initial D train game thingy.

 

I saw some body shells for Dutch trains in T gauge on shapeways a while back that you can just put on the power unit.

Edited July 24, 2014 by Densha

[JR 500系]

Interesting ~~

 

I've never seen T-scale, nor actually Z-scale in real life so I really didn't know how small they are. But that's always youtube:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfdzjhsYQC0

Here's a comparison between T-scale (bottom left) and Z-scale (top right), amazingly small! Wished they travelled slower though.. The steam locomotive will be something like shinkansen speed if it is to Z-scale speed..

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpwDJb1HZxc

Amazingly small! That N-scale figure looked like a giant!

[cteno4]

Yeah one third the size of n scale, half of z scale! T scale people blow away with a blink of your eye!

 

The newer motors and throttle have helped the speed issues a lot and better slow speed running as well. It's just a very niche market. Really is a different take on modeling at that scale as you can do some amazing scenes you could never have room for in other scales! I did some mock ups with module sizes when it first came out when there was a lot of talk of doing t scale ttrak. Turns out what works well are tiny modules, long thin ones and big ones. The ttrak equivalent was just not right. Brought me back to what I was taught in exhibit and architectural modeling that each scale has its format factors and uses and you have to work within them or even the best model,just will fall flat on its intended purpose and look.

 

Jeff