Thank you John Courtneidge! I just discovered Magnorail too, but do not have plans yet to buy anything. I like the effect of having other vehicles than just trains moving.I have been experimenting some with the N scale Tomytek Moving Bus System. It is similar to the HO Faller Car System, but more plug and play with ready-to-run track pieces. Unfortunately, Tomytek seems to have abandoned producing some of the more advanced items like intersections and rechargable motor chassis. Also a little frustrating that absolutely nothing is compatible between it and Kato Unitram road plates. Some modelers have DIY added steel wires under Unitram with reasonable success. I may eventually try that too. Magnorail seems to be a nicely designed mass-produced modularized solution to the basis of the old trick of making ice skaters move on a pond diorama. I have been watching very good KZfaq videos of Magnorail done on the Everhard Junction British OO layout. Although a good technical solution, there seems to be quite a bit of modeling finesse to get it to work well. Most of the finesse seems to involve the ~0.5mm surface for the magnetic gap, and it’s friction with the chain magnets below and the vehicle magnet/slider above. The only N video that I have seen was a technically similar but homebuilt little Japanese diorama that worked very well. I think it even had a railroad crossing, which seems impossible considering the magnetic gap. Anyway, I digress, but I love the idea of integrating a nice stream of N scale vehicles into a train or tram layout. Good luck with Magnorail!

Thanks. I have shells from both and the painting is not bad. Unfortunately the scale and detail of these ~1980 models is very toylike. The ~1980 mechanisms won’t run slower than ~100mph and they make horrendous noise. I think Bachmann improved the mechanisms ~2000, but I am patiently waiting for a modern model.

Auto tram stop would involve scratchbuilding in some sensor and connecting it to some control timer. I know very little about analog or digital block control, so I cannot help. The new power pack is noticeably better with slow speed control. It also has a very fast short circuit breaker.

Hi Matthew. I usually get my Unitram and other Japanese stuff from Hobby Search in Japan. They have a complex but excellent website with great search tools and lots of photos. Their translations are often difficult, though: www.1999.co.jp/eng/list/605/0/1 Model Train Stuff (ex. M.D. Klein) in Baltimore is my preferred US supplier. MTS prices are higher than HS except when MTS is about 35% lower than Kato MSRP. High shipping cost of large items from Japan often makes MTS cheaper than HS. MTS shipping is rarely more than $20, while HS shipping is often forced to be by insured air “EMS” which may be from $50 to $120. All Unitrack can be combined with Unitram. Kato makes a special Unitram straight piece that widens the 25mm track spacing to 33mm Unitrack spacing. If you are just snapping Unitrack together, often you can strain the track slightly to accommodate 25mm. Also, Unitram 45 deg curves widen to 33mm, so you could just accept having all transitions at 45 deg. Good luck!

I forgot to mention that HS does not sell the V60 North American set (right hand traffic), so try US sources for that. Also consider whether you want to model US or Japan, since there are unfortunately still no extension sets for the V60. You can get many extension sets for the Japanese V50 (left hand traffic) set. Except for painting and inserted accessories, V60 and V50 have physically and electrically identical parts (though V50 has 3 more street pieces).

@@theonetruescale Thanks very much for the info, I will check their site. I guess I would prefer V60 style RHT, but if most of the add ons and accessories are V50 Lht style, I might go that route. I don't even mind mixing them, lol. I did see online that Tony's Trains has V60 bundle with the Black Centram for $225. Thanks again, your videos are very inspiring and I think the Unitram will be a great entry for me. Not sure when I will be able to make my first purchases, but I will let you know, as it's your videos that helped me decide how to start.

@@theonetruescale The Unitram sets at that website include an articulated tram and one power pack, if I'm understanding it properly. Very nice, everything needed to start in one package.

Matthew Wilson , I have had some trouble understanding some of your questions: If “that website” means Tony’s, I got my first two V50 sets from Tony’s in 2015 and recommend them too. $225 for a V60 plus a black Centram is $50 less than Kato MSRP, but V60 (40-810) does not come with a power pack unless Tony is bundling that too. If “that website” means the Hobby Search link that I gave you, note that there have been 4 different products called V50. The 40-800 near bottom of their list included neither tram nor power pack. The 40-900 included power pack and tram with three tram color offerings. If you mix RHT V60 with the LHT extension sets like I did for my two different layouts in 5 of my videos, you may later regret that you didn’t go totally LHT by starting with a V50. You will gradually notice that almost all of the complex printed road detail and the inserted accesssories conflict in a nonsensical way, like opposing arrows and more. In 2017 I was hoping that Kato would soon follow up V60 with RHT versions of most or all of the extension sets. I now think that V60 sales worldwide have probably not been strong enough convince Kato to support RHT extension sets. I think that I misunderstood your earlier question about M1 and M2 Unitrack sets. I thought you wanted to combine the two track types in continuous loops like Kato shows in some example layouts. You probably just wanted to know if you could surround a V60 with a seperate M1 loop for normal trains. V60 dimensions are 496x620mm. M1 and M2 use R315 (centerline) track, which needs inside train clearance of about half of 33mm per side. Narrow dimension inside the M1 or M2 oval is (2x315)-33=597mm, which means that the 496mm of the V60 fits inside with 101mm to spare. The 620mm will probably fit inside of the wide part of the oval, but is hard to calculate because the rectangular corners might intrude into the curves. If so, just buy a little more straight unitrack. Personally, instead of the M1, I would suggest getting the more interesting V16 banked double track set (R282/R315) to surround a V60.

In video I mention that trams are not included!

Long ago, I used to have 3 Cornish Rex cats from the same litter. One wouldn’t go near the trains. Another liked to jump up, but was quite clumsy and would knock trains over. The third was a true model railroader. He would sit on the sidelines with quiet amazement. If a train stopped, he would walk carefully over scenery to it and gently nudge the train until it restarted.

No, Kato Unitram is Japanese N scale 1/150. More than twice as small as 1/64.

I like the new Kato SX controller. Low speed control is better, and short circuit breaker is very fast.

@@theonetruescale is that the 018

N scale.

I don’t have any insider knowledge but I follow Kato product strategy pretty closely. We modelers depend on long availability of some favorite system like unitrack, diotown plates, double track plates, banked double track, unitram... Manufacturers must prioritize revenue , so must concentrate on the next new thing, usually new train prototypes or features. Once the tooling investment is done for something, contuation is mostly a matter of demand vs profit. If demand isn’t high enough to made profit on a small production restart batch, it will be delayed until demand is high enough, which could be a long time. I think unitram has only been a so-so success in Japan with competition from Tomytec’s tram and bus system. Unitram has not had new track parts since the turnouts in 2012. I think unitram has probably been disappointing Worldwide, so we never got any (print change only) RHT follow-up additions to the RHT V60 set. On the bright side, Kato still seems to revive old unitram track production about every two years. They also just added a second totally new tooled Hiroshima 3-element tram. They added a technically new Japanese “unitram” track set which is paved track for an automobile loading and/or container forklift facility. I am not holding my breath for many new trams or significant unitram tooling like a new “Y” turnout that could join to a R and L to make a T junction. I think unitram is likely to continue sporadic production, but rarely going to get new tooling or even print/paint changes.

@@theonetruescale thanks for the info

N Scale