I just built tis, and it really is that easy. Fantastic kit. A quick note for others who, like me, use Kadee whisker couplers- you must use the no5 box, the new style box will not fit.
Hy . I just find your chanel. I do realy enjoying what I see. Im realy curious of all videos. I'm 62 years old and collecting model railroad for nearly 50 years. But I had also a break, so I can emagine whats going on in your case. Congratulations to find back to this hobby. I live in Germany nearby the baltic see. So excuse my bumpy writing. I restart my layout in dcc, so I have to convert all of my lokos from dc to dcc. That will take a time. And Im realy interesting in maintanace and reparingmethods all over the workd. I've learnd a lot on youtube. And even from your videos. Thank you for getting this chance. Regards from northern germany, Rainer
Just a word to the prototype - it was an industrial loco designed and built by the German company AEG (Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft) in the early 1900s. Both narrow gauge and standard gauge variants were available. A 9mm NG version us available from Hallig/Austria, following a prototype which ran on the Mixnitz to St. Erhard railway in Austria. This type of loco was introduced in the 1890s and became a bestseller world-wide. Japanese kits in general are extremely well engineered. They all fit well and usually require very little glueing or soldering.
Darth, This is just fabulous ! I found this project to be engrossing. Working in such tiny detail. I loved every bit of it. Having the little AEG Deki 3 pull six hoppers and a caboose was the icing on the cake ! All I can say is "Wow !" 5 stars !
Glad to see someone else take the dive on the Hobby Search rabbit hole! Haven't quite been brave enough to pull the trigger on one of these or the steam kits.
Nice work! Since everyone has tips..... Working above an automotive magnetic dish keeps dropped screws from disappearing. The Milwaukee built a similar critter on top of a recycled Fairbanks Morse C-Liner truck. The used it to switch stuff in a yard in their electrified Lines West. After they tore down the wires they ran it on an extension cord.
You seem like the kind of modeller that would absolutely be a pleasure to work with and be around. I take my time, think, discuss and double-check slowly and carefully, but more often than not, my fellow modellers are not very fun to be around (know-it-alls). I enjoyed your video very much, subbing. And I rarely use this word, but that little runner is adorable. 👍🏻
Cool little loco, Im sure you could fit a small flywheel in there to make it run just that much smoother, the motor shaft looks the perfect length for it, too
As I think I mentioned before here, I would, if you have room, put in a "keep alive" capacitor to keep it from stalling on the frogs or slightly dirty track; and smooth out the starts and stops a little and greater creep performance.
Honorable Bonsai locomotive-san! Coupla points 1) The "pantographs"- The one you installed is known as a bow which was uncommon in North America. The other is a trolley pole with either a slider or wheel contacting the overhead 2) There was a US prototype for a tiny 0-B-0 steeple cab the "Joe Cushing" - "Built by GE in 1893 as 650 volt DC only; Built for Columbian Exposition then sold to Manufacturers RR 12/1896; in 1901 rebuilt by GE c/n 1607; Once fell through open draw into the Quinnipiac River when Tomlinson bridge opened unexpectedly; Sold to Joe Cushing RR as #1 in 1905" and "1 was built by General Electric in 1893, #1437, for General Electric for the Columbian Exposition. It was sold as Manufacturer RR 1 in 1893 and became New York New Haven & Hartford RR 1. It was rebuilt by GE in 1901, #1607, and sold as JCRR 1 in 1905. It was purchased by GE for preservation in 1948 and given to National Museum of Transportation in 1964." i.imgur.com/OYOfr7f.jpg i.imgur.com/O9A96BM.jpg 3) Kato makes overhead you can install, Other European manufacturers offer catenary, but in my opinion, its the sort of installation you would have on a heavy electrified mainline. Kato's offering is much more what you would have on a traction or industrial system. You would probably only need one pack for an industrial line. Many power plants used units like this (they already made the juice) to move loaded and empty hopper cars of coal, send fly ash to a dumping site and switch the occasional shipment of electrical gear for repair at the factory or to upgrade the plant. Joe was used to serve a textile plant's power house and to switch loaded and emply box casrs to and from the interchange and loading docks.
I have an older railbus kit of this type and your build of this kit is going to be very helpful for me, thanks! By the way the overhead pick up you chose is called a bow (not common in the US) ! The other one is a trolley pole , the disc at the end being a roller wheel pickup rather than a sliding shoe type!
What a great little kit and model! Gosh I wish some of the other brass kit builders would take note of the designed and construction features of this kit.
your lettering looks just like to Chattahoochee industry railroad I love your lettering I'm going to have to learn how to make the same ones for my Chattahoochee industry railroad Thank you for posting
That is quite tiny! And really does seem to be exceptionally well designed. It would be interesting to compare it in size to the Precision Scale Co. (formerly Kemtron) "Thomas Flyer rail car" kit, which might be smaller but I'm sure doesn't run anywhere near as well as this one does.
That is a beautiful model! The video is very good and the quality of the shots is great P.S. You forgot to put two washers, one on each side of the worm gears. Washers are included in the sheet.
Thanks! I did see the washers and figured they went there, but the worm spacing is tight enough with the chassis on mine that they wouldn't have fit. I'm sure there are others where the worms are pressed on slightly further and would need the washers.
The electrical aspect of this was the most interesting- brass etched kits can be treacherous with all the metal and trying to feed insulated contacts to the wheels and thread through to the motor. The fact that this one uses bronze pickups that pass right through the brass frame and contacts the motor without solder boggles my mind.
Pretty sure that DeKi is the Japanese abbreviation for 'electric locomotive' (something like Denki Kikansha). See the history of the Choshi Denki Tetsudō...
@@billfusionenterprise Both yes and no. Has been done for decades with limited run brass electric traction. Insulated mounting with its own wire to motor; I'd use a different and more flexible pantograph, or even a trolley pole.
@@billfusionenterprise It looks to have no spring for keeping pressure on wire as relationship/geometry between wire and locomotive varies, so, yes, either some serious modification to the kit or just use a different one seems required.
I’ve seen those Aru mechanisms around lately, and since this is Cosmic’s only powered kit as far as I know, it makes sense that they would source a good chassis from another manufacturer.
I love it. I can't believe it has enough heft and torque to pull 7 cars so easily. How much does it weigh and I also wonder how many cars it can pull before losing traction.
It's a few ounces, but I don't have a small scale on hand to check right now. The wheels were close to slipping with those 7, but I think I could get one more behind it.
Outstanding video presentation and excellent thumbnail image. I've been trying to get proficient with Shotcut editing software so I appreciate that level of difficulty. You seem to have no problem with your edits. Thanks for sharing this tiny origami model.
If you don't mind telling how did you managed to get this thing ship to the US? Proxy shopping service? Or did you get lucky and find it on another site?
Hobby Search has DHL and other international options available. I picked DHL since it was the cheapest next to sea freight, and that would've taken 2 or 3 months for a savings of about $2!
The 1/80 Scale, or HOj, is a compromise to Represent Japanese 3'6" using HO 16,5mmTrack....proper 1/87 would require 12mm Track for correct Scale-Gauge relationship.
Yup, a small decoder can be fit in the cab! All you have to do is wire the pickups to go to the decoder instead, and then the decoder can go back to the motor.
i was exactly in the process of making similar content, i’ll be covering the Aru-Model B tank engine brass etching kit in the near future as well check them out if you’re interested in similar kits to these!
@@DarthSantaFe ah ok. They sell the shells on ebay but you have to buy the powerd truck separately. Ima look for one since I'm going to a trainshow on Saturday
@@DarthSantaFe looking forward to see those trackplans then! any idea on how are you going to conect the expansion? considering you don't have a turnout that leads outside your current trackplan
@@tmfe1986 I'm going to try to replace a couple of the curved pieces with turnouts. Finding the best fitting turnouts for the 22" radius is the hard part, but once that's done, I can double the length of the large loop.
It is similar to many steeple cab switchers from around that period, but it was actually based directly off this one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Dshi_Electric_Railway_Line#/media/File:Choshi-Electric-Railway-deki3.jpg
I bought one a while back but haven't found a motor yet that can hide inside of it. I might have to just put some kind of a box load or something to cover a slightly too large motor.
@@billfusionenterprise I remember that one! They had to make a big divider in the middle to fit the motor, yet somehow made it so it didn't look too out of place.
HOj tends to be a little wonk in that department, as Japan majorly runs 3ft 6in gauge trains, with 4ft 8 1/2in being used mostly on bullet train lines, so they ended up scaling in the middle, where both 3ft6 and 4ft8 look passible, in the same way 00's track is out of scale with the models
Yeah, definitely don’t get this one from eBay. Some of those import sellers charge a lot for no good reason. These are still in production, so you can back order at Hobby Search and get it for the correct price: www.1999.co.jp/eng/m/10235533
Looking at Hobby Search Japan this kit is now made by cosmic in resin rather than brass and doesn’t look anywhere as nice. Looks like some 6 year old’s toy
I just built tis, and it really is that easy. Fantastic kit. A quick note for others who, like me, use Kadee whisker couplers- you must use the no5 box, the new style box will not fit.
Hy . I just find your chanel. I do realy enjoying what I see. Im realy curious of all videos. I'm 62 years old and collecting model railroad for nearly 50 years. But I had also a break, so I can emagine whats going on in your case. Congratulations to find back to this hobby. I live in Germany nearby the baltic see. So excuse my bumpy writing. I restart my layout in dcc, so I have to convert all of my lokos from dc to dcc. That will take a time. And Im realy interesting in maintanace and reparingmethods all over the workd. I've learnd a lot on youtube. And even from your videos. Thank you for getting this chance. Regards from northern germany, Rainer
I’m glad my videos have been helpful to you and hope your DCC conversions go well!
Just a word to the prototype - it was an industrial loco designed and built by the German company AEG (Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft) in the early 1900s. Both narrow gauge and standard gauge variants were available. A 9mm NG version us available from Hallig/Austria, following a prototype which ran on the Mixnitz to St. Erhard railway in Austria. This type of loco was introduced in the 1890s and became a bestseller world-wide.
Japanese kits in general are extremely well engineered. They all fit well and usually require very little glueing or soldering.
Darth, This is just fabulous ! I found this project to be engrossing. Working in such tiny detail. I loved every bit of it. Having the little AEG Deki 3 pull six hoppers and a caboose was the icing on the cake ! All I can say is "Wow !" 5 stars !
Total respect for construction using those limited instructions. Way beyond my capabilities !
Glad to see someone else take the dive on the Hobby Search rabbit hole! Haven't quite been brave enough to pull the trigger on one of these or the steam kits.
Nice work!
Since everyone has tips.....
Working above an automotive magnetic dish keeps dropped screws from disappearing.
The Milwaukee built a similar critter on top of a recycled Fairbanks Morse C-Liner truck. The used it to switch stuff in a yard in their electrified Lines West. After they tore down the wires they ran it on an extension cord.
You seem like the kind of modeller that would absolutely be a pleasure to work with and be around. I take my time, think, discuss and double-check slowly and carefully, but more often than not, my fellow modellers are not very fun to be around (know-it-alls). I enjoyed your video very much, subbing. And I rarely use this word, but that little runner is adorable. 👍🏻
Even though I dont run HO instead I run N scale really enjoyed this video so much.
Cool little loco, Im sure you could fit a small flywheel in there to make it run just that much smoother, the motor shaft looks the perfect length for it, too
There may be enough room for a small flywheel, and that would improve performance across those switches.
A small capacitor may help as well.
An excellent job of building and superb videography. as well. Thanks for adding to my modelling education.
Thanks! It's definitely a lot different from working on your large scale trains!
@@DarthSantaFe eyes sore?
As I think I mentioned before here, I would, if you have room, put in a "keep alive" capacitor to keep it from stalling on the frogs or slightly dirty track; and smooth out the starts and stops a little and greater creep performance.
That is a really neat little kit. I wish there were more US prototype kits like this.
Great little runner! And I'm surprised with its pulling power. I might have to check this thing out....
Nice work, and thanks!
😊 in the 1960’s that would have been $1.99-$4.99
Honorable Bonsai locomotive-san! Coupla points 1) The "pantographs"- The one you installed is known as a bow which was uncommon in North America. The other is a trolley pole with either a slider or wheel contacting the overhead 2) There was a US prototype for a tiny 0-B-0 steeple cab the "Joe Cushing" - "Built by GE in 1893 as 650 volt DC only; Built for Columbian Exposition then sold to Manufacturers RR 12/1896; in 1901 rebuilt by GE c/n 1607; Once fell through open draw into the Quinnipiac River when Tomlinson bridge opened unexpectedly; Sold to Joe Cushing RR as #1 in 1905" and "1 was built by General Electric in 1893, #1437, for General Electric for the Columbian Exposition. It was sold as Manufacturer RR 1 in 1893 and became New York New Haven & Hartford RR 1. It was rebuilt by GE in 1901, #1607, and sold as JCRR 1 in 1905. It was purchased by GE for preservation in 1948 and given to National Museum of Transportation in 1964." i.imgur.com/OYOfr7f.jpg i.imgur.com/O9A96BM.jpg 3) Kato makes overhead you can install, Other European manufacturers offer catenary, but in my opinion, its the sort of installation you would have on a heavy electrified mainline. Kato's offering is much more what you would have on a traction or industrial system. You would probably only need one pack for an industrial line. Many power plants used units like this (they already made the juice) to move loaded and empty hopper cars of coal, send fly ash to a dumping site and switch the occasional shipment of electrical gear for repair at the factory or to upgrade the plant. Joe was used to serve a textile plant's power house and to switch loaded and emply box casrs to and from the interchange and loading docks.
Wow. That is a wonderfully designed model. Great video.
Very well done. Interesting model.
I have an older railbus kit of this type and your build of this kit is going to be very helpful for me, thanks! By the way the overhead pick up you chose is called a bow (not common in the US) ! The other one is a trolley pole , the disc at the end being a roller wheel pickup rather than a sliding shoe type!
What a great little kit and model! Gosh I wish some of the other brass kit builders would take note of the designed and construction features of this kit.
your lettering looks just like to Chattahoochee industry railroad I love your lettering I'm going to have to learn how to make the same ones for my Chattahoochee industry railroad Thank you for posting
Thanks! I use Microscale #90031 Condensed Roman.
That is quite tiny! And really does seem to be exceptionally well designed. It would be interesting to compare it in size to the Precision Scale Co. (formerly Kemtron) "Thomas Flyer rail car" kit, which might be smaller but I'm sure doesn't run anywhere near as well as this one does.
Very nice and I love the look!!!! Thank you for sharing, and please keep up the good work!!!
Wow, what a great kit and loco. With the trolley pole option this would look great on my little layout. Cheers from Wisconsin!
I have vague recollection of seeing this little loco starring in a Model Railroader article decades ago.
Very amazing little engine !! so cute, i love so much !
That is a beautiful model!
The video is very good and the quality of the shots is great
P.S.
You forgot to put two washers, one on each side of the worm gears.
Washers are included in the sheet.
Thanks! I did see the washers and figured they went there, but the worm spacing is tight enough with the chassis on mine that they wouldn't have fit. I'm sure there are others where the worms are pressed on slightly further and would need the washers.
The electrical aspect of this was the most interesting- brass etched kits can be treacherous with all the metal and trying to feed insulated contacts to the wheels and thread through to the motor. The fact that this one uses bronze pickups that pass right through the brass frame and contacts the motor without solder boggles my mind.
What a fabulous little kit, well done
Pretty sure that DeKi is the Japanese abbreviation for 'electric locomotive' (something like Denki Kikansha). See the history of the Choshi Denki Tetsudō...
In my limited experience with japanese models, they are very well made. Especially plastic models. No flash at all and a lot less cleaning up needed
Best way to get around short wheelbase electrical contact issues ... live trolley wire with return path through both rails! 😁
tricky part will be pantograpgh, insulation and function
@@billfusionenterprise Both yes and no. Has been done for decades with limited run brass electric traction. Insulated mounting with its own wire to motor; I'd use a different and more flexible pantograph, or even a trolley pole.
@@scottfw7169 I just look at the included one and don't think it would work
@@billfusionenterprise It looks to have no spring for keeping pressure on wire as relationship/geometry between wire and locomotive varies, so, yes, either some serious modification to the kit or just use a different one seems required.
@@scottfw7169 plus it would need a more proper head
The same mechanism is sold by ARU. I use it for some of my models of early steam locomotives.
I’ve seen those Aru mechanisms around lately, and since this is Cosmic’s only powered kit as far as I know, it makes sense that they would source a good chassis from another manufacturer.
I love it. I can't believe it has enough heft and torque to pull 7 cars so easily. How much does it weigh and I also wonder how many cars it can pull before losing traction.
It's a few ounces, but I don't have a small scale on hand to check right now. The wheels were close to slipping with those 7, but I think I could get one more behind it.
@@DarthSantaFe could add some weight to it, be tricky, but can help. I had this bachmann blue van that did much better with a weight on the roof
Outstanding video presentation and excellent thumbnail image. I've been trying to get proficient with Shotcut editing software so I appreciate that level of difficulty. You seem to have no problem with your edits. Thanks for sharing this tiny origami model.
Might I suggest getting some tamiya side cutters they are excellent at cutting through photo etch
Thanks, I’ll have to check into that!
Fascinating to watch. I'm considering the N gauge version of this (by a different company) though - thank goodness - it comes pre-built! :)
It’s amazing that they’ve been able to make these in N scale! You’d have to have some really fine tools if those were sold as kits like this one.
Cute little loco. CIRR must be the Chattahoochee Industrial Railroad
Little Buggers neat! Thank You!
Thank you for making a Japanese locomotive.
If you don't mind telling how did you managed to get this thing ship to the US? Proxy shopping service? Or did you get lucky and find it on another site?
Hobby Search has DHL and other international options available. I picked DHL since it was the cheapest next to sea freight, and that would've taken 2 or 3 months for a savings of about $2!
When you first tested it, and wondered out loud if it could really haul all that, I almost felt it heard you.
Cute little German built E-lok.
The 1/80 Scale, or HOj, is a compromise to Represent Japanese 3'6" using HO 16,5mmTrack....proper 1/87 would require 12mm Track for correct Scale-Gauge relationship.
Really cute engine, amazing product !
Very cool little kit. It looks like the wheels are out of gauge. Too narrow? Thanks for the fun build.
The gauge is actually correct. The axles were very precisely built right out of the box.
Now, what kind of fun could the On30 and the Gn15 crews have with it ... 🤔
Try the translate function on your phone for the manual, does wonders reading the manual first :)
Very cool nice job man I have som questions to ask you about a bowser challenger
Just send an email to darthsantafe@gmail.com and I'll see how I can help!
Long time viewer first time commenter. Would a DCC decoder be possible in this? Love this kit! Great work as always!
Yup, a small decoder can be fit in the cab! All you have to do is wire the pickups to go to the decoder instead, and then the decoder can go back to the motor.
Sweet kit!!! 💯✌️
Photo etched - not for the faint of heart.
Usually yes, but this one's so well engineered that it was easier to put together than a plastic or diecast model!
i was exactly in the process of making similar content, i’ll be covering the Aru-Model B tank engine brass etching kit in the near future as well check them out if you’re interested in similar kits to these!
Good job!
Nice train
How much did that smalll 25 toner kit cost? I’ve seen the shell but how much did the whole thing cost?
The 25-tonner was a powered Grandt Line kit. At the time, the whole kit was $50.
@@DarthSantaFe ah ok. They sell the shells on ebay but you have to buy the powerd truck separately. Ima look for one since I'm going to a trainshow on Saturday
@@micoasters you might find a full kit which has the motor
future layout expansion in the background? :D
Yup! They've been waiting a few years now, but I think I'm close to figuring out how to put it together.
@@DarthSantaFe looking forward to see those trackplans then! any idea on how are you going to conect the expansion? considering you don't have a turnout that leads outside your current trackplan
@@tmfe1986 I'm going to try to replace a couple of the curved pieces with turnouts. Finding the best fitting turnouts for the 22" radius is the hard part, but once that's done, I can double the length of the large loop.
Darth, WHEN ARE WE GETTING AN UPDATE ON YOUR NEW LAYOUT?
Eventually! No timeline on that right now, but I have some ideas and want to get to work on it this year if I can.
I would feel a little mode comfortable if the ends of the drive shafts had a least a collar type bushing.
looks like it is based off the old English Electric Type 3B Battery Electric Shunter (some IRL were full electric instead of battery)
It is similar to many steeple cab switchers from around that period, but it was actually based directly off this one: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Dshi_Electric_Railway_Line#/media/File:Choshi-Electric-Railway-deki3.jpg
How about a Fairmont speeder???
I bought one a while back but haven't found a motor yet that can hide inside of it. I might have to just put some kind of a box load or something to cover a slightly too large motor.
bachmann has made one, powered with two trailing cars
@@billfusionenterprise I remember that one! They had to make a big divider in the middle to fit the motor, yet somehow made it so it didn't look too out of place.
@@DarthSantaFe there is also a MOW truck. I also have several other motorized MOW
Would. Capacitor help with switches?
Possibly! The motor doesn’t need much power to keep running.
trick is wiring with power switching in DC
What is the knife you use to cut some of the brass tabs?
It's a Testors hobby knife. I think it came in a starter pack with some other hobby supplies and tools probably 20 years ago.
Could you put in a N-SCALE 2 amp. DDC decoder in it ?????
There is plenty of room inside for an N scale decoder.
you might try a text translator app for your phone that could help you out with the Japanese...
Nice, although over engineered, kit! Now fit a DCC or similar board in it...
BANZAI!!
I think my freelance Interurban might have found a new design for a “shop built” freight motor…
Hmm, lets see ... if the locomotive scale is 1/80 that makes the 16.5mm gauge HO gauge track equal to 52 inch gauge in proportion to the locomotive.
Yeah, it's right between HO and 00. Kato also makes their bullet trains to 1/80, so I guess it's common over there.
HOj tends to be a little wonk in that department, as Japan majorly runs 3ft 6in gauge trains, with 4ft 8 1/2in being used mostly on bullet train lines, so they ended up scaling in the middle, where both 3ft6 and 4ft8 look passible, in the same way 00's track is out of scale with the models
@@PrinzEugen176 Ahh, thanks! And that does have a certain logic to it.
WOW awesome, can you build one for me😂
If you get one and send it over then I can have it done in no time! It really is an easy kit though, so I’m sure you can do it too!
Cutie Pie engine😊
Is there a way to add rivets?
Micro-Mark makes rivet decals that work well for this kind of thing.
scribers might work as well!
@@DarthSantaFe Ok, I'll try them.
I think there is a tool for it
What kind of flux do you use?
I use Kester liquid rosin no-clean flux.
That small of a motor is wants used in a Xbox controller for the rumble
some model slot cars have very small motors too.
@@enginecrzy n scale, z scale?
Here's a challenge for you DCC it
I only run DC, but if I ever get to running DCC then I'm sure it can be done!
Maybe this could be kitbashed to produce a railcar/railcart or some such? Sorry, just pipedreaming.
fit a dc stay alive in it .
This particular model is going for 200 bucks on ebay now...grrrr.
Yeah, definitely don’t get this one from eBay. Some of those import sellers charge a lot for no good reason. These are still in production, so you can back order at Hobby Search and get it for the correct price: www.1999.co.jp/eng/m/10235533
Looking at Hobby Search Japan this kit is now made by cosmic in resin rather than brass and doesn’t look anywhere as nice. Looks like some 6 year old’s toy
@@Michael-t3b5b Just checked on it and it’s showing the brass kit photos for me. They do also make resin and paper kits of similar switchers.