Traffic continues to increase on the Straco Express layout (read more about the whole project here). I recently found another small Japanese tin toy car to use on the display. (click on images to enlarge)
Like many of the cars I've found, the identity of the manufacturer is unknown. But the general style of the graphics and the colors of the lithography suggest to me that this toy might be from the late 1940's - early 1950's.
My understanding is that most Japanese toys made in the immediate postwar era were marked "Occupied Japan," so I'm guessing the early 1950's. Which makes this sedan one of the oldest on the display. Its patina suggests it might even be older than the red, white and blue cars (see Part 20 - A Patriotic Traffic Pattern).
Similar, but not identical. Note the hood ornaments and crests.
Initially, I thought the car bore a strong resemblance to those patriotic pair of cars I added recently. The hood ornament and grille seemed to be the same.
Placing them side-by-side, it's clear that there are similarities. But it's most likely the cars were made by different companies.
I suspect that both drew inspiration from Cadillac. Both have winged hood ornaments and crests that bear more than a passing resemblance to Cadillacs of the era.
Those hood lights don't look
street-legal to me.
One odd thing about the new car, though. It has roof lights that would be appropriate for an emergency vehicle like a police car or fire chief car, yet the family of four riding inside clearly show this is an automobile for civilian use!
Ah well, it was a simpler time. The sedan is a nice addition to the layout/display, so I'm happy. And it's added a little to my understanding of vintage Japanese toys.
The not-Cadillac sedan (center) fits in nicely with the Straco Express layout/display.
Total cost for the project:
Layout construction:
Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Molding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Green Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29
Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
More cars to add to the busy roads of the Straco layout.
I'm almost at the point where I don't need any more vehicles for the Straco Layout (read more about the whole project here). After all, I don't like bumper-to-bumper traffic in real life, and I don't find it especially attractive on a toy display. Having too many pieces overwhelms the viewer and just looks like clutter.
However, I'm still open for unusual pieces, as long as they fit the criteria; made in Japan in the 50s-60s, mostly or all-metal construction, originally inexpensive, and still fairly inexpensive. A pair of odd cars caught my eye the other day.
Judging by lithographic colors and the car bodies, I believe they date from the late 1950's (I welcome any additional info about these cars). Note the design -- though made in Japan, these are clearly patriotic vehicles! They're red, white, and blue, and they have stars and bars on them. (click on images to enlarge)
Patriotic, but not official. The odd design of the lithography
attracted me to this pair of vehicles.
Of course, these are American patriotic motifs as interpreted by another country, so the design isn't as iconic as it would have been had these been created in the States. And although they're decorated in an American theme, they're not official vehicles of any kind.
Many of these cheap Japanese tin cars were sold in sets, with the same car body being lithographed as a police car, a fire chief car, an ambulance, and a taxi. These aren't anything like that. They just... are. Which is why I liked them.
So traffic's increased by 20% on my little Straco layout.
The real challenge is what to add next. Cars and trucks are fairly easy to find. Structures and trees are much more difficult. But part of the fun of this oddball little project is the search, so we'll see what happens.
In the meantime, I have a pair of patriotic vehicles that arrived just in time for the Fourth of July!
Total cost for the project:
Layout construction:
Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Molding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Green Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29
Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
A.W. Livestock truck: $4.99
Taxi: $2.99
Ambulance: $2.99
Two Japanese patriotic cars: $6.99
Can a toy train layout have feng shui? I think so.
I'm always on the lookout for more vehicles to add to the Straco Layout (read more about the whole project here). Small Japanese tin toy cars pop up on eBay all the time. But there are reasons why I don't often bid on them.
First, the starting price is often higher than I'm willing to spend. The guiding principle behind this layout is cheap -- cheap toys, cheap materials, cheap expense.
Second, for a lot of the items that start at the $0.99 level, once the bidding gets going the price shoots past what I'd be willing to spend (which is when I drop out).
But recently I was able to snag two small cars that worked on all levels. First, they were inexpensive (I was the only bidder on both). Second, they were in great shape. Third, they met two other requirements I was looking for -- color variety and additional railroad station-related transportation.
I have to wonder what the quality of care is
with patients riding sitting up in the back of
a two-door ambulance.
The Ambulance -- a splash of color
This layout is unabashedly for toys, and is filled with vibrant primary colors. The problem was that the traffic on the highway didn't have a lot of contrast. The fire chief's car was red, the bus was red, the stake truck was red and yellow, and the cattle truck was yellow. No blue, green, or orange to break things up.
That's why I purchased the ambulance. Its bright blue body is just what I was looking for.
The Taxi - serving passengers
A lot of these small Japanese cars came in sets of four, and were basically variations on a theme. The same stamped tin car would be decorated as a police car, an ambulance, a fire chief's car, and a taxi. Since I had a busy-looking terminal (judging by all the people lithographed on the sides), I thought a taxi would be nice, especially as a compliment to the bus I picked up at York.
Taxi, anyone? Two in the front, and two in the back.
That cab's packed!
Although the taxi was red and yellow (see above), it still served its purpose. I now have two vehicles serving the station.
A problem of projection
After I received the cars, I noticed something quite interesting -- there's an error on the lithography of the taxi.
The front shows a male driver and female passenger. But the driver's side window shows a female at the wheel. Whoops. The left-hand side of the car repeats the error -- female passenger in the front, male passenger in the side.
So who's really driving? The man or the woman?
It's certainly not a deal-breaker. And conversely, it doesn't make this some kind of super-rare variation that's worth thousands. It's just the way the car was made. And I think it's part of the charm.
Total cost for the project:
Layout construction:
Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Molding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Green Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29
Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
A.W. Livestock truck: $4.99
Taxi: $2.99
Ambulance: $2.99
Since then, I haven't had much luck. eBay seemed a logical choice, but it's also where all the collectors look, so I often lost out to folks who were serious about Japanese toy cars.
I did win an auction recently, though, and it was well within my comfort level (cheap these were originally, and cheap must be my purchase price).
A side-by-side comparison with the truck I had as
a kid (left). Size is comparable -- build quality isn't.
The new purchase is a truck that I'm sure was part of a set. These were often sold in packs of three or four -- identical models with different colors and lithographic designs. If anyone knows anything about this A.W. Livestock truck, please leave a comment -- I'd like to have some information about this toy.
When I added it to the layout, something unusual happened. A pattern emerged. All of a sudden I had two cattle trucks, and one of the trains has a cattle car. Voila! Instant industry.
I'm still looking for vehicles. They must be Japanese in origin, and made in the late 1950's to early 1960's. They must be approximately 2.5"-4" in length. And what I really need is some color contrast. I have two red vehicles, one that's red and yellow, and another all yellow. So the search continues for a blue, green or orange car or truck. That's cheaply made.
We've gone from a random collection of Japanese toys
to depicting a budding cattle industry.
And cheap.
Layout costs:
Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Moulding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Green Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29
Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
A.W. Livestock truck: $4.99
The Straco Layout project has been going well, recently (read more about the whole project here). It seemed like a good time to run some trains -- after all, that's sort of the purpose. I'd added a new station (Part 16 - Station-Aero) and had all the locomotives in good repair, (see Part 14 - Bandai band-aid) so it was time to send them around the track and watch what happened.
One thing you'll notice in this video is that all three trains are loud.
The Bandai diesel sounds better than previously thanks to its recent cleaning, but it still made a racket. The worst of the lot was the Cragstan Santa Fe set. It sounded like it had been buried at the beach, unearthed and put on the track. Yikes!
The Straco switcher was still the best runner, but for some reason during the day I shot this, the cars had problems staying on the track, so its segment is the shortest in the video.
Oh well. These are all inexpensive toys that were marginally operational even when new. Nevertheless, I enjoyed getting these trains up and running them again. And I hope you do, too.
The Straco Express pulls into the Bandai
Areo Station.
The little layout I've created for the Straco Express has come together slowly (read more about the whole project here). I've only had two basic rules for the setup.
1) All the pieces must be Japanese toys of the same vintage as the train (late 50's - early 60's).
2) No item can cost more than $10 (and the cheaper the better).
I recently came across something that fit both those requirements -- a Bandai Aero Station.
This lithographed tin station doubled as a battery power pack for an early 1960's HO train set, an "Atomic Armored Train Set," no less. I suppose such a space-age atomic train needed not just a station, but an aero station!
The Aero Station originally came
with this Bandai train set.
The complete set is worth several hundred dollars, which is a little beyond my budget. But there was the station on eBay, being auctioned separately (I suspect it was one of a few surviving pieces of the set). I won the auction for $8.99, and then got to work.
As I explained in Part 15, The Roads Must Roll I created a parking lot for the new piece. When it arrived, I found I had a little more work to do. It needed a some cleaning, and I had to crimp the roof so it would latch properly and stay closed.
But when it was done, I was glad I'd made the (modest) investment. The bright, lithographed colors fit right in with the trains and accessories.
The Bandai freight at the Bandai
Areo Station.
In order to get the station to the right height, I made a small platform for it out of some scrap wood.
And there it is. The layout's mostly filled in now, and the trains have a destination.
That parking lot looks pretty vacant, though...
Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Moulding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Green Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29
Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
Bandai Areo Station: $8.99
Before: The subdivision's road just stops. That house next to
car will have to be moved for the new intersection.
The small little setup I've built around a Japanese toy train continues to grow (with minimal cost).
There will soon be an addition to the layout (read more about the whole project here), and so it's time to finish the roadwork. Unlike real life, extending a road and creating a parking lot had no environmental impact.
To make room for a new intersection, I just moved a house over, and for the parking lot relocated the potted trees (if only it were thus in real life).
The new road, ready to travel.
Like before, creating the new roads was a simple task. I just outlined the area with painter's tape and started painting. I let the new paint dry for a day, and went back with my white paint marker and did the outline around the edges. Using painter's tape on either side of those lines meant I didn't have to worry about having a steady hand.
So what's new? I extended the road on off the board, creating another railroad crossing. When I originally laid out the road, I wasn't sure what would go there, which is why I left it blank. I also created a new intersection and added a parking area.
For what? Stay tuned for Part 16!
The new intersection and parking lot. There are very good
reasons why it's the shape it is, as you'll soon see.
Since I just used more of the Testor's paint I previously purchased, there wasn't any additional cost to the improevments.
Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Moulding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Green Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90
Small Houses: $3.00
Testor's Gray Paint for road: $1.29
Two Japanese toy cars: $2.00
The Bandai diesel, coming down the line. It took a little work
to get it operational again.
As long-time readers of this series know, I originally purchased the 1960 Bandai train set simply to get enough track to complete an oval. The locomotive never ran very well, and often sent out a shower of sparks as it lurched around the track.
Eventually, it stopped running at all. The engine has punched-out windows in its frame (who knows why), and when I peeked in,
I discovered the reason -- both solder joints for the wire pickups had given up the ghost.
This looks like trouble.
The view of the motor (and loose wires)
through a window in the locomotive body.
If I was a serious collector of Japanese toys, I probably would have just put the train on the shelf and left it alone. But I'm not. And the set didn't cost a lot to begin with.
The Bandai diesel has open side windows.
So I decided to repair the locomotive.
The trickiest part was detaching the body from the frame. It was secured by a series of bent metal tabs. Because the metal gets stressed at the bend, those tabs only have so many folds and unfolds in them before they simply snap off. And when that happens, there's no way to reattach them.
Note the tabs along the edge of the frame.
That's what holds the body on.
I was afraid that because this was an inexpensive (OK, cheap) toy, that the metal would be very thin and that the tabs would snap off.
Fortunately, the metal was fairly thick, and that didn't happen. I used a razor blade covered with tape to get under the tabs without scratching the metal.
Each tab was carefully bent back, but only as far as necessary. They remained at a slight angle, but by squeezing the body I could draw them out of their slots and remove the body.
A closeup of the problem. And note the years of dust stuck to
the greasy motor. Yuck!
The inside was something of a surprise. Yes, it was pretty dirty -- mostly because those open windows let in a lot of dust over the years that stuck to the greased and oiled motor. But there were also some lead weights secured to the frame of the engine.
I had thought that the motor itself was responsible for the weight of the locomotive, but that wasn't the case.
The first set of weights were in the front, to help the lead trucks hold to the track properly. That was important for two reasons: it minimized derailments, and it kept the wheels in constant contact with the track. The power in the track was transferred from the wheels to copper pickup shoes on the axles and from there through wires to the motor, so continual contact was important.
Without those lead weights, the locomotive wouldn't have
enough traction to move.
The second weight helped keep the rear trucks on the track. Because the engine itself (even with the lead discs) didn't have enough weight to provide traction, the rear wheels had ribbed rubber tires. The second weight help keep those tires pressed against the rails.Clever design!
The Bandi diesel, repairs completed,
ready to run.
Reconnecting the wires with solder was a simple job. I first made sure to clear all the old solder off of the contacts and clean the exposed wires. While I had full access to the motor, I also cleaned and oiled it. I also greased as many of the gears as I could get to.
When I replaced the body, the angled tabs held it in place. So rather than risk snapping them off by folding them back to their original position, I left them alone. And now I can easily get the body off again if I have to do more maintenance.
An unexpected bonus: cleaning the contacts and the gears not only made a difference in performance, but in safety as well. Sparks no longer fly out from under the frame. Guess I'll just have to refer to the locomotive as the Bandai diesel. Ol' Sparky doesn't seem appropriate anymore...
After affixing the track to the board, there was really only one thing left to do -- run some trains. The three Japanese-made trains I had for this setup ran the spectrum of operability.
From left to right: the Bandai, Cragstan, and Straco train sets.
My childhood Cragstan engine would barely move. Early in its life, we had lost the powerpack (Mom wasn't one to keep our toys continually supplied with batteries), so the engine was mostly just pushed down the track when I played with it. When I put it on the layout, the locomotive whined a great deal, but hardly moved. I suspect internally there are either stripped or misaligned gears.
In the middle of the performance spectrum was the Bandai set. This locomotive had not been run for quite a while, and even with lubrication, it was somewhat balky in its motion. The longer I ran it, the smoother that motion became, but not by much. Here's its inaugural run on the layout. As you can see, it still has problems with the slight voltage drop on the straight section.
The best-running set was the Straco Express, the toy train I had bought on a whim -- and the one which started this entire project. As you can see, it ran very smoothly. I soon learned, though, not to let the train go too fast. It didn't take much for those featherweight cars to fly off the track!
Although this is the end of this project, it's not necessarily the end of the series. I'd like to find some Japanese tin cars and buildings to add to the layout -- things that are in keeping with the look and the era of the Straco Express.
Total cost for the project:
Pegboard: $4.95
Flathead Screws: $0.40
Moulding: $2.49
SilClear: borrowed from a friend
Paint: left over from another project
Wood Screws: $3.60
Felt Pads: $1.99
Power Pack: $5.90
Total Cost: $19.33
Figuring out how to secure the track to the board took some thought. I needed a method that would both hold the track tightly to the board, and do so in a non-destructive fashion. This was important, as later on I (or someone else) could remove the track from the board and have intact track sections, thereby not lessening whatever collector or historical value they may have.
The solution turned out to be very tiny screws. For both the Straco Express locomotive and the Bandai diesel, the gear mechanisms hang fairly low, so I needed a screw head that both had a lip to it, yet was small enough to clear the trucks (wheel and wheel bracket assembly) of the engines.
I did a simple test with a spare piece of track and some of the screws. Looking at the track straight on, I could see that the engines cleared the screws easily. And so I was in business.
Note the placement of the scews between sections. This
helps keep the joints tight. The middle screw of each
section (far right) prevents lateral motion.
Since each screw only holds down one side of the tie its next to, I placed each one carefully. Every section of track is secured by three screws. The two outer screws are set to the inside of their respective ties (relative to the center of the track section), preventing the track from shifting back and forth. Because the screw for the adjoining section is also set on its tie's inside, the sections are securely held together.
A third screw on the middle tie of the section helps hold the track flat. For the most part, (save where pegboard holes made it impossible), I put the outer screws close to the inside rail, and the middle screw near the outside rail. This helped prevent the track from sliding from side to side. I also alternated which side of the tie I placed the middle screw on, to further limit any potential motion.
The end result was what I had hoped it would be. I don't think the track had ever been that level before, and the trains didn't bob up and down when I did some test runs.
Just a few things to finish up, and then I'll be ready for the post we've all been waiting for: running the trains!
The next step was finishing the board. I had some Douglas Fir green paint left over from a previous project, and I felt it was the perfect color for the Straco layout. It's a bright green, and rather than depicting realistic ground cover, it presents a more toy-like representation of grass that's in keeping with the bright colors of the Straco Express itself.
That's gonna leave a mark.
After the painting was completed, I worked on another little problem I had. I had purchased the shortest wood screws I could possibly find, but they were still a little long, as you can see.
One option would have been to file them off flush with the wood, using a Dremel tool. But I didn't want to put that much time into the project, plus I wasn't sure I could get the screws down level with the wood without gouging the wood at the same time.
I'm really not that bad a photographer.
The registration's off on the packaging,
which is why the lettering looks funny.
So I purchased some furniture pads, and the problem was solved. I twisted the pad onto the exposed screw until the pad's adhesive made contact with the wood. Then I just pushed down and a little bit, and the screw tip was completely covered.
Problem solved. And I don't have to worry about the
bracing scratching the table top.
Now on to the next step... laying down the track (in a way that will ensure it will work).
Because of the inherently flimsy nature of both the rolling stock and the track, everything has to be optimal for this cheap little Japanese train to do more than one circuit around. For that reason, I added bracing to the pegboard.
As you can see, it's nothing fancy -- just some screen door molding repurposed. I was also trying to balance between adding strips to firm up the pegboard and keeping the whole thing as light as possible for portability.
Front
The solution was to go around the outer edges with the molding, and then cross-brace through the middle. I used the existing holes in the pegboard for my screws, which helped keep the whole thing symmetrical, as you can see from the pattern of screw heads when viewing from the top.
I'm still straightening out track sections, but the next significant step is to get the layout board finished. After that, I'll start laying down said track.
In the last post, I talked about how I cleaned the track to help with the electrical connection the Straco Express locomotive needed to make with the track, and for the track to relay current around the oval. I did get the train to run, but performance was marginal.
As you can see from the video above, there's a severe voltage drop about halfway around the loop. In other words, about as far away from the terminal as possible. Now keep in mind that the power pack for this train set is comprised of two "D" cell batteries, so we're not talking about a lot of power, to begin with.
Well, the Straco Express is a marginal product and needs all the help it can get to operate with even just a hint of dependability.
I gave the SilClear a try. In addition to coating the terminals, I also brushed it on the battery contacts. I also coated every pin. Because it spreads, I coated the top two-thirds of the pin. When I inserted the pins into the rails, the tight connection spread the SilClear further down the pins. This effectively coated the pins without any leakage.
The results were good -- almost too good. As you can see from the video below, the train whizzed around the track. Unfortunately, it went fast enough to jump the track.
And there's still a voltage drop on the far side of the oval.
If you look at the videos carefully, you can see the featherweight track rising and falling as the train passes over it. I think that once the track is affixed to the board that derailment may be less common. I'll also crimp the track connections again once I'm ready to install the track permanently. That should address the power drop issue.
Still, I was impressed by the difference SilClear made. I may try it on my O-gauge layout.
The next step is to begin work on the board itself. Stay tuned!
One final note: If you're wondering why I didn't back off on the throttle to prevent high-speed derailment, I couldn't. The red control lever on the power pack is just a directional on/off switch. Push it to the right, train starts up in one direction. Move to the center, power's cut and the train stops. Push the lever to the left, and the engine goes in the opposite direction.
The next step in the process of building this layout was working with the track. Although the sections came from three different sources, every piece of track had three things in common: age, grime, and corrosion. The age of the track (approximately 50 years!) wasn't something I could do anything about, but the grime and corrosion (accumulated over that same half-century) I could.
Someone asked me if I was going to use steel wool. While that's a good way to clean metal like this, it's not such a good idea for toy train track. Sometimes little shavings of steel wool remain on the track and can get pulled into the locomotive as it rides over the rail. And a small sliver of conductive metal rattling around inside an electrical motor can lead to real trouble.
So instead, I took it in stages. I happened to have an electric eraser that I used to get most of the superficial dirt off of the track. If you're not familiar with the device, it's used primarily in drafting (I used it for music copying in pre-computer days). It spins the eraser very quickly, letting you erase in a very small area without smudging everything around it.
My goal wasn't to completely clean the track -- that would have been very difficult. Rather, I wanted to clean all of the surfaces that would help relay the electrical current from the battery pack through the rails and then to the contacts on the wheels of the locomotive. The eraser took off most of the corrosion off the top of the rails, ensuring the locomotive would make good contact.
After cleaning the track with the eraser, I then scrubbed it with silver and metal polish. This pulled up, even more, grime off the tracks. The third step was to use a track cleaner solution to ensure the tracks were as clean as possible.
I then assembled the sections. There's a reason why I got the track operational before trimming the table to fit. These sets came with enough curved pieces to form a circle and two pieces of straight track. I had some extra straight tracks from the three combined sets, so I was hoping to use them in the circle.
No such luck. The power pack uses two "D" cell batteries and adding just two extra track sections caused a significant voltage drop in the circuit.
As I've said before, the operability of this Japanese train set is marginal at best. It was designed for a circle and two straight pieces of track, and no more.
I pieced the oval together, making sure I crimped the open sections of track to ensure a better connection with the pins. Just one more step, and I would be ready to test the track with the train.
A standard piece of pegboard proved to be just
the right size for a complete circle of track.
The first step in building the Straco layout was selecting the board. I had some criteria for what I was looking for:
1) Function - I wanted something simple and portable. The track may be permanently affixed to the board, but I know I wont' be leaving it up all the time. So I was just looking for a flat surface.
2) Weight - I wanted something light for portability. Something like subflooring would be way too heavy.
3) Stability - I wanted something that was flat, and would stay flat over a long period of time.
4) Looks - This is by no means an intense model railroading project! The Straco Express is a brightly colored tin toy, and so something that keeps on the toy side of things is preferable.
Solution: A common piece of pegboard. It's durable enough to be flat, and just wide enough to accommodate the curves. I'll be reinforcing it with some thin strips of wood underneath to help it stay flat after priming and painting.
Total cost on this project so far: $8.32 for the pegboard, finishing molding, and flathead screws.
As if there was any doubt, I've decided to go ahead and build a simple layout for the Straco Express. This cheap Japanese HO-scale electric train is only marginally operational, and needs as many favorable conditions as possible to work.
You can read more about the strange origins of this train set -- possibly built by Bandai for the J. Strauss Company -- in my earlier posts.
What I'd really like to do is just let the train run around a completed circle of track -- at least once. But there are some basic issues I need to address:
1) The metal that the track's made of is very thin, and easily bent. I need to straighten virtually every piece I intend to use.
This is what I have to work with.
Note how the rail at left is splayed out,
compared to the one at right.
2) The metal that the track's made of is really thin, so every time a section was disconnected over the years, it pulled apart a little bit. This meant that when sections were reconnected, they didn't fit tightly together, weakening the electrical circuit. And each time the track sections were pulled apart, the connections just got looser. I'll need to crimp the tubular track back into place with needle nose pliers.
3) The track's old, so there is some corrosion (which hinders electrical contact), and there's some dirt build-up (which also hinders electrical contact). I'll have to give the exposed metal a good cleaning.
4) The track's mismatched. I'm actually having to use track from at least two different sources, and there's a small difference in height. Which means I might have to shim up the slimmer pieces to ensure a smooth transition.
5) The rolling stock's too light. While the locomotive has plenty of weight, the cars it pull don't. So it takes very little irregularity in the rails to have the wheels jump the track. I can't really add weight to the cars, as the locomotive's motor has just enough power to pull them as is. I'll need to make sure the track is as flat and smooth as possible.
So the plan is to build a simple flat surface I can affix the re-straightened and cleaned up track to. It may take a little while. I'll provide updates as the project progresses.
For some time I've been posting on these three inexpensive (OK, cheap) Japanese toy trains I've acquired, and what the connection between them is. In my last post, I talked about the two different types of track that these sets came with. There was an early fiberboard-tie version stamped with Bandai's logo, and a later version where the ties were plastic.
Now these sets came to me through various means. As a child I owned the set with the Santa Fe diesel and two Santa Fe cars (a box car and a refrigerator car). From that set just a few pieces of track survived.
The Straco Express, the most detailed set of the three, I picked up at a toy train meet over a year ago. It had some, but not all, of it's track with it, including the terminal section (that's the piece that has the connectors for the wires running from the power pack).
The other set, which I'm pretty sure is Bandai, I obtained recently through an eBay auction -- primarily to complete my circle of track. It also had a piece of terminal track.
Front to back: Straco Express, childhood Bandai(?) set, Bandai set via eBay
And its those two pieces of terminal track that helped me unwrap the puzzle a little. The eBay set's terminal track was missing one of the posts, while the Straco's was intact. And they were different types. The Straco's terminal track had plastic ties, while the other piece had fiberboard ties.
So I know now that the plastic track goes with the Straco Express, which means that the Bandai fiberboard track belongs to the two earlier sets (I'm assuming that the Straco Express was made after the other two -- it seems newer).
As always, if you happen to know something about these trains -- or know someone who might -- please leave a comment. I'd really like to know more about these toys!
As you may recall, I actually have three different HO gauge Japanese toy trains, all apparently from different manufacturers, yet all using the same track. At least, that's what I thought.
As I was looking through the track pieces to find the best ones to use for the layout (which will be a simple loop). In the process, I discovered that the track was made two different ways. What appears to be the earlier version has ties stamped out of fiberboard. The later version has beveled ties made from injection-molded plastic.
Here are some shots of the two types of track (click on the images to expand them to full size). From the top, both pieces look the same (although if you're observant, you'll see the ties have slightly different widths).
Turn them over, and the differences are a little more obvious. The rail construction seems to be the same for both (note the tab placement), but the plastic version (bottom in the image below) is thinner than the fiberboard kind (top in the image below).
The image below provides a little more detail. The plastic version is on the left, and the fiberboard version on the right.
And more detail, still. Here are the fiberboard ties closeup.
And here are the plastic ties. Note how they're beveled. I suspect the reason was to make them easier to pull out of the mold.
Now here's the thing. I have three different trains by (supposedly) three different manufacturers. Which track goes with which? Since I didn't notice the difference right away, I'm not sure.
When I bought the original Straco Express, it came with some track. We dug up an old set I had at home -- the train was completely different, but the track seemed to be the same. When I purchased the third Bandai set, it came with some track, too. But I couldn't say which pieces came with which set.
The only clue is on the back of the fiberboard-tie track. On the straight pieces of track (not the curved) is embossed with the Bandai trademark in the middle of the phrase "Sign of Quality." (no comment)
So the mystery continues. I had originally assumed that -- because these three sets had the same track -- that either they were made by the same Japanese company for different companies stateside, or perhaps there was a Japanese subcontractor who was supplying the track.
Now I'm not so sure. Was the plastic tie track just an improvement by Bandai over their older design, or was this a knockoff by somebody else?
If anyone has answers, please let me know. In the meantime, I'll be cleaning track and checking connections (those closeups show just how badly rusted this track is).
