Talk about tiny critters…

[bsoplinger]

If I had the funds today, I'd order one of each just cause. I assume these are JNR prototypes, perhaps they're just manufacturer whimsy.

Tiny Maintenance car:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10060780

Drive train for above:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10060778

Motor for above:
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10060779

[TiVoPrince]

Whoa!
looks like a Nscale Athearn "Hustler".  May not quite reach "warp speed" though...

Drive train may be useful for lead toy weightes cheater boxcars though...

[up1950s]

Odd you should have brought this one up . I got an email from them yesterday . I am on the waiting list for one . I think with a new cab it would look fairly American . I passed that site on to Randy yesterday as well  , to see what his impressions were .

[Chris333]

I think this is just a version of the 25T drive that Randy made. Probably doesn't run great, but really when you get this small just being able to move under power is something.

[sparky]

Yeah, but is it DCC ready? 

[FrankCampagna]

Yeah, but is it DCC ready?

Will it pull 10 heavyweight cars up a 4% grade? Really, to have this available commercially might be a good thing. Some aren't into scratchbuilding motors. Frank

[randgust]

If Plazajapan can get me one for less than $40, I'd consider it, but right now that's one pricey little critter when it's more than double the price of Kato parts and I have no use for the body.

I'd conceptually sketched out a powertrain using ONE truck of a Tomytec, and that certainly has promise.

http://gustafson.home.westpa.net/critterfest3.jpg

If I'm going to do another four-wheeler, it will be based on this.

[TiVoPrince]

Is it a kit?
Will be question heard far and wide at train shows...

[up1950s]

If Plazajapan can get me one for less than $40, I'd consider it, but right now that's one pricey little critter when it's more than double the price of Kato parts and I have no use for the body.

I'd conceptually sketched out a powertrain using ONE truck of a Tomytec, and that certainly has promise.

http://gustafson.home.westpa.net/critterfest3.jpg

If I'm going to do another four-wheeler, it will be based on this.

Iffin its gonna be another kit , count me in . The only things I have that are 4 wheelers that work are a few Kato pocket juice jacks that I made into diesels for my Conner Mining Co .

[brokemoto]

A little knife and file work could turn this thing into a car mover that some smaller industries have.  The prototype is usually good for moving one or two cars at a time, but usually no more.  Some small cement plants and food warehouses operate these things.  The prototypes are comparitively inexpensive; some are even rubber tyred.

The Kato juice-jack is a pretty good little scoot.  I have a pair hardwired together that I, also, bashed into diesels.  I have another one that I hardwired to a cheater boxcar that has an old plastic frame LL FA as its power chassis.  At extremely slow speeds, the DC throttle response of the Kato electric switcher and the LL plastic frame FA are about the same.  Add enough voltage for thirty SMPH, or more, and the Kato will start to spin its wheels, but I really do not want to run the switcher at any more than twenty SMPH, anyhow.  The LL FA cheater allows this thing to outpull the prototype (or any similar prototype) by quite a bit.

[up1950s]

To me that looks close enough to me re-cabed and maybe re-sideframed into a GE 25 tonner of the class 1 type . Holly Sugar had one as shown in the critter book . I found these on the web .

http://yardlimit.railfan.net/archive/hv/7750-1.jpg

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/sgf25a.jpg