At last weekends Nottingham Model railway exhibition, which was a really good show with 26 layouts and 30 trade stands, I had a lot of people come to see Shasta after its big spread in Continental Modeller magazine. As you might expect a lot of people were highly impressed with the running and detailing of modern Z stock from the likes of AZL and MTL. Some modellers who had abandoned Z after unhappy experiences with Marklin locos went away determined to have another go at Z. Apart from the usual stuff we run I also took along a Tenshodo C62. I had picked it up at last years Zedex along with some coaches but had not done anything with it over the winter and though I'd give it a blast round Shasta and see what it was like. This loco also attracted a lot of attention and as the very existence of Japanese Z was news to many people so I thought I'd give it a rather belated review For those unaware of the prototype the C62 was Japans largest and fastest steam passenger loco, introduced in 1948 and eventually totalling up to 49 examples. Although built to 'Cape gauge' i.e 3'6" gauge one example managed a top speed of 80 mph in 1954 which must have been quite an exhilarating ride! The class was finally withdrawn in 1973 with three being preserved. They looked very american in design and had the charecteristic skyline dome casing on top of the boiler and full depth smoke deflectors next the model Kev
The model First impression of the model are very good. finely detailed valve gear, flush cab glazing and blackened wheel rims give it a fine scale appearance The obvious compromise is that being built to standard gauge the trailing and tender trucks are overwide and very prominent. As supplied the loco had a mini Rapido coupler on the rear and an MTL/AZL compatible buckeye on the front with alternative replacements in the box. Like its sister engine, the AZL Mikado, the motor is in the tender driving the loco drivers through a cardan shaft through the cab, The wiring between the loco and cab is unobtrusive and seems flexible enough to cope with the average curve its likely to meet in service. talking of the AZL Mike here is a nose to nose comparison between the two designs The packaging is the standard Tenshodo plastic case with a moulded insert and included are the replacement couplers and a set of Japanese instructions next the video Kev
First running impressions were very good with a nice low speed range and the valve gear looking neat when it was running. You would expect it from Tenshodo with deacdes of experience producing high quiality models. No evidence of torque reaction were spotted on the tender and the top speed wasn't too daft. The video however will give you a much better impression of what it runs like, some is shot in the workshop and some at Nottingham MREX with yours truly waffling away to link it together. It did seem a bit light on its feet and would only pull four of the Tenshodo brown coaches but seven of the blue ones. I suspect the brown ones are a lot stiffer running. once I've exchanged the rear coupling for a buckeye I'll retest with my NKP train #6 which I use as a benchmark for hauling power for locomotives. This is a mix of Marklin AZL and Hallmark cars all with metal wheels. The impressive thing is the price, Z-track are doing them at $137 which is fantastic value for money for a model of this quality and I'm getting very tempted to do a steam era Japanese layout at some stage. many people have the impression that Japan is all big cities with all electified lines but once you get out into the country it is hills, forests and single line for many miles. Plenty of scope to use a few hundred more of my stock pile of Architrees! anyway the video [video=youtube;anbXB9iVEqM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anbXB9iVEqM&list=UUI6p-eLL5zX3K226z27Josg&feature=share[/video] Cheers KEV Kev
Great review Kev! Neat peice of machinery and it does seem to have the same running characteristics as the AZL mikes. My guess is AZL's next steammer will be a pacific maybe?
having found the Pacific C62 from Tenshodo, you ought to try one of their D51 Mikado, they were the first to come from Tenshodo and are great as well, and you can see what inspired the AZL Mikado, which has some improvements over the #51, a bit bigger tender, room for more weight and a decoder and traction tires, I did find Bullfrog Snot applied to the rear driver of the C62 and D51 did improve their ability to lift a train, and with tender pickup the electrical pick up was not compromised in doing this.
couple of photos of D51 there were 6 versions on three body variations, and of course they all come with a coupler change from mini Rapido to dummy buckeye or knuckle coupler
Yes I might try that. I've had some good results with it replacing traction tyres on AZL GPs and SD70Ms. One thing it has encouraged me to do is start researching steam era JNR. Books seem to be hard to find though Kev
Books on Japanese Steam in English are indeed had to find, With the arrival of the C62 Hudson and the D51 Mikado, I am looking forward to a C57 Pacific, which might lead to a USRA Pacifc to complement the AZL Mikado, but I hear rumors of a C12 2-6-2T or a C11 2-6-4T type coming along in the future. In researching steam in Japan here is someplace to start. http://homepage.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/oliver.l.mayer/japan/verkehr/steam.htm I have a fair collection of Micro Ace and Kato steam with one piece of Tomix and the real sweat hearts are the Mikados of Real Line. regards Garth
Either of the tank locos would be brilliant not just as Japanese locos but also as donor chassis for British outline engines. thanks for the link Kev
I find that searching for the loco class on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JNR_Class_C62 and then clicking on the Japanese language symbol on the left takes you to the Japanese Wikipedia page http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/国鉄C62形蒸気機関車 which has many more pages of information than the english page. You have to run it through your favourite translation program which sometimes struggle with railway terminology but you can glean extra information and photos. When I found out how interesting the steam era Japanese railways were I decided to stop trying to figure out what U.S. locos I could turn my Kato or Micro-Ace steamers into and appreciate them for what they actually are.
Does anybody know how the scale of the drive wheels (diameter and spacing) of this Japanese prototype 4-6-4 compares to an American Hudson 4-6-4? Thanks, -Jon
Give me a couple of days Jon and I'll dig out the drawings and let you know if any are close, If the NYC 20th century limited streamliner is close I might ask Stonysmith if he fancies doing a 3d printed one. I have done the Nickel Plate L1 4-6-4 by converting the Marklin 4-6-2 It still needs outside frames on the trailing truck Kev
Excellent! thanks Kev, I appreciate that. Funny you mention the NYC 20th century limited. I was planning on trying to print out a model of that if the proportions are at least somewhat close. But I have not been able to find elevation drawings of the locomotive anywhere.... Do you mind me asking where you got the drawings or where its possible to purchase a set? Thanks, -Jon
Model Railroader magazine April 1988 according to my database. I haven't scanned them in but I'll dig them out over the weekend and send you the scans as attachments. Kev
That would be fantastic Kev. I really appreciate that. I've looked high and low for such plans with no luck.... My dad had a ton of N gauge magazines from when I was a kid. But he recycled them about 20 years ago when he moved to Florida and got into RC planes.... Its a wealth of information I'll never find on the net.... Thanks, -Jon
This is not a real comparison as the Japanese C62 is relative to the J3 a narrow gauge engine. It operated on 42 inch track and it highest speed was 80 KPH on 69 inch drivers versus the J3 at 120 mph on 79 inch drivers and the J3 weighs in at twice the weight of the C62, the only measurement that comes close to matching is the overall length of the two, engine with tender at 70 feet, I could not find a wheelbase measurement for the C62 but for the J3 it is 40ft, for J3 dimensional data http://www.steamlocomotive.com/hudson/?page=nyc
Garth, if you think about it, subtracting 5 inches on each side of a 79 inch diameter wheel and then scaling it down to Z scale might not be that far of a stretch. I think wheel spacing and how accurate Tenshodo is to the real C62 will also be a factor. But laying out Tenshodo's actual dimensions of its C62 locomotive drive wheels on drawings of the NYC 20th century limited will tell the whole story. It will either look good or forced.... Thanks, -Jon
