Shinkansen 500 1:32 G-scale project. BACK ON TRACK

[Toy Maker]

Greetings guyz... I wanted to go ahead and post a little info on the project I am working on.

I've loved the Shinkansen 500 design for years and wanted to build a large scale version as a hobby project.
I started out a couple times with a few different ideas. The 1st was to cut it from wooden blanks, I made a single nose cone, and did not like working in wood, so I put the project away for a while.
Last year, I decided to pull it back out of storage, and tried something else. Today, I have a CnC laser, as where I did not last time I tinkered around with this project.
So I decided to cut a few parts out, and see how it would work out of Plexiglas... It worked out fine, and would have been a pretty easy way to build a single train for myself.
Here's where the project really took off.  I posted some info on a couple of the G-gauge forums, to get some feedback. That's when a guy contacted me, and asked me to build him one also.
After discussing money a little, we started talking about the time and money it would take to make 2 sets from scratch. After a little more discussion, we decided to put the $$ into making a begger and better train. We decided to go ahead and get the train body extruded from aluminum. Since 14 of the 16 cars are the exact same profile, it made allot of sense to get an extrusion made.
This makes the production much easier, no need to try to make 28 cars the same shape from scratch. So now I have the extrusions in hand, and am working on the noses of the trains.
I'm in the process of getting a 3D model of the nose made, so we can machine then noses from solid aluminum.

I'll go ahead and post some pix of what we have going so far.

[Tenorikuma]

Most impressive.
/Vader

Take photos when it's done and submit it to a Japanese model railroading magazine.

[cteno4]

Toy Maker,

all i can say is WOW! this is going to be a serious train! great to do the extrusion, getting a lot cheaper to do that sort of thing these days!

amazing what all the new toys can do on a project like this.

Please keep us posted on this project, really quite amazing!

cheers

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

........ Are you sure it's big enough? :)

How long would a 16-car shinkansen be approximately?

[David]

From the scale and eye balling the size of that shell next to the monitors, it would seem his 16-car set will be too long to fit in a 40' boxcar. With *16/32 you end up with a set that is half the length of a single prototype car.

[CaptOblivious]

Uhm, do I spy far, far more than just 16 extrusions in that ginormous crate?

This is looking fantastic!

[westfalen]

From the scale and eye balling the size of that shell next to the monitors, it would seem his 16-car set will be too long to fit in a 40' boxcar. With *16/32 you end up with a set that is half the length of a single prototype car.

I thinking how much room you'd need to run the thing. Like an abandoned airfield.

[David]

A bigger question is the curves. If he uses truck mounted or telescoping couplers to allow N scale like small curves (think 12") then he would have curves of about 5 feet (radius, so a 10 foot wide circle). If he tried to match the prototype I believe the curves would have a radius of around 250 feet. A large aircraft hanger (assuming it's a single open hanger) would fit a small circle/oval of track with a 100 foot feeder track in it.

[Toy Maker]

Thanks guys...  

I know...  It's BIG isn't it ??     Don't listen to what your wives tell you...  Bigger IS better !!!  hehehe

Yeah, the full 16 car set will be about 41'-4" or 12.6 meters long.

20' radius is about as tight as you'll want to go with this train, if you plan to run it. 15' "might be possible", but it would probably look funny.
If someone were serious about setting up a track to run this train "at speed" you are going to need a football field at the least !!!
A nice open golf course would be ideal !!!

And YES, there is MUCH more material than I need for just 2 train sets. The minimum mill run was 1000 pounds of aluminum.
This yielded 100 pieces 2.5 meters long... so basically I have enough aluminum to make  (18) 16 car train sets. Probably more than I will ever use in a lifetime.
But in the end, it was still cheaper to make the extrusion, than it would have been in labor to try to form all the cars from sheet material.

It has been, and will continue to be a long slow process, as I'm, really working on it in my spare time. If it were a "full time" project I were making $$ off of right away,
I could focus on it a little more which would make it go faster, but being a "hobby project" I can only spend so much time on it each day or week.

I hope in the next couple months, I'll have the nose cones machined, and the trucks/motors all worked out to where we can have at least a "prototype" of a couple cars running on some sample track for serious testing.

Also, I forgot to mention... This set will be Radio Controlled. building a "powered" track for a train this big isn't really realistic. It will be much easier to run the train off batteries.
There is a TON of room in the belly of each car to stash a massive amount of batteries. Each powered car will have it's own on-board 12v supply. I will be wiring the cars all in parallel, so any amount of cars can be run together.

If anyone has ANY additional drawing, plan or schematics for the 500...  PLEASE let me know. This train has been VERY difficult to find information for, on the net.
I was sent a couple plan drawings with basic dimensions for a couple of the cars by a guy, but it is only for 3 of the cars, and I know there are 12 different car layouts for the full set.
3D computer models, AutoCAD drawings, prints, photos of prints, anything with dimensions

Makes me wish I had never sold my Tenshodo HO 16 car set

[Tenorikuma]

I'm pretty sure detailed schematics would have appeared in Japanese model train magazines at some point, and there are a few books with JR illustrations and schematics available in Japan if I'm not mistaken.

[Toy Maker]

Yeah, I have that book...  It's nice, but there are no dimensions, and there are only 9 of the 12 cars in large format.

It does show all 16 cars in a smaller scale.
Realistically, I can go off this book. Thinks might be off a mm here or a mm there. But they will be very close.
I am very anal with my drawings, I like to do them once, and do them right as I go.

Again, any drawing, photos or prints with dimensions would be appreciated.

[Tenorikuma]

Amazon Japan has a few items:

Book on the 500-series
May 2008 issue of Tetsudo Journal featuring the 500
Guide to N-gauge Shinkansens

[Toy Maker]

Yeah, I have this book already... But my copy HAS the 500 on the cover...  I'll try to post a picture of my copy when I get home tonight.



Does anyone on here have the other 2 books listed ??  I'd be interested to see what's in them.

[Kumo]

Yeah, I have this book already... But my copy HAS the 500 on the cover...  I'll try to post a picture of my copy when I get home tonight.



Does anyone on here have the other 2 books listed ??  I'd be interested to see what's in them.

It's such a big project, maybe contact directly JR or the company that designed the 500 series (it's a German design studio but I forgot the name).
I'm sure they wouldn't mind sharing with you some schematics on the design.

[Toy Maker]

If anyone can navigate through the Japanese website, and find any kind of contact link...
The English site is about useless as far as contacting anyone.

I even tried the US JR..  that got me nowhere. I called 10 times to the same woman that was going to get me a contact in Japan, that could help with drawings. Never happened.

Anyone have a KATO 16 car set that they would loan me for a few weeks ??  All I really need is to measure all the windows on both sides of each car, and take real high rez photos of every car.

Like I said, wish I had held onto my HO set...

[buchter]

HI Toy Maker,

at first I must say this is the most impressing project I've seen for a long time!
I own the Tenshodo 5-car-H0-set. If it would help, I could take some pictures, just tell me which parts you need.

If you need further support in modeling I could mill some parts with my little cnc-mill. eg for mold-making, perhaps you'd like to cast something with resin. As an engineering-student I can handle nearly all file formats.

Best greetings from Germany!

[Mudkip Orange]

Wait, you scratchbuilt a Shinkansen using A FRICKIN LASER BEAM?

That is too awesome.

[SONIC883]

The Designer was Alexander Neumeister

http://www.neumeister-partner.com/de/node/405

[Toy Maker]

Thanks guyz 

@ buchter

I might need some help... I am thinking about casting the outside of the trucks, as an Appliqué piece. Those could be cast. I'd need like 140 of them to start.
I am also thinking about casting all the seats for the interior. There will be thousands of little seats...   


@ Mudkip Orange

Not quite...  But I did use the laser to build the mock-up. The real train will be all aluminum.

@ SONIC883

AWESOME LINK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you. I have sent them an email, let's see what I get back.

[Toy Maker]

@ SONIC883

Thank you again very much.... 
I got a reply today !!!

Hi James,

I forwarded  your mail to my design-partners at Hitachi!
They probably can help you!
My best wishes  for your impressive project!

Alexander Neumeister

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed !!!
I have been working on the nose for the last 2 days, and am pretty sure the nose is beyond the ability of AutoCAD, and beyond my skills in Solidworks (for now)

[Toy Maker]

I'll tell you what, in my 23+ years of using and teaching AutoCAD, this is the 1st project I have run into that I could not figure out.
I have spent the last 3 days messing around with this drawing, and have gotten SO frustrated, I decided to switch over to SolidWorks...
Now, switching programs is no big deal... except for the fact that I HAVE NEVER USED SolidWorks before in my life... (and I thought AutoCAD had allot of commands)

Well after spending about 6-8 hours today watching YouTube tutorials on SolidWorks, and playing around, I have "something" to show for my time.
Although It's FAR from right, at least I'm getting the hang of SW, and with a little more time, I might just  be able to crack this egg.

WHAT A PITA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[SONIC883]

I am glad that I can help you a little bit.
Please keep us uptodate. It is a gorgeous project

[buchter]

@Toy Maker

I might say, that I am quite good at working with solidworks (I use it since several years now at the university)
Maybe I could help you at some points. I pm you my mail adresse and skype-id, so that we can have a chat.

If you want to, I could try to model the nose for you. I seems that you don't use a solid model but a shell-model is this correct? My experience tells me that swx is not that good with shell-modeling than with solids.
By the way, are you familiar with importing shell-models like 3ds  (generally anything taht 3d studio max can export) into any cad software? I try so since - i would say years - and now I am at a point where I can indeed import the model but not modify it..

[Jcarlton]

Toy maker,
You might want to try to get the solidworks surfacing bible.  It's a pretty good read.  I use solidworks in my work, but I haven't done surfacing with all those compound curves and lofting that you need.  I would suggest that you break up the nose in sections like the protoype. 

[The_Ghan]

Jesus!  I mean ... "Toy Maker",

This is the first time I've stumbled onto your thread.  Absolutely awesome!  Get the video camera out champ, because if they can make a reality TV show about pimping my ride then YOU can make one about building this train.

I love the al. extrusions.  Can't wait to see you laser cut all those windows.  I'm an architect and have been using AutoCAD since 1984, so I appreciate the effort you have been going to with the 3D geometry.  That nose cone must have you pulling your hair out.  I look forward to seeing further progress ... the cockpit bubble, for example ... 

Cheers

The_Ghan

[omar]

simply amazing!

[Toy Maker]

BUMP..............

Just wanted to let everyone know that this project is back on track....
We had to take some time away from this project while we focused on another.
With that project up to speed, and on hold, we will be putting some serious effort into getting this beauty finished.

We will be building (4 sets) of cars at the same time. So when we finish, there should be 4 complete 16 car train sets.
If anyone might be interested in owning a set, please let me know. jamessauter@yahoo.com
There is no fixed price for this set yet, as allot of the parts are not yet completed, and parts pricing is still unknown.
Very rough figures lead me to believe the price will be between $15,000 and $25,000 for a completed 16 car set.

[cteno4]

Toy Maker,

hey wonderful to hear the project is proceeding! wish i had the change laying around to buy a set, always been my dream to have a G scale shinkansen in the back yard! always was thinking the 700 series as it has the box cross section i could laser cut the windows and then just carve the noses.

keep the info coming, love to see this evolve!

thanks

jeff

[The_Ghan]

Toymaker,

Seriously awesome.  I can't wait to see how this one pans out.

Regular updates would be so cool.

Cheers

The_Ghan