[MOC] Small diesel railcar in 1:22.5 scale - Nekoya line

[Paperinik77pk]

Hi all, 

after a bit of inactivity I found something simple but interesting. Again, it's a model of a small railcar, produced by Japanese Tomytech and identified with JI3 code.

It is part of a full collection of narrow gauge railway vehicles , working on the so-called "Nekoya Line". I really did not succeed to understand if this Line is a real railway or a fantasy one, but I really like the idea and its toyish look. What I can understand is that the JI3 represents a 762mm gauge vehicle.

Therefore, I started to design it recycling the chassis design of my old yellow locomotive , running on G gauge track (and adapting it a bit).

A new, flatter motor was designed in order to save space and allow for some simple interior details. It is only 2wd, since coupling rods are not fitted. Final gear ratio can be customized, depending on the track conditions and steepness. One or two rubber bands on traction wheels could avoid wheel slipping.

Medium motor could be used, but only on flat railways. L motor is stronger, and surely more suitable to a less flat terrain

I sincerely did not even make the effort to fit the XL motor, since it is a small vehicle and it won't pull heavy loads. Here I used the Powered Up version, but the motor unit can be adapted to use Power Functions motors too. 

Chassis is pretty flat and simple, I added  fake suspensions and two reservoirs to have some details and refine the design a bit.

And here it is , in a pretty different color schema and pulling its small wagon. In this case I did not use the usual Marklin G scale chassis for wagons, so the little trailer features normal axles with black Lego XL wheels.

As you can see it's SIMILAR to the Tomitech model, but different in many details, such as doors, radiator grille, roof, ladders...and so on. It seems a small pig to me!

Coupling is made by a fixed bar between railcar and wagon.  I use to build an "Y" junction to reverse trains, so detaching the wagon won't be a real need. A "standard" (for my railway ) coupling allows to attach a normal G scale wagon to the small trailer, but it's better not to overload the whole vehicle to save the small AAA batteries.

The single headlight in the front and the single tail light allow to use only one PuP or PF set of lights on the railcar. However, under the roof, a small battery can take place in order to activate leds on headlight and tail light ...and to illuminate the whole interior for a "by night" or "bad weather" experience! 

As you can see...this time there are some passengers, which are a bit smaller than Miniland ones, but more or less built in the same way.

One specific difference from the Tomytech model is the fact that  the railcar has only one door on one side, due to the presence of the battery, Therefore also the ladder is asymmetric. The wagon has one door per side, as the prototype.

Doors are something I wanted to try from some time. These doors are folding ones, simple to build and giving some life to the railcar. 

And I'd say that's all for this time!!! 

Ciao!

Davide

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Paperinik77pk

[Feuer Zug]

Nice find and build. Your ability to go from 4-wide to 14-wide is incredible. The people appear perfect for the railcar too.

[Darkkostas25]

Cute and looks like it`s made for legotownes from Legoland maybe this one a Lil bit smaller 

[Duq]

Very nice 'inspired by' project! You have it motorised... do you have a loop of track? How do you do the turns?

[Paperinik77pk]

On 11/30/2022 at 4:41 PM, Feuer Zug said:

Nice find and build. Your ability to go from 4-wide to 14-wide is incredible. The people appear perfect for the railcar too.

Thank you, very appreciated!  People is still an experiment, since I am absolutely re-using the Miniland/Legoland style, but in 1:22.5 instead of 1:20. I'm not doing so much, apart making them shorter 

On 11/30/2022 at 10:20 PM, Darkkostas25 said:

Cute and looks like it`s made for legotownes from Legoland maybe this one a Lil bit smaller 

Thanks!!! Confirmed, the railcar is a smaller than Legoland/Miniland , and I feel people is still a bit too big in comparison. They need a diet of some kind 

On 11/30/2022 at 11:36 PM, Duq said:

Very nice 'inspired by' project! You have it motorised... do you have a loop of track? How do you do the turns?

Thank you!!! 

Currently I have some real G scale rolling stock from LGB/NEWQIDA (and a full Lego train) running on a removable plastic track that I usually lay down in the garden. I make some changes every time, but it's always a point-to point railway, with one reversing loop on one side and a "Y" junction to reverse locomotives. It's pretty large, so I normally reverse the whole trains. 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Hi Davide,
beautiful project! 

I had seen it in passing during the week but I wanted to take some time to comment on it worthily.

The train is very nice with its caricatured shapes, the rendering as usual is splendid and the scale with the Legoland style characters is top notch!

[Paperinik77pk]

1 hour ago, LEGO Train 12 Volts said:

Hi Davide,
beautiful project! 

I had seen it in passing during the week but I wanted to take some time to comment on it worthily.

The train is very nice with its caricatured shapes, the rendering as usual is splendid and the scale with the Legoland style characters is top notch!

Thanks Emanuele for your kind words!!! Very appreciated as usual!! 

[XG BC]

nice model. you are really good at all scales!

[Paperinik77pk]

19 hours ago, XG BC said:

nice model. you are really good at all scales!

Thanks sir! Your small and standard scale are indeed getting very good too! 😍