Bandai B-Train Shorty

[Welshbloke]

The maddening thing about that Thomas C11:

 

Last year I bought a clean, unboxed Kato C57 minus numberplates. The shop also had a C11 in the same condition which would have been perfect for the Thomas kit, but it had sold by the time the kit was released!

[NigelS]

Thanks for all the feedback guys, it definitely gives me some food for thought in terms of getting one of these running.  I'll have to keep an eye out for a C11 they do pop up occasionally or maybe look into the idea of the fixed axle and bogie.  The key thing for me (being new to these models) is knowing you can add a motor to one of the carriages, I figured you could, but its nice to have it confirmed :)

[splifdfx]

Seems there are special B Train Shorty sets made for the Kyoto Railway Museum :

[bill937ca]

Special issues are pretty common with B-Trains for JR East convenience stores, JR West and private railway company offices. They can be hard to come by as sales are often limited to two per person.

Edited May 27, 2016 by bill937ca

[NigelS]

Hi Guys,

 

Well next question for you experts, I bought a couple of Shorty kits and I've built/motorised them using Kato motors and bogies and very well they run too.

 

However I also decided to buy the Cassiopia set A/B/C - 9 car set, and it doesn't look like it will take the standard Kato motors, is there a suitable one in their range or do I need a Bandai one and if so does anybody know which I should go for?  The loco is an EF210 if that helps?  Similarly the coach cars don't seem to come with the alternative 'flat' chassis that you can attach the Kato bogies to, instead it is the other two piece clip together chassis.  Are these useable with the Kato bogies (i.e. can they be trimmed or something) or do I need something else to add some better quality bogies to them?

 

Regardless of the above query I'm finding the ones I have put together awesome little trains when assembled, you really wouldn't know they were kits unless you look really closely, I can see myself becoming quite a collector of these :D

 

 

Cheers, Nigel

[kvp]

According to Hobby search:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10345138

These bogies would work and they come with the car floors pre assembled:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10274511

[NigelS]

According to Hobby search:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10345138

These bogies would work and they come with the car floors pre assembled:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10274511

Thanks, I'll look into those :)

[nickhp]

The Kato trucks will be less problematic than the Bandai ones on coaches with lower side skirts. 

 

Whichever route you take, you will need to trim the back corners of the trucks to clear.  I did it on the Cassiopeia cars previously, and the same kind of mods are required on other double deck coaches such as the E217 2 level center coaches. 

 

Basically, without trimming, your cars won't negotiate corners as the trucks will be too wide to swivel at all.  My suggestion is to stick to Kato trucks - they are smaller and shorter wheelbase than the Bandai trucks so will not require as much trimming to make work, and they run smoother anyway. 

 

For the trimming, take a little bit at a time and then test on the smallest radius you intend to use.

 

If you need me to post photos of the mods I am talking about let me know and I will post some up tomorrow.

 

Regards,

 

Nick

Edited June 3, 2016 by nickhp

[Staffy]

Just about to get my first one of these, love the wrappings on some of them and of course the price.  How do you know which motor unit and travelling carriage to get for each one? Don't want to get it wrong if its coming all the way from Japan!

 

For example this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Railway-theater-Hanasaku-wrapping-entering/dp/B00J3GUQBU/ref=sr_1_10?s=kids&ie=UTF8&qid=1465301683&sr=1-10&keywords=b-train+shorty

 

Grateful for any help

[nickhp]

They are all the same, that is the nice thing about it, you can swap the motor and trailer chassis between models to reduce costs.

 

If you want to go the Bandai route, get the motor chassis 4 (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10159615) and trailer T set (http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10274511).

 

If you want to go the Kato route, choose the sideframes you like and order the motor chassis and trailer trucks with the same sideframes.

 

Remember, these things are very light and have little tolerance for grades if you have more than 2 cars with only one powered.  Adding weight helps, but it never really gets much better.  The Bandai motor chassis has all axle drive and a beefier drivetrain, but doesn't run as smoothly as the Kato.  The Kato has a VERY thin motor drive shaft and is only powered on one truck (2 axles), so is not going to be as strong as the Bandai but is nice and smooth.

 

Nick

[cteno4]

I just opened a newer Btrain model to find that the newer models now do not have separate trucks any more, nor can the chassis easily be modified to pop on Kato trucks! It's set up to only be replaced by the new bandai chassis with trucks!

 

The wheels can only go straight with the new chassis.

 

I guess bandai wants all the wheel business now!

 

Jeff

[beakaboy]

Yes!! I found that out recently with the Oigawa coach set for Thomas. I had plenty of Kato bogies for B-trains, but after much hacking of the coaches under frames, I was still not happy with the look and fit, so ordered the Bandai chassis with trucks. Stuck with one chassis with bogies left over, which means ordering another chassis set for any future B-trains.

Edited June 10, 2016 by beakaboy

[cteno4]

Yeah I think most all of my unbuilt ones are older so can use the Kato trucks. I was able to easily convert the old bandai trucks to swivel trucks by clipping off the little slot lock pieces and just putting a small 2mm bolt thru it (hole is there!). Last thing I was working on was trying to see if I could engineer a simple conversion of the bandai coupler pocket to use the Kato sharfenbergers. Really is not saving a lot of money doing that, but it was an interesting project and allows using the correct truck side frames.

 

$2 per car to just replace wheels

$3 per car to use Kato trucks

$4 per car to use bandai chasis

 

Getting more expensive for the shorties! But not horridly as they are usually 2-4 car trains. Still need to fully outfit the 16 car series 0...

 

Jeff

[hans-diesel]

about: ED79, 618076-2347200-1500, the new one with rolling trucks

 

A few days ago I received 2 of these new ED79 models. I have not put them together already. But my conclusion right now is that these are NOT models of the ED79 but from the ED75-700. Why? As you might know the ED79 is a converted ED75-700. The biggest visual difference is the big gray cover on the roof of the ED79 that the ED75-700 does not have. And the Bandai model does not have the gray cover! The stickers in the boxes also include numbers for the ED75-700. So calling it a ED75-700 is fine. I think that Bandai on purpose did not put the gray cover on the roof, because then they could not sell it anymore as ED75-700 (why did they not put class ED75 also on the box?). And Bandai could say that with creating a shorty, compromises must be made. But for me it is a ED75-700 and NOT a ED79! Do I have a problem with it? No, the ED75-700 is my favorite locomotive while the ED79 is much lower on that list.

 

And in the boxes are 3 pantographs, 2 sciccors types and 1 one-arm type. From this point the ED75-700, an early ED79 or a late ED79 can be created.

 

Now knowing this, I checked an older Bandai shorty of the ED79 (number 618076-2216340-2400, from a Hokutosei set). The same, I miss the gray cover.

 

Just an observation, do with it what you want, greetings, Hans

[hans-diesel]

about: ED75 / ED77, 618076-2207125-1500, including ED77 901

 

After discovering that a new Bandai modell with ED79 in the title of the box actually contains an ED75-700 (see post above), I checked other Bandai boxes I have.

 

The box of this post has ED75 / ED77 in its title. The box contains parts to assemble 2 locomotives. When concentrating on the sides I found something interesting. The 2 different sides that are in the box are NOT the sides of an ED77. Why? The ED77 has between the windscreem and the doors only 1 not so large window. The Bandai box contains 1 set of sides with 2 small windows between the windscreen and the doors and 1 set of sides with 1 large window between the windscreen and the doors (like most later ED75-700's). My conclusion is that I cannot create a prototypical correct ED77 from this Bandai box. But I don't care, I like the ED75 more than the ED77 and the box contains enough different parts to create 2 different prototypical correct ED75's.

 

I still love the Bandai B-Train Shorties. Instead of buying a locomotive model, taking it out of the box and running it on the track, with a Shorty you have to build it together. When building it, you see all details much better. You (not always) have to make choices on which variant to build and learn a lot about the prototypes in the mean time. Yes, the detailing is less than a ready-to-run KATO/TOMIX/... but acceptable to me. And I found many times the detailing (e.g. different trucks for powered and trailing EMU's) better than those of ready-to-run versions.

 

Just an observation, do with it what you want, greetings, Hans

[kami_illy]

I just received a used set of the Odakyu VSE. But while buying it I realized too late that the previous owner had cut the skirts in the front cars. Also these cutouts are not done too nicely... 

 

 

I tried a mock-up of a repair, but its gonna be a hard one I guess. Does anyone of you guys have left over head cars (e.g. from making the full 10 car train) and is willing to help me out with the spare parts?

 

 

Also, with the train came these two girls, that i do not really have a use for. I know its part of the collection, etc. but just not my thing. So I am trading / selling them. If anyone is interested, let me know.

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2016 by kami_illy

[jrcrunch]

what motor should i buy for the b-train to move? what brand? thanks!!

[kvp]

Bandai. They make various motors and trailer bogies. Each box has the description of the right motor+trailer bogie combo.

 

Alternative parts (like from Kato) might work, but imho it's harder to find out what works.

[beakaboy]

Wet day on orchard, so good excuse to assemble some B-train kits. The orange coaches will run with the other pair I have and be pulled by my old Tomix 0-6-0 steamer

[bill937ca]

The Hobby Search newsletter includes a Japan West Railway Train Box that HS is taking reservations for. There are five two car trains in Series 115, 221 and 419 plus what appears to be two locomotives.  As usual with Japanese box sets there is a secret item. It was my understanding that these Train Boxes were only available through JR West railway outlets in the past.

[nickhp]

So is Bandai losing interest in the B Train line, are they going through financial issues, or are B Trains just not selling well?  The new releases seem to be getting fewer, and consist of re-releases rather than anything new.  Just curious if anyone has any insight into the situation?

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

[bill937ca]

So is Bandai losing interest in the B Train line, are they going through financial issues, or are B Trains just not selling well?  The new releases seem to be getting fewer, and consist of re-releases rather than anything new.  Just curious if anyone has any insight into the situation?

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

 

I don't think there are a lot of new trains, at least not like there were through the past 20 years or so.

[nickhp]

Lot's of holes in the line up.  How about the sunrise express?  NEX E259?  Nankai 13000?  Series 281 Haruka?  Kintetsu 16600/26600?  Series 255?  E257?  Just a few more modern units that are quite prolific that have been overlooked.

[kami_illy]

Lot's of holes in the line up.  How about the sunrise express?  NEX E259?  Nankai 13000?  Series 281 Haruka?  Kintetsu 16600/26600?  Series 255?  E257?  Just a few more modern units that are quite prolific that have been overlooked.

 

True. Also the 251 series or 651 series would be awesome. The Hakone Tozan 3000 (and 2000 in current paint). The M250 series. Or some more Shinkansen; the 300, the refurbished 200, and so on.. And not to forget some more variants of the KiHa 58, like the "Aso 1962".

...ohhh, the wish list is long! 

 

Would be interesting to see how they would do an EH500 or EH 800.

Edited September 3, 2016 by kami_illy

[hans-diesel]

So is Bandai losing interest in the B Train line, are they going through financial issues, or are B Trains just not selling well?  The new releases seem to be getting fewer, and consist of re-releases rather than anything new.  Just curious if anyone has any insight into the situation?

 

Thanks,

 

Nick

Please don't post this kind of rumors.

People read them. They might even think that it is true. Even if it is not. Then they stop buying. And then indeed Bandai will stop producing B-train Shorties.

 

BANDAI IS DOING GREAT! B-TRAIN SHORTIES SELL GOOD!

Sorry for shouting. I compensate. I don't know anything.

 

Hans