EF58 Kato? Tomix? Other?

[Pierre-Noël Rietsch]

I just found a JNR engine on eBay, but I can't find any informations about this model:

 

The seller thank it's Kato, but I didn't find this model anywhere on the net. The body is plastic, 2 axles are motorised on the one bogie, and all 6 wheels of the other bogie pick the current. The pantographs are obviously not original (will be replaced), and the lights on the front sides looks to have bees added later (in particular the red lights middle of the number plates...). The 2 "shunting agents" are locals from here :-)

 

 

Who knows more about this engine? And, how to open it? (I'll have to remove the decoder, as I run DC analogic, and presently it runs always in the same direction)

 

Muc thanks all!

 

PN Rietsch

 

[railsquid]

Pretty sure neither Kato nor Tomix have produced the EF58 in HO. I wonder if it's a plastic kit which has been motorized?

Edited February 20, 2018 by railsquid
I meant EF58

[Pierre-Noël Rietsch]

I just found how to open it (4 toothpicks...), and it looks so inside:

 

It doesn't look to be a motorized plastic kit. It looks that the decoder has been fitted afterwards with 8-pole NEM plug, and the light is definitively "do-it-yourself".

 

Anybody has an idea, which brand and which era it could be...?

[railsquid]

As far as I can tell, the only current HO model of the old-style EF58 is produced by Tenshodo, and that looks a lot more advanced than this one.

 

The only other HO models appear to have been motorizable plastic kits by Eidai (永大) and Ootaki (オオタキ) respectively, see this page: http://ef58.info/EF58/toy/58-toy.html

 

These two pages:

 

https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/robin99robo/7642737.html

http://shinshonan.exblog.jp/23055272/

 

show the Eidai version in more detail.

 

I'd bet it's a heavily modified version of one of those kits.

[railsquid]

22 hours ago, railsquid said:

Pretty sure neither Kato nor Tomix have produced the EF58 in HO. I wonder if it's a plastic kit which has been motorized?

 

More precisely neither Kato nor Tomix have produced the old-style EF58 in any scale.

[Gryphr]

Could you link the ebay auction you bought it from? That could possibly give a clue about the model.
I suspect it might be a kitbash of one (or several) models as I haven't seen many Japanese models with the Märklin-style couplers so far.

 

The only thing I could find about it in the internet was your thread on DSO.

Edited February 20, 2018 by Gryphr

[Pierre-Noël Rietsch]

15 hours ago, Gryphr said:

Could you link the ebay auction you bought it from? That could possibly give a clue about the model.
I suspect it might be a kitbash of one (or several) models as I haven't seen many Japanese models with the Märklin-style couplers so far.

 

Here is the link (from eBay Germany):

https://www.ebay.ch/itm/Kato-Elektrolok-JR-Spur-H0-digital/292399549359?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

But there is not much info on it... The seller only thank it's Kato, and was even only supposing that it's a japanese model!

[Pierre-Noël Rietsch]

15 hours ago, railsquid said:

The only other HO models appear to have been motorizable plastic kits by Eidai (永大) and Ootaki (オオタキ) respectively, see this page: http://ef58.info/EF58/toy/58-toy.html

 

These two pages:

 

https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/robin99robo/7642737.html

http://shinshonan.exblog.jp/23055272/

 

show the Eidai version in more detail.

 

I'd bet it's a heavily modified version of one of those kits.

 

Actually, looks exactly like!

[marknewton]

I had an Otaki EF58 that I used as kitbashing fodder. I'm reasonably certain that your model is based on that kit.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[HantuBlauLOL]

isn't it EF57?

[Gryphr]

2 hours ago, HantuBlauLOL said:

isn't it EF57?

 

From what I could gather the EF58 were originally (1946-1948) built with the "porches" in front of the cab. New locomotives built from 1952 had the full length body design, whilst the original locomotives were eventually rebuilt to the new design

[marknewton]

Yes, that's correct. The new build locos had the streamlined full length body, and the older locos had replacement bodies built to the new streamlined design. The original EF 58 bodies were then fitted to the wartime EF13s. The only EF58s to retain the original short body and porches were EF58 32 to 34, which were regeared for freight traffic and reclassified as EF18.

 

http://agui.net/tasya/jnr/jnrEF18-1r-takagi.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited February 22, 2018 by marknewton

[Nick_Burman]

9 hours ago, marknewton said:

http://agui.net/tasya/jnr/jnrEF18-1r-takagi.jpg

 

Er... photo taken at Shin-Kanaya?

 

Cheers NB

[marknewton]

Apparently it was. I didn't notice the caption or the location at first.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

[EF57]

Were any ef57s rebuilt with cabs?

[kvp]

26 minutes ago, EF57 said:

Were any ef57s rebuilt with cabs?

It looks like no. Even the last batch of ef58s didn't get the streamlined upgrade. All i can find is that they at some point were rebuilt for electric heating instead of steam after being transferred to the Tohoku mainline. Also they were only usable on the DC sections.