I’ve hesitated to make a post yet, but I’ve decided that I’m going to!
This one’s going to be a bit of a tangent- I promise it’s going somewhere.
Some of the music a sibling of mine likes, you can’t get in the US (some music I like too, for that matter), it was released domestically in Japan but not for other countries such as the 'states. But there are ways to import things thanks to the modern marvels of the world wide web, and you can have a proxy service act on your behlaf to buy such things from overseas. I got one of my LPs this way.
Anyhow, at some point a thought ocurred to me.
If there was music I liked in Japan, then surely there were other things one could buy on the secondhand market. Like toy trains! And wouldn’t you know it, there certainly were, if one kept watching the auctions. If I waited long enough, and was content to settle for something in less nice condition, there were certainly some options I could afford (keeping in mind the expense of international shipment).
I had it on my radar but put it to the side since I had other things to direct my funds to.
But, something lined up just right this winter. Some conditions meant that I was going to have to sit out the annual train show I always go to. Unfortunate, but it left with me with some un-allocated train funds, and I decided it was time to satisfy the urge.
I think if I was more patient I could have found some better deals, but I was eager to find something. As of right now I’m just keeping an eye on a final piece before I call things settled. In the end I’m going to have a lot of work ahead of me, but hopefully it pays off.
While Sakai certainly intruiges me, I’m less interested in it because as cool as the Marx look-alike set is, I’m more interested in the trains that model domestic prototypes. They seem to show up less frequently than O gauge equipment produced by Katsumi and Endo. I’m a little confused as to how you ca
Here’s the images from the auction for the locomotive, by the way. Unfortunately, a restoration seems neccesary- I’m going to need to fix many solder joints as well as solder in replacements for missing details, which is going to ruin the remaining paint. I will do my best to match the original color, since I’m quite fond of it. It seems that the EB557 came in a wide variety of (largely non-prototypical) colors. The same applies to some other locomotives and most if not all of the rolling stock I’ve seen images of.
Note that despite the somewhat poor cosmetic condition, the most important pieces appear to all be present- both couplers are intact, the manual reverse switch appears to be intact, as does the center rail pickup shoe. The pantograph appears to be complete and intact, though perhaps slightly deformed. It doesn’t appear to be beyond repair. And of course, the spring belt is present and appears to be intact. Replacement pantographs seem to get expensive when someone lists a new replacement, but I don’t think I’ve see the spring belts come up for sale at all, so it was very important to me to make sure I got a locomotive where these two parts especially were present
Ellie, I hope you’re aware of the fact you’re going to have to find an O scale Godzilla to go with that! [;)]
Not to worry- I have two cats at home who are absolutely on the job! Though they’re usually not inclinded to get too close to anything that looks too big/too heavy for them to take on. We’ll see how things go, there’s a while still to go before we’re talking running trains.
Catzilla’s will do! I’ve had Dogzillas myself.
Almost completely unrelated, just stumbled into this neat video:
Just check out that action! It’s so cool to see this quirky battery-powered tinplate train doing something that otherwise hasn’t really been seen until today’s fancy, logic controlled high end trains.
I’d love to own one of these some day, I’d especially love to see the mechanism inside.
-Ellie
Pretty darn cool! [:D][tup]
Here’s the latest scoop: It took a little while, but everything’s at the warehouse now and I’ve decided to abandon any plans of bidding on other items in the interest of not spending more money, and getting my new projects sooner.
Here’s what we have:
-A class EB55 (EB557) locomotive in need of a serious overhaul, but which appears to be complete and not suffering any dire issues.
-A seperate boxcar body, gondola body, and 8 journal boxes/bearings. Only the boxcar has couplers, appears to have a very dull coat of paint. The gondola is unpainted and needs body work.
-A combined gondola/breakman’s cabin, painted blue. The condition seems ok, it is complete and intact
-A set of 2 similar, but possibly mismatched axles and corresponding wheels. The goal is to use these to repair the boxcar, with the gondola being a more “long term” potential project, if I can locate suitable wheels and couplers for it.
After some thought, I’ve opted for paying an added ¥1000 (~9 usd) to have the package given extra reinforcement. From what I understand, most shippers aren’t particularly careful with packages and it’
Ellie, looking at those wheels, axles, and spring hangers they look very, very similar to pre-war Lionel tinplate types.
New-made replacement parts for those Lionels are available from Henning’s Trains in Lansdale PA. www.henningstrains.com
Check their on-line parts catalog and see what you think. They may just work on your Japanese rolling stock if you need some.
I would have to disagree, I don’t think they’re all that similar to prewar Lionel. While also spoked, these are made of brass and have scale flanges and treads- My best bet is going to be procuring some non-spoked, scale brass wheelsets. They wouldn’t have to be brass to work but I’d prefer to at least have them match the originals in material if they can’t be the classic spoke wheels. The bearings/springs aren’t the same either, in that the Lionel ones are purely cosmetic trim whereas these are structural, they are the actual bearings for the axles and support the weight of the car. I should have all the ones I need (4 per car) so there’s nothing to worry about there. If I used Lionel trim parts I’d need to make my own bearings and supports, and then I’d solder the Lionel trim to the outside. That would be a lot of work though, so I’m content not needing to figure that one out.
The couplings are where I’m most concerned right now, since I don’t yet know if they’re true O scale couplings, or if they’re a size that I can’t get in the US in which case I either have to try to make a mold and then cast my own, or try to make something out of scrap pieces of metal that can do the job. The latter is most likely.
Nothing much to do yet except wait until I have the stuff in my hands, and then I can start measuring and figuring out what I need.
-Ellie
The monumental day has arrived! Yesterday, when I checked the tracking number on my package, it was in a sorting facility in CT. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but it seemed possible that it could arrive the next day. I wake up this morning, check again, and by golly, it’s been delivered!
Now, on the one hand, perhaps purchasing the optional package reinforcement was a bit overkill…
…but on the other, well- I can tell you, that thing was absolutely SOLID. Granted I didn’t try it, but I almost believe I could have stood on it and it wouldn’t have crumpled. Again, very, very sturdy. It took me about 8 minutes to get all the reinforcement bracing off!
That said, once I got the bracing off of it, I found the package to still be quite sturdy (and it was well packed), so I probably won’t need to go for this option in future. It was still worth trying it out if only to see what the reinforcement is like.
The contents of the package were snugly wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap, and additional bubble wrap was used to snug everything up inside so it couldn’t shift around inside. All in all, a very nice job, very consistent with what I hear from others about them (the proxy service I used).
It wasn’t hard to visually identify which item was in each wrapping.
I am happy to report that nothing seems to have incurred any injuries during transit. I need to do some work on everything I bought, but nothing unepected. The easiest task will be repairing the steps on the gondola/break van, one of which broke off wh
EB577 electric locomotive (manufcaturer unknown, either TER[Endo] or KTM [Katsumi]. Pantograph is marked KTM [Katsumi], the couplings have SA embossed on their brackets, the locomotive bears no other obvious maker’s marks.
Boxcar, gondola (manufacturer unknown, either TER or KTM). The boxcar’s couplings are embossed KTM, otherwise there are no maker’s markings on either car or the bearing castings. I suspect that they are Katsumi rather than TER but I could be off the mark.
Brass wheelsets (manufacturer unknown). No markings to indicate a manufacturer. They have the same diameter wheels, but the axles are different lengths. After comparing with the locomotive I bought, it would appear that the longer axle is for a locomotive. Why it is paired with such small diameter wheels (19mm) I have no clue. I am currently thinking about my options regarding making both wheelsets usable under the boxcar.
Gondola/Gaurd’s Van (manufacturer unknown, either TER or KTM). No markings to suggest a manufacturer, but the couplings seem to be identical to the ones on the boxcar, which are clearly KTM products However removing them could not be done without harming the paint so I cannot verify. It uses tinplate bearings instead of the cast metal ones for the boxcar and gondola. Could this differentiate it in terms of who made it? I don’t know. Of note, the wheels