MicroAce quality question

[Jimbo]

are they any good?? E bay seller had one till I bought it!!   He seems well versed in JP rail,,, Its a Nagano Electric Railways 2000 EMU 3 cars all I wanted nothing bigger,,, he has run it on his layout an its fine al works,  He has even offered me some of his personal stuff which I cant take, just don't feel right about it,,

Edited April 5, 2019 by railsquid
edit title for clarity

[katoftw]

MicroAce generally is good. But some aren't good models. Older models would be well documented on blog if they were the bad ones.

[Das Steinkopf]

MicroAce models are generally good, they tend to do a lot of stuff such as private railway stock and slightly more obscure models that Tomix and Kato don't touch, I have a number of them such as a KiYa 95 Dr Tokai track inspection train and a variety of EMU's, they tend to be a little more expensive than Kato and Tomix but when you are getting trains that those two manufacturers won't touch they are worth it.

[railsquid]

Another difference with MicroAce is that for most models, the detailing parts (number plates, grab handles, antennae etc.) come already pre-assembled, the only user-applicable parts are usually destination blinds. They also tend towards very specific models, i.e. a representation of a set as it ran in a particular timeframe.

[railsquid]

Mechanically I find MicroAce generally as good as Tomix or Kato (there are a few exceptions like the DD16, which has old-fashioned split-bogie pickups which are lousy on curves). Mainly however with a bit of careful work, even older models can be made to run well. However MicroAce doesn't really provide spare parts.

 

 

[Jimbo]

received the cars today tried them out very cool.. a bit noisy when in reverse, but other then that very nice

[cteno4]

Microace can sometimes take some lubing and a bit of break in running, is it new or used? If used it could also have some gunk in the truck gears that need cleaning out.

 

jeff

[Jimbo]

It was so called used,,,  But by  looking at it ,,,, used very little!!!   lol he found it in a pawn shop of all places!!

[Martijn Meerts]

MicroAce is usually fine, but when they do mess up with a model, they tend to mess up really bad.

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

From the point of view of N gauge steam loco models, MicroAce makes models of older steamers, particularly those that still exist in museums, which they can go out and measure and photograph.

One such example is 'Benkei', one of the little Porter USA built 2-6-0s that worked the first railway in Hokkaido, in I think the 188o's.

A neat little model, typical Yank loco of the period, balloon stack. ornate steam and sand domes, big wooden cab, cowcatcher, big headlight, fancy lining  and bogie tender.

They later sold them in the states dressed up as various U.S. Western railroads.

Runs reasonably well, small, not much haulage capacity.

This loco came with a set of two bogie pass, cars of the period.

Three of these locos still exist, all in the Transportation Museum at Otaru in Hokkaido.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

 

[railsquid]

There is one in the JR museum in Omiya too.

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

I think that the MicroAce model is that of 'Yoshitsuni', not 'Benkei'.

These preserved locos seem to move around a bit, for a while one was in the Osaka Transportation Museum.

Otaru was the terminus for the line from the colliery, so was a logical place where they all were displayed.

It is an interesting place, a sea port, with many old buildings on the water front, and street signs in both Kanji and Cyrillic script, being the closest port to Russia, 

Railsquid, do you have the name of the one at Omiya, several of the first batch were named and not numbered.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

[railsquid]

3 hours ago, ben_issacs said:

Railsquid, do you have the name of the one at Omiya, several of the first batch were named and not numbered.

 

 

This appears to be number 7101 "Benkei", according to Wikipedia: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/国鉄7100形蒸気機関車#東京へ送られた7101

(I actually saw it last weekend but didn't really take much notice),  and 7105 "Yoshitsune" is in the Kyoto museum (formerly Osaka). There does seem to be some controversy about the true identity of both.

 

 

[ben_issacs]

Railsquid.

Thanks for that info, 

To the best of my knowledge, there are now only three of these engines preserved, 'Benkei' , 'Yoshitsuni' and one other whose name escapes me.

Yes, apparently there is still a question about which of the first two are what they claim to be.

The names are taken from characters in the Kabuki theatre, 'Benki' being a Samurai warrior, 'Toshitsune' is his wife, and the third is his faithful servant.

A story about them is that when they were still operating in Hokkaido, a heavy snowstorm caught 'Benkei' and immoblised it. Faithful servant was dispatched to the rescue, but became stuck also, both finally recovered by 'Yoshtsuni'!

A nice story, if true!

Regards, 

Bill,

Melbourne.