Missing Parts and Mated Pairs?

[GDorsett]

I purchased a pair of Kato EF65-2000 models in HO several months ago and haven't done much with them yet. I did assemble the parts and lube up one of them, but haven't bought decoders for either of them, so in the boxes they stayed. I'm not sure where to get another set of parts sprues and I don't know what the part numbers are for the missing bits.

I originally intended to run these as a "married pair", or a pair of locomotives that rarely, if ever, get separated and run individually. This was a common practice in the US (Such as the Southern Pacific buying sets of EMD F-Series locomotives and the entire set of four got the same number) but it doesn't appear to be a thing in Japan. Because of this, I figured I'd just decorate the cabs at the ends of the pair and not the middle two. Is this something I can get away with or should I hunt down the missing parts sprues? Does anyone know where I can get a set of sprues on a per-model basis or do I need the part numbers exactly? More specifically, The issue is the whistles/radio/antenna/whatever else is on the roof. Not really sure what all they are.

Pictures:

 

Decorated end:

 

 

Decorated end next to more simplified end:

 

 

Yes, I am aware the railings and grab-ons are not on the loco on the left. Haven't put them on yet, but I do have them. I am also aware that the GPS detailey bits are not put on. I don't want them on right now.

 

And, along those lines, I have these 12/13 series coaches, a few of which are Fu cars. When using the Kato drawbars, they come really close to each other and it looks nice. That said, the Fu ends of the cars don't get as close as the normal ends of the cars. Does anyone know what part numbers I need for Kato diaphragms that I could get and attach here to make it look a bit better? These cars do have diaphragms at the Fu ends and are hidden behind a trim plate for appearances like on MU trains, right? These are also HO, not N.

 

Normal ends:

 

 

Fu ends:

 

 

Thanks all.

[Kamome]

You can generally find part numbers from the Assy Parts list PDFs on the Kato website. Although finding spares outside of Japan is often difficult. I know you can order directly from Kato but not sure if they ship outside of Japan currently.

 

The diaphragm parts for the 12 series coaches are Z35-5003. I haven’t checked on mine whether the silver parts on the FU ends remove but I assume they do. To my knowledge, KATO haven’t produced a generic replacement for these ends.

 

The roof parts for the EF65-2000 are item Z33B5258. This includes the horn, distress flare, radio antenna parts.  Assy parts list is here.

https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/kato-model/schedule/pdf/201812032205165c052a0c3fa94/1-316_[ho_EF65_2000_koukigata_JRkamotu_2jikoushinsyoku].pdf

 

I would say it’s better to add the hand rails and roof parts. As these models have predrilled holes, my view is it looks a bit odd without them. 
 

Obviously it’s your railway and you can do what you want. I would say that the EF65s rarely run in double header consists unlike the EF64s and DD51s but not to say they don’t. Personally I would also number them differently but again it depends on how close you want it to be to the real thing and how much artistic license you want to use.

 

 

 

[GDorsett]

I've talked to Kato USA and they said that they can order parts from Kato Japan as long as they have a number, but they cannot provide support for Japanese products.

I haven't tried yet to remove these, either, but Ia ssumed they weren't removeable. Will look now, though.

Awesome, can look for those. Which one is the flare? The cone shaped one?

I intend to put on the hand rails, I just haven't done it yet. 

 

That's kinda what I was going for was the "there's a prototype for everything, so I'll do this for now" route. I would be numbering them, but I can't get the decals to transfer very well. My hands aren't the most stable despite my age and said decals are quite delicate. Tried for over an hour, destroyed enough number sets to make the rest of the sets unusable, and gave up. I'll just write the decoder numbers on the bottom of the locos somewhere...

[railsquid]

6 hours ago, GDorsett said:

 

I originally intended to run these as a "married pair", or a pair of locomotives that rarely, if ever, get separated and run individually. This was a common practice in the US (Such as the Southern Pacific buying sets of EMD F-Series locomotives and the entire set of four got the same number) but it doesn't appear to be a thing in Japan.

 

To be honest, you'd be best off assuming that Japanese railway operations and practice  have very little in common with North American operations and practice.

The only locomotives which I think might have spent longer periods in pairs are the ED79s on Seikan tunnel operations, but even then I think they would have been swapped around occasionally due to maintenance etc.

 

1 hour ago, Kamome said:

Obviously it’s your railway and you can do what you want. I would say that the EF65s rarely run in double header consists unlike the EF64s and DD51s but not to say they don’t.

 

The EF65s were certainly designed with multiple-working capability but I don't think that get used nowadays; I don't recall seeing any myself, and putting "EF65 重連" into Google Image search (at a quick scan) brings up mainly double-heading pictures from ca, 2000 or earlier.

 

Most of the heavy freight work formerly requiring double-heading has been taken over by EH200s. EH500sn and EH800s. Double-headed EF64-1000 workings are AFAIK still around in the Nagoya area.

[Kamome]

4 hours ago, GDorsett said:

I would be numbering them, but I can't get the decals to transfer very well.

They can be tricky, especially on the slightly raised surface to imitate the number board. I tend to apply these before I have added any other details. I use a little  of the Kato Uni-cleaner with a q-tip to clean the area that I’ll be adding decals to. Not sure if this if the best way but using it sparingly in this way doesn’t seem to affect the paint and leaves a fingerprint free surface.
 

I cut them out leaving very little space above of below the number. This leaves you with a longish thin plastic film to work with which I find is easier to line up properly. I then line it up by eye and use some Tamiya masking tape to hold one end. Once in position I use a second piece of masking tape to hold the other end.

I have a little rounded ended tool for rubbing dry transfers which works well but I also find a sharpish pencil is better for finer details.

 

Once you think the numbers have adhered you can slowly lift off the film from one side. If something hasn’t stuck, you can slowly lower back into place and keep rubbing.  Don’t rub too hard or sometimes the individual numbers can move. 
 

I then mask the loco up leaving just the number board areas exposed and use a good quality satin clear coat. I tend to use paper for large coverage masked areas and then use tamiya masking tape around the details that need spraying.

These are never fun to do. I would welcome Kato adding some photo-etched number boards and makers plates instead.

[GDorsett]

10 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

To be honest, you'd be best off assuming that Japanese railway operations and practice  have very little in common with North American operations and practice.

 

I meant more the models than the prototype. I wanted to run them as such so I could connect the hoses and such and just leave them connected. Ad that extra level of detail. That said, with a third one on it's way, I doubt I'll do that now.

 

7 hours ago, Kamome said:

They can be tricky, especially on the slightly raised surface to imitate the number board. I tend to apply these before I have added any other details. I use a little  of the Kato Uni-cleaner with a q-tip to clean the area that I’ll be adding decals to. Not sure if this if the best way but using it sparingly in this way doesn’t seem to affect the paint and leaves a fingerprint free surface.
 

I cut them out leaving very little space above of below the number. This leaves you with a longish thin plastic film to work with which I find is easier to line up properly. I then line it up by eye and use some Tamiya masking tape to hold one end. Once in position I use a second piece of masking tape to hold the other end.

I have a little rounded ended tool for rubbing dry transfers which works well but I also find a sharpish pencil is better for finer details.

 

Once you think the numbers have adhered you can slowly lift off the film from one side. If something hasn’t stuck, you can slowly lower back into place and keep rubbing.  Don’t rub too hard or sometimes the individual numbers can move. 
 

I then mask the loco up leaving just the number board areas exposed and use a good quality satin clear coat. I tend to use paper for large coverage masked areas and then use tamiya masking tape around the details that need spraying.

These are never fun to do. I would welcome Kato adding some photo-etched number boards and makers plates instead.

 

Sounds like a lot of work to me. I'd be happy with them having separate number boards like on the N scale models. The C56 model seems to have separate number boards.

[GDorsett]

I found the missing parts.'

I feel quite ditsy right now.

 

They were taped to the underside of the tray where they are supposed to be...

 

 

This entire discussion is now irrelevant. Thanks for your help, though.

[Kiha66]

Horay!  Glad to hear it all worked out.

[nah00]

On 1/12/2020 at 8:43 PM, GDorsett said:

I've talked to Kato USA and they said that they can order parts from Kato Japan as long as they have a number, but they cannot provide support for Japanese products.

 

Just a bit of advice: always try to get the part through a Japanese source rather than Kato USA. I've emailed Hobbysearch about parts that weren't in stock and they've been able to get them, also Modeltrainplus is a great source for both Kato and Tomix. I did order couplers for a set of coaches through Kato USA once and it took 7 weeks to get them and I had to pay $10 for a less than $5 part as well as some ridiculous shipping and handling charge. 

[cteno4]

I second nah’s comment. Long time back when you could get them to order a part it was inexpensive to ship and relatively fast. A couple came airmail from japan direct and like $3 shipping. but later I’ve had a $3 part weighting about 5grams cost me $8.95 shipping and like 9 weeks to get here. They usually send this stuff over in a container shipment now I think then it’s sent to you from Illinois office first class... they also sort of run hot and cold about ordering the parts, at times they have been resistant to order parts from japan. For a while (don’t know if they still do) they required you fax them the Kato instruction page with the part circled on the parts diagram and list so no mistakes made on their end and if you didn’t circle the right part too bad you bought it. I asked the chap when I did this the last time about this and he said they had folks asking for wrong part and being miffed when supplied with the part they requested and it was not what they actually needed. I just don’t use them anymore for this.

 

jeff