Wednesday, May 18, 2016

A surprise

While down south I was asked to help identify an NZ120 collection as part of an estate. While a large porton of it was Japanese wagons and locos, there were a handfull of gems. these included;
- A zinc etch Dx (2nd batch ) assembled by Kelvin barry.
-A John Rappard resin cast Dx.
-An RB Resin cast DFT.

There were also several Japanese steam locos.the standard 2-6-0 and 4-6-2 and then there was this.....


Now, this is a beast I've never seen before (which is saying quite something), and some research reveals that this is a B6 by kawai Shokai which unfortunately is long out of production.
The mech also shows that it is not a normal Japanese N scale loco as the motor looks like an old Bachmann 3 pole from the late 80's


Of real interest is the wheel diameter (8.5mm or 3'4") and the wheel spacing (12.5mm +13mm) which is not far off useful.
Unfortunately it is one of those things that is long out of production, and since this one is the first I have ever seen its probably as rare as hens teeth.

2 comments:

beaka said...

Funnily enough Jolon picked up a similar looking model on trade me recently. I dare say you can source some of these locos or other scarce ones through a couple of contacts I have in Japan, but they usually are much more expensive to purchase. The latest C50 steamer by kato is in an entirely different league (coreless motor and incredible slow running) everyone is raving about them and first batch completely sold out. New batch only around NZ$220-240ea. Ouch!!
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10367164

Anonymous said...

Well, what body are you building to go on it, Herr Druff? An Fa?