Japanese Z overview

Hi all.

I've just posted another review video on youtube. This time it is the Rokuhan twin DD51 diesels and the Hokutosei coach set that formed the long distance sleeper train to the northern island of Hokkaido in Japan. I picked these up at Zedex earlier this fall and have only had time over the last few days to have a real good look at them. You'll see in the review I'm quite pleased with them and the coaches run a lot better than my Tenshodo ones



I've had quite a lot of correspondence recently from people interested in modelling the railways of japan so I thought I'd do a recap of all the ones I've done. I was suprised at how many I've actually done!

My first review of the DD51s


In steam I first looked at the Tenshodo C62 4-6-4



and also the Tenshodo D51 2-8-2 ( my own personal favourites)



Hopefully I can make this thread a one-stop shop for Japanese Z information based on my own experiences

more soon

Kev

 

Back with diesels the little DE10s from Rokuhan are lovely runners and go round really tight curves as you'll see on our Brooklyns Alpine layout



In this video I do a comparison between the Rokuhan and PRM Loco Electric locos, both good in their own way.



The smallest steam loco curently available is the C11 2-6-4T from Rokuhan



I purchased the standard C57 4-6-2 from Rokuhan as i want my new layout 'Hakuho' to feature the relatively common steam locos in the Showa era but I'm really keen to get the Royal loco decorated with its emblems and flags at some stage



Kev

 

Now you are unlikely to see me reviewing Shinkansen Bullet trains and probably not EMUs as they won't feature on the new layout but I got one of the Rokuhan KIHA 42 railcars



I want to get one of the new railcars from Platz at some stage as they look quite interesting

In the first of the rolling stock videos I compare Tenshodo, Rokuhan and PRM-loco freight wagons directly, taking into account the difference in prices and detailing



Part 2 of the rolling stock has been held back for now as I've been doing some experimenting to try and make the Tenshodo coaches run a lot more freely. It will feature Tenshodo and Rokuhan coaches plus a how-to piece on converting the rather rough Plus Z class 485 EMU coaches into quite realistic excursion stock

Kev