Hello all. I will soon be starting to build a locomotive kit from Aoshima (Japan) of the DD51 Locomotive. The kit is extremely detailed, approx 1200 parts, in molded and some photo etch.
Being Japanese and I am from the US, and not having knowledge of Japanese, Google Translate has been invaluable. The instruction book (literally, a book of 60 pages and 200 steps) is clearly written with excellent translation. MANY many detailed parts and sub-assemblies.
I found one book on the DDD51 class, in Japanese, but curious if there are other books or reference manuals available. Language is not important, translating is no bother.
Yes, there were multiple manufacturers. I have not been able to find info if there were any differences between them. Not sure if there would be small detail differences between the builders, but Japan typically has been more strict with standards and commonality.
I have this DD51 kit and also an EF66 electric locomotive, same 1/45 scale, same level of high detail. I came across a build log for the EF66 some time ago, but no longer available. It took that maker over 1 year to complete. I don’t envision being any less for me with the DD51, considering I have only weekends and maybe an hour after work. I attached two photos of the EF66 model.
I joined a few groups on Facebook for Japanese train modelers. Some good help from members more knowledgable of Japanese trains than I will ever be. I’ve learned the DD51 had several liveries based on their service - freight or passenger, special freight trains, multiple passenger as well. My kit is the freight version in red and grey (passenger versions were blue and cream). The DD51 has a separate LED kit available (well, was made but have not found it available now). Presume the EF66 does as well. These kits date from 2015, so availability is rightfully limited. The kit has the battery housing regardless. The batteries called out in the instructions (for LED lights only) are 4x AAA batteries for 6V, or 6x AAA for 9V.
I attached a photo of a book I bought online from a Japanese bookstore. I’ve found they have a well-developed book market for railroad subjects, on par with US and Canadian books we’re more familiar with. Google translate is probably 95% accurate for the book. The syntax doesn’t always follow English, but the point still comes across. I haven’t run pages of the book through AI, but I’m sure the results would be even better.
Aoshima also made other 1/45 scale locomotives - EF65, EF10, and a few others - priced around USD $65-75. Less detail and parts, but still worthy models, especially of an obscure subject. Availability is hit-or-miss, especially for the higher end DF51 and EF66 locos. The lower priced models can be more easily found. The DD51 and EF66 models were around $250 each, shipped direct from Japan (only vendors I found selling them). Both models were bought on a Japanese-only website - used Google Translate extension for Safari, and had no issues. This was before stupid tariffs though, so not sure of availability now.
YouTube video with sound, including startup sequence and the horn:
Some of the DD51s were sold to other countries (including Thailand, ans you see) and there are YouTube videos of them there that might have useful detail (control and gauge layout).
One apparently-mislabeled video from Indonesia has some interesting late steam:
Interesting that it’s in the correct scale (1:45) for O gauge. In North America we use 1:48 scale (1/4" = 1 foot) of course; Europe uses 1:43.5 scale (7mm = I foot).
In the early days there were some folks who modeled in 17/64" scale, 1:45. Lionel’s M-10000 and Hiawatha 4-4-2 of the 1930s were 1:45. But eventually it was a little too hard to do the math. It was easier for us to go to 1/4", 1:48 scale (so our trains are a little undersized) and in Europe where metric is more common, they went with 7mm, 1:43.5 scale (so their trains are a bit too big).
BTW that’s why HO is 1:87 scale. “Half O” scale is 1/2 of European O scale.
Much like how N scale in Japan is 1:150. I read somewhere it was because they could use 1:160 track but everything else is 1:150, which looks more accurate as the track appears more narrow gauge to match the narrow gauge common throughout the country.
