Review: Kato Roundhouse 10-913 485-Series 'Kirishima - Hyuga Type'

Bit of a labour of love this one. While picked up inexpensively as a secondhand model, the sellers description that it 'ran' was only true in the loosest sense of the word. With only a single bogie working, and even that one growling and offering insufficient traction, the train just about crawled along, and needed occasional nudges to keep going. But after a few false starts, the model was fixed and now runs quite well.

Background

For me, this is an example of one of the most characteristic Japanese electric trains. Built between 1964 and 1979 across several different series, the type lasted in regular service until 2017. A few soldiered on on special services until 2022. They were intended to work on both AC and DC routes at up to 120 km/h, though the type could apparently reach speeds of up to 160 km/h safely.

The design was based on the earlier 151-series, and the earlier 485-series trains had similar front ends including the long, streamlined nose. From 1972 onwards, they were instead built with more flattened front ends that made it easier to couple two units together to form a single train. One distinctive feature of the type is the illuminated headboard panel at the nose, which in typical Japanese style has both the name of the train and some sort of colourful artistic flourish.

Inside, the trains were equipped to provide a comfortable environment in both hot and cold weather. The standard train comprised 11 cars including two first class cars and a dining car.

This particular model, however, is of a three-car variant as it operated between 2000 and 2011 on as the Kirishima & Hyuga limited express between Miyazaki and Kagoshima in the Miyazaki Prefecture on the southern tip of Kyushu.

Kato 10-913 485-Series 'Kirishima - Hyuga Type'

 What's in the box?

• Two Kuha cab cars with working headlights, taillights, and illuminated headcode
• One powered Moha car with pantograph

The model didn't come with any extra parts. The instructions are printed on the back of the box. One cool feature though is that the illuminated headboard can be rotated using a very small flat-head screwdriver inserted into a small hole under the nose. The model can also be upgraded for internal lighting using the Kato 11-201 kits. 

Although the model is equipped with headlights, taillights, and the backlit headboard, these are barely visible until the train is running at close to full speed. That's a bit disappointing since they add a lot of character to this sort of train.

Getting the thing running properly again!

As it came, the model barely ran and one of the couplings was broken.

Replacing the broken coupling, at least, was easy. A set of Kato 11-705 Type B Black Couplers was bought from TrainTrax and arrived within a couple of days. The broken one was pulled out, and after assembly, a new one pushed into the receptacle. So far, so good!

Getting the model running properly was more of a problem. One problem was a missing cardan shaft between the motor and one of the bogies. The motorised unit drives both bogies, and each bogie is connected to the motor via a green cardan shaft that has a similar sort of fitting at each end. The bogies pop out easily if pulled and twisted slightly, and presumably at some point in its life, the owner of this model had done that and lost one of the cardan shafts.

So, after rooting about the Kato website, I managed to find the cardan shafts used on the current 485-series models. I ordered a pack, and again, TrainTrax delivered them in a couple of days. But alas, they were not the right sort, as you can see in the picture above.

After a couple of emails to Kato, one of their engineers offered a solution! This particular model has been out of production for a while, and spare parts aren't available. But a different sort of bogie, ASSY #41912ZD1, would fit the model and had the right sort of cardan shaft. The engineer was absolutely right, and after receiving these from Kato, I popped them into the train and put it on the tracks. Off it went!

The story isn't over yet, though. While the motorised car now ran beautifully, the replacement bogies were designed for a different sort of train. The couplings were set back so far that it couldn't connect up to the two unpowered cars. Or rather, they'd connect on a straight, but as soon as the train hit a curve, it would derail.

With the couplings pulled out from their clip fitting, and then pushed in only a little bit, they could be glued to about the right length. Superglue did the job, and once dried, the bogies were put back into the train and tested. All went well! 

While the bogies aren't the same colour as the originals, that can be easily fixed with some black paint. The main thing is that the model runs and brings a delightful splash of colour to the layout.

Conclusion

Operation is pretty good. Overall, the model runs smoothly, if not quite as quietly as the latest Kato trains. The motorised car seems to have no problems hauling the two unpowered cars. As mentioned above, the lighting is lacklustre, but otherwise this is an attractive train well worth the effort it took to get up and running.

 

Review: Kato Koki 10000 and Kokifu 10000

Like the six-car freight pack with its basic container flat, these two models lack the finer details seen on Kato's higher-end models. On the other hand, they are definitely priced to sell, and with a bit of weathering, make good models for running behind a wide range of electric and diesel locomotives.

Background

The 10000-series container wagons were built between 1966 and 1969. They were designed to run at higher speeds (up to 100 km/h) than earlier designs. At one end is a small platform for an operator to stand on when using the hand brake.

Like other container wagons of the era, they were designed for the JNR standard 10' container. Some were modified to carry two 20' containers (the 11000 and 12000 series) instead of the 10' containers. These modified wagons could not carry 10' wagons. There were some other variants produced over the years, including one series (the 18000 series) built in 1968 for use in the cold climate of Hokkaido.

Perhaps the most unusual variant was the Kokifu wagons. With freight trains being accelerated to 100 km/h, suitable accommodation for the guard, or conductor, became an issue. Existing brake vans (cabooses) could not run at that speed, so instead a number of container wagons were built with a small conductors compartment. These wagons could now only carry four 10' wagons rather than five.

Both the Koki and Kokifu wagons were in widespread use across the network through the 1970s and 80s. The last were removed from service in 1996.

Kato 8002 Container Wagon

 What's in the box?

• Koki 10000 container wagon
• Non-removable containers

The wagon is nicely moulded and presented in JNR freight blue. The lettering is simple but effective. The wagon itself is solid, with only basic detail represented underneath the solebar and nothing much on the top. There is a metal weight on the top of the wagon, with all five containers represented by a single-piece that clips into the place. The metal weight seems a bit loose, so I used a drop of glue to fix it into position.

As supplied, the container moulding works, just about, but the gap between each container isn't completely convincing. Weathering makes a huge difference, giving you a reason to run some dark, watered-down paint into those gaps. This makes the gaps look more like shadows. It's also worth painting the metal weight while you have the container removed for weathering. The weigh is easily visible from the side, and if you paint it black, it won't be nearly as intrusive.

Kato 8003 Container Wagon with guard's compartment

What's in the box?

• Kokifu 10000 container wagon
• Non-removable containers

Basic specification much like the Koki 10000 wagon, but with the distinctive caboose, or conductor's compartment, at one end. Again, judicious weathering will really help make the single-piece container moulding more realistic.

On the plus side, this is a quirky prototype that adds interest to any container train. But on the other hand, the low-end specification mean the model isn't as good as it might be. There are no working taillights at the back of caboose, and neither is it possible to add the Kato lighting kit to illuminate the inside of the guards compartment.

Summary 

The Koki container wagon has an RRP of 770 Yen (about £4.25 at the time of writing) while the Kokifu one with the caboose is slightly more expensive at 825 Yen (about £4.50). In either case, that's pretty impressive value as the models run well, look nice, and represent a useful, long-lived prototype.

Of course, they're compromised in significant ways. The container loads aren't removable, so you can't swap the supplied containers with different ones to add variety to your trains. Equally, as you can't remove the containers, you can't run an 'empty' train, and even if you could, the wagon frame isn't open and lacks the details such as pipes you'd expect to see on a modern-spec model.

Review: Kato 10-034 passenger car set

There's a review of the freight car starter pack elsewhere on this blog. It's the passenger car pack that's being looked at now, one of two in fact. One contains four coaches in the old (post-war) brown livery of JNR, while the other contains four coaches in the JNR blue livery introduced in 1964 and consequently more typical of trains after the steam era. While the contents of the two packs appear similar (apart from the colours, of course) they do not include exactly the same four types of coach.

Background

Nowadays, multiple unit trains, particularly electric multiple units, carry most of the passengers on Japanese railways. But in the past, coaches (or passenger cars) of various kinds were common. The ones included in this Kato pack represent postwar (JNR) designs that would be hauled by locomotives such as the D51 for long distances or C11 and C12 tank engines on branch lines. They were built between 1951 and 1955, though modernised and modified in later years, for example by having air conditioning installed and the wooden-framed windows replaced with ones with aluminium frames.

Most of these old coaches were phased out of use during the early 1980s, but a few remain in service even today for special trains such as excursions behind steam locomotives. This makes this sort of pack useful even for modellers setting their layouts in the present day. There was also a long period of time during the 1960s and 70s where the original brown coaches and the refurbished blue coaches might be marshalled into the same train. So, again, while this pack is ideal for the steam-era modeller, it will also have use on layouts featuring diesel and electric locomotives.

The basic design of these coaches will be familiar to modellers from all around the world: steel frames with wooden bodies, two-axle bogies, corridor connections, and air vents (rather than air conditioning) on the roof to provide ventilation in summer. Although built to mainline standards, and frequently used on named express trains, these coaches were not designed to run at speeds above 95 km/h.

Kato Freight Car Park (10-033)

What's in the box?

• Suyuni 60 baggage/mail car with working taillights
• Oha 46 third class open car
• Suha 43 third class open car
• Ohafu 45 third class (brake) with working taillights
• Tool for moving the light switches on and off

The four coaches are pretty similar in specification, with Rapido couplings, all-wheel axle-point electrical pick-up, chemically-blackened disk wheels, and removable roofs that allow for quick installation of the Kato lighting kit.

At first glance they all look pretty similar, but the shade of grey used for the roof varies between the light grey of the Ohafu 45 and the dark grey used on the other three cars. The livery is simple but nicely applied, with a satin finish and very neat lettering. The inside details are all moulded in the the one colour.

There are essentially no fitted details beyond the corridor connection frames. Handrails, footsteps, lamps, etc., are all moulded onto the body. While this works well enough, it doesn't quite match the standards seen on the state of the art passenger cars (like the Farish-Bachmann 'blue riband' series in the UK).

Two of the cars come with red taillights at one end. These can be switched on or off using a sliding switch underneath. Turning the coaches over also reveals the underframe detailing that includes brake piping, water tanks, etc. You can also see how the Rapido couplings are fitted onto the bogies with the usual copper spring behind them to keep them centred. These can be upgraded to knuckle couplers (Kato #11-702) or magnetic couplers (Kato #11-711) if preferred, but these alternate couplings are not included in the set.

 

Conclusion

As with the freight car pack, there's a lot of value in this set. The RRP in Japan is 8,250 Yen (about £43 at the time of writing) which compares very favourably with the RRP of coaching stock in the UK. Basically, for what you're getting here, you'd be lucky to get one, maybe two British outline coaches. But with that said, the specification here is a bit mixed. Interior lighting is always nice, but the lack of separately fitted detailing results in a rather 'flat' appearance when examined closely.

So, while you are getting a good set of coaches, serious modellers might want to make a few upgrades to bring things up to modern standards. One other obvious upgrade worth doing is the replacement of the disc wheels with more authentic spoked wheels. Presumably, these were not included as standard to keep costs down. Similarly, if you install the lighting kit, the lack of passengers will become more obvious, so you might want to do is add some passenger figures. Needless to say, Kato do their own, but since figures inside models aren't easily seen, you could just as easily use the economical (if garishly painted) figures sold in eBay and the like.

Overall though, this is a good way to get some passenger trains up and running on your layout, whether you're modelling the steam era or early diesels and electrics.