rokuhan Rokuhan and PRM Loco Bo-Bo-Bo electrics

[kevsmiththai]

Continuing my personal reflections on the models currently available in Japanese Z I turn to the electric outline locos available. Now it was never my intention to buy any Electric locos and certainly I don't intend to put any catenary up (not after last time!) but Alison at Contikits had bought a collection of Japanese Z and was offering it at very reasonable prices.

 

So I indulged in a Rokuhan EF 66 and a PRMloco EF 64

 

 

The EF66 in Early version livery  is in the foreground with the 64 in JRF Blue and white  behind.

 

Compared to the rolling stock the PRMloco EF64 is very nicely painted and its performance was very good indeed with one small quibble which you will see on the video

 

 

The pair together outside the loco maintenance shed on 'Shasta'

 

 

In the video I test the locos on a variety of my layouts including young Brooklyn's Alpine layout with its evil curves and gradients and Republic Steel and most of my Japanese stock getting let off the leash on my big 'Shasta' layout. This had been out in full length form at the recent Derby model railway exhibition in Union Pacific/Southern guise

 

This show was set in the spectacular surroundings of the original Midland Railway 'Derby' roundhouse with its unusual timber roof and crane gantries set over the turntable (Still in situ) which is now part of Derby College

 

 

Link to video in a minute

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

If you'll excuse my ramblings on the video you'll see I come to the conclusion that both locos are pretty good models. The EF 66 tracks better on the tight curves of our Brooklyn's layout and both suffer from being oversensitive to the Marklin 'Grey' controller but I've started to play with dropper resistors to get the low speed performance better. 

 

Next essay will be a look at weathering Japanese Z stock

 

Link to the video

 

 

Cheers

Kev

 

 

[kvp]

1 minute ago, kevsmiththai said:

and both suffer from being oversensitive to the Marklin 'Grey' controller but I've started to play with dropper resistors to get the low speed performance better. 

Just try a pwm controller, like the ones from Rokuhan. The Maerklin gray is a LM317 based voltage controller with artificial steps instead of a smooth linear voltage ramp. Imho adding resistors just makes it worse.

[Beaver]

Sorry to dig this up, but;

 

Is there a specific minimum radius for the EF64? The video shows it getting stuck on a sharp curve, but exactly how sharp is not clear.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Off topic to an extent, but I am pretty sure Shasta was at the 2013 High Wycombe show. We were there with our big Japanese layout Yamanouchi Oshika.

[kevsmiththai]

Yes 2013 sounds about right

 

Kev