UNITRAM Kato Portram Centram Tests
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Kato Portram and Centram N scale tram tests on KATO UNITRAM turnouts and crossing
SUGGESTED REFERENCES
Kato USA “Suggest a model” (Please use this to suggest “Unitram 40-820 to match V60”, so that they might produce the needed North American RHT road plates highlighted in yellow on this video):
www.katousa.com...
Kato USA Website: www.katousa.com...
UNITRAM products: www.katousa.co...
English manual for similar Japanese V50 set (pdf): www.katousa.com...
UNITRAM turnouts instructions (pdf): www.katousa.com...
Diotown Structures: www.katousa.com...
Light Rail Trams: www.katousa.co...
![fellow fellow - PROUD feat. INK WARUNTORN [STRING QUARTET]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BQrVkMPTdHE/mqdefault.jpg)
woow - cool - i first realized how small they are when u fixed the first derailment - love to see it!
Brilliant insight and detail of these Kato Trams, could watch them for hours. Subbed!
A remarkably thorough and informative presentation! Thank you!
I appreciate that, John Bruce. You probably were the very first viewer.
Thank you very much for this video. It helped me to decide to buy the Unitram-system too.
Have enjoyed your videos! I've ordered a V60 set (could only find one in stock anywhere, as it seems discontinued) and a V50 set to augment it on my N scale Kato Unitrack railroad layout. The Unitram sets will be the basis of my little city area in the middle. Now, to find some of the buildings...
Great setup. I am going to attempt to duplicate your track plan. The video is informative and inspiring. Thank You
Love your video! Especially the night scenes are stunning. Best wishes from Germany!
lol, man I love the science behind the risk management. Blew me away. Great setup.
Thanks Steven! These days I take a lot of pride in showing people how science fits into things they enjoy. I have a similar educational diversion about simple flight dynamics simulation in my new D-Day Parachute Drop Diorama video.
I'm modeling my city after this I've made roads from other products by laying the plaster concrete n painting it grey I just recently moved n I'll be starting fresh with Kato pre assembled roads n lines 🏌you hit this out of the park great work
Thanks Derrick. Good luck modeling!
An overhead wire would look nice, love this video model tramways aren’t that popular so it’s nice to see videos of a big layout.
In N scale, I recommend no overhead wire. Prototype tram wire which appears to be 10mm or less would be in 1/150, 10/150 = 0.067mm = 0.0026in. That is about human hair thickness! It would be only slightly noticeable from above and would make track cleaning exceptionally difficult.
Awesome video. 👍👍👍 can’t get enough of those trams 🚊
Again, magnificent! Thank-you!
Excellent informative video. Thank you.
Noting your comments about Building Lighting, you could now (2018) look at the Backmann plug and play lighting if you are not already aware of it. Your Trams have much inspired me to get my almost forgotten Unitram Set out of storage and start to make a similar Layout Trackwise to yours. But mine will be Long rather than wide due to space constraints. I have also lifted a couple of YT Vids. Look for Dunnyrail Kato.
I love you for loading up this video, it is such a nice layout! I guess the turnouts are non-power routing, am I right?
I know you don't post videos very often, but on the topic of these Kato Trams, have you acquired one of the new Kato "My Trams" (typically come in the red or blue). What intrigues me with those is that they are in three pieces, which almost gives me the impression that you can possibly use multiples to extend a single tram, to make them resembles more like the real streetcars in use in north america.
Cumpliendo con cada una de mis espectativas 🚈🚃🚋🚃🚊🚉🚍👴‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️
you could re-paint the arrows on the Japanese road plates if it bothers you ? love your layout .
Nice
These are my favorite videos
Felicidades 2022♣️🚂♥️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
Nice! I've been searching for Unitram turnouts/points for 2.5 years. Can't find them anywhere 😞
Yes, for years Kato has generally been ignoring their UNITRAM product line and letting stocks dry up. There may be hope though. Without any new track pieces, Kato has recently announced rebundling and smaller repackaging of their V50-V54 track sets. Generally each bundle includes fewer items, so most are less expensive bundles, however inflation has increased the cost per value. I think this is hopeful, because it shows intent to keep UNITRAM in production. Another hope is that their new Hiroshima 1000 trams have appeared in 4 liveries with 2 more announced. No announcement of changes to turnouts, but it is hard to imagine Kato selling more track sets without them also restocking turnouts for expansion.
Perhaps add a moon for the night scene as a quick add in?
Thats brilliant love it. What is the approximate cost for that layout??
this is a nice layout
Lights on the vehicles would take this layout to another level. Great job though.
Hi Vincent! I bought a dozen Woodlands Scenics lighted autos and various streetlights to experiment with. I hate to modify a finished product like unitram plates with holes, so I will probably use them first on some scratchbuilt road scene.
Do Those trams come in defrint colors?
Adorable
Aie aie l'accidents entre tramway sur rials et belle soirée tramway en lumière mais sans élcairage de la ville et immeubles , dommage
Looks like DCC is involved.
In japan cars drive on the left
Yes, Japan is left hand traffic LHT. My layout is an unfortunate compromise of USA RHT and Japan LHT street pieces. When making these videos in 2018, I intended to review USA rolling stock first, so set up USA 1950-1960 autos as RHT. Most of my LHT road arrows are cleverly hidden under autos. Then I changed my mind and decided to do modern Japan rolling stock first, but forgot to change the autos. I never completed my USA rolling stock videos.
I love this layout. I have a basic Unitram oval that I love to run, but I want to add switches and make something like this. Do you have a diagram of the track pieces you used to build this?
G. DiCarlo, glad you like my layout. I do not have a diagram, but it should be fairly clear from looking for the street track and road plate edges in a top view. AFAIK Kato only makes 9 types of Unitram street double track, 62, 124, and 186mm straights, 180mm radius R and L 45deg curves, same dimemsion R and L turnouts, 62mm square 90deg cross, and a street to ballasted track adapter. There are printing variations.
My basic trackplan uses:
1x cross
2x R turnout
2x L turnout
6x R plus L 45deg curve (sold together as 90deg curve)
4x 124mm straight
Only the cross and turnouts must be bought seperately. Although the others can also be bought seperately, I recommend buying 2x of either Japanese left traffic V50 or 2x American right traffic V60 sets because you get most of the corresponding trackless road plates to fill the rest of your layout area without gaps. Each American V60 has 5 less road plates, so for American you also should buy 2x set 40-820 street set, which unfortunately is only Japanese left traffic. Because of the lack of any American right traffic equivalents to the Japanese sets, I recommend going all Japanese left traffic for consistency without repainting the road markings.
My layout should first be run with only one controller power supply connected. There will be no current shorting worries and all trams will move together in the correct directions. For the more electrically advanced modeler, two controllers can be connected, but Kato insulating joints must be used in specific places. I have directed commenter Les Lind below where to find my detailed advice on this.
Good luck!
Nice layout. You inspired me to start one too. Getting V50 and V51 sets since no one has the V60s in stock or at a reasonable price. Are the trams DCC compatible?
Thanks, rudedog. 5 years after intro, those nice right hand traffic RHT V60’s now seem to have been a failed marketing experiment. There probably was only one production run and it is now scarce. No RHT versions of V51-54 track extension sets or the 3 road plate sets ever appeared. With V50, at least you will have everything LHT.
Concerning DCC, I don’t use it and know very little about the many (loco and track) compatibility issues, so I can’t answer for sure. I have never taken a Portram apart, but they are not advertised as having any (6, 18,... pin) plug interface. You might consider joining the English-speaking Japan N Scale JNS forum for your DCC questions.
I just googled “kato portram dcc” and read this link:
www.nscale.net/forums/showthread.php?48000-Kato-Centram-Portram-DCC-questions
Nscale.net is a different website than JNSforum which I just recommended. JNSforum had a lot of discussion, but it was untested ideas and 10 years old. Nscale.net had a link you should read to a Chech guy that successfully put DCC in his Portram with some issues. He has good instructions and some videos. It seems to me that it was very difficult micro surgery and soldering, but the guy was a DCC expert. BTW, Kato USA doesn’t recomment attempting DCC.
@@theonetruescale I got my V50 from Hobby Search. It wasn’t cheap w/ the shipping charges as you mentioned. But it was well worth it. Have the V51 on back order then I’ll be set. Yeah, the portrams are very small. I’ll keep this system on DC and separate. Thanks for the feedback and info.
on your center crossover have you had problems with trams or st cars derailing in one direction on one side if so how did you correct mine just does it on one side either direction does the cross in center are they different on each you order on how they fit
Hi again jerry. Please proofread your question. It is very complicated and hard to understand. I think you have strung together about five seperate sentences (two incomplete) without any capitalization or periods. Maybe you just used voice command without proofreading. I usually ignore poorly explained questions, but I will try to guess what you are talking about.
1) You didn’t say whether your “one direction one side derailing” is with Kato Portram/Centrams or other stock. Yes I have had similar asymmetric behavior happen with Portrams and also a Modemo Deha 200.
2) I never found a “smoking gun” 100% cause, so didn’t 100% correct anything. The articulated Deha 200 was noticeably stiffer bending to one side than the other, so I just ran it on the side that was OK. The Portram derailed its rear half on one turnout for unknown reasons, but usually rerailed itself with the front engine pulling. In the second half of this video, I note that one of my turnouts had a noticeably weaker point spring (or maybe some friction) that allowed the inside point to stick in a midway position. This reliably derailed every Portram moving toward the point, so I always used the opposite direction for running tests. I had hoped to dissect and fix this turnout and show how in a video, but never got around to it. Also near the end of this video I show how a small piece of plastic street plate was not pressed down all the way and caused repeaded derailments.
3) I used to think that the center cross was a big cause of stalls and derailments. It doesn’t look that precisely made, and seems to allow significant rail head height misalignments. I later decided that the height misalignments were no worse than typical on unitrack. The crossings did seem to cause stalls on some slow running of motive stock that had wheel spacing lining up with the crossing gaps. However, I found far more stall and derailment problems with turnout frog gaps and points.
4) Sorry I am not offering you any magic fixes. As well as the Unitram track and Kato Portrams usually seem to run, one must realize that very technically challenging model railroading is happening here. Before flywheels became commonplace about 2000-2010, slow running without stalling over multiple gaps and uneven track was impossible in n scale. With Unitram/Portram, yes we now have flywheels, but we are trying to run even slower with lightweight see-through vehicles with complex articulation over tighter curves with gaps spaced much more closely. I am actually surprised that it even works most of the time.
5) If you are not satisfied with the running, I think there are only two choices other than giving up:
a. Look into cause/effect and debugging even deeper than I am willing to.
b. Accept that Portrams and Unitram turnouts are cutting edge technology, and that maybe 10-20% of those you buy will not perform adequately, so must be returned or bought again. That is my choice.
@@theonetruescale I was able to fix my problem on the center crossover why do the programs run so much slower than the Peter Witt Street cars
does this happen alot with this kind of track
Stupid question, but the cars are supposed to drive over the train tracks? I don't see complete roads.
I am not sure exactly what your question is, but:
1) These n scale cars are too small to be motorized. Tomix makes battery powered motorized busses that steer by using anmagnet to attract a steel wire under the road. A few scratchbuilders have successfully had added this wire to Kato Unitrack.
2) If you are referring to the road markings not appearing to be a continuous street, they actually are fairly correct, given model compromises. In similar prototype intersections, the cars would cross the tracks when they have the signal. Unitram looks very similar to modern prototype intersections seen from above. I can see how the road looks discontinuous from above, but to the driver at street level, it looks ok. I have driven through many such tram intersections in San Francisco.
Your vids are awesome
Where did you find your eco green tram ?
Dave’s World 77, I got it in 2015 from Hobby Search in Japan or Model Train Stuff in Baltimore MD.
Where did you buy these from/where would you recommend going to buy Unitram track? Also what is the radius of the curves? Thanks
ChicagoLTrain115, I got most online from Hobby Search in Japan and from Model Train Stuff in Baltimore MD. Radius of all Unitram curves is 180 mm, whether inside or outside. I think you also had a question about reversing loops. That answer is complicated enough to do a whole video on, since two coupled turnouts are in each turnout piece. The quick answer is that you never encounter the usual 2-rail short circuit avoidance wiring challenges with reversing loops, so long as you only connect Unitram (or Kato double track) pieces together. You can only encounter a loop short if you connect some single track in a way not possible with double track, like looping back to the same (single of two) Unitram turnout.
Hi what is the hight of the tram sections. I want the tram parts but not the rest on my layout
Hi Matthew! Kato Unitram track has the same bottom-to-railhead height as Kato ballasted Unitrack height, ~7mm. Tomix Wide Tram track also matches Tomix ballasted track (and Tomix Moving Bus System road plates), but is lower height than Kato, ~6mm. Tomix Wide Tram might be more versatile for scratchbuilding into your layout since you can do both single and double track. Tomix does not have any Wide Tram turnouts, though. You have to use their single R140 turnout and glue on molded road inserts from a specificTomix accessory kit.
the onetruescale so if I get foam board to that hight it will look flush
can you use any n scale train or do you need to use the kato train
Jim, you can use other trams or trains with Kato Unitram, but which ones and under what conditions is complicated. My other videos show certain other manufacturers trams working. If you want street running freight, some locomotives and some freight cars even work! With powered trams and locomotives, the critical issue is whether the wheels and drive mechanism are designed to run on a tight curve of 180mm radius or less without mechanically binding up. If that proves OK, then the next issue for both powered and non-powered stock may be whether the couplers can handle the curves without binding up or releasing. If that is OK, you should be able to run on plain (flat, no protruding vertical accessories) Unitram track, but Unitram turnouts with their complicated points could cause derails or power stalls. If that is OK, the next issue is whether clearances with vertical accessories will jam the tram, locomotive, or car. Kato vertical accessories that can cause these clearance jams are their tram catenary posts (with their raised barriers between doubletrack) and their modern slightly raised tram stop platform with fences and awning. If you want to use any of these vertical accessories, your rolling stock choices that will clear them may be significantly reduced. By bending the verticals of the tram stop awning outward about 2mm, I have even been able to run an Atlas GP 40 with Micro Trains 50’ freight cars on my layout. I have also gotten many small American, Japanese, and European electric, diesel, and steam locomotives and various smaller freight and passenger cars to run fine. If you are committed to running something this way, I suggest buying an American V60 or Japanese V50 Unitram set, and borrowing rolling stock from a friend or shop to test before purchasing. Good luck!
@@theonetruescale thanks alot
you wouldnt have one left hand switch you would sell to me would you ??
I can’t spare one, sorry. My source is temporarily out too, but try signing up with them to be notified when it is in stock.
www.1999.co.jp/eng/10189001
@@theonetruescale thanks for quick reply found 2 rights and one left yesterday just need one left
cant help but laugh looking at the prices for such a setup ... you people are hilarious burning so much cash on such cheap molded plastic moved by the most basic electrics.
Dont even want to know what it would cost to make this programmable, so that the vehicles can be properly controlled and use stops etc.