Plus up 485 emu

[dawdawes]

Hello all

 

Has anybody purchased the Plus Up JR series 485 emus. They look good and are very distinctive. Plaza japan has 2 sets, they are cheap, which suggests they will run poorly?

 

cheers in advance

Dave Dawes

[kvp]

Afaik the only problem is the larger turning radius, so you can't run them on the pro-z dioramas and you'll probably have to use the larger curves from the rokuhan selection. This pretty much puts off most japanese and american z owners from buying them, since they usually have the pro-z dioramas or one of the noch dioramas, which won't work either. On the bright side, the rokuhan pwm speed controllers are better to get them to run at a realistic speed than any alternatives.

[ozman2009]

Hi Dave. I've got two of them, and they run well on Marklin 195/220mm curves. The only thing is that as made they seem to be a bit too light to cope with slight irregularities, common with my dodgy trackwork (lol). Their running was significantly improved by adding strips of lead tape to the inside of all the cars except, of course the motor car, which is weighted by the motor. You'd need to experiment with just how many layers of tape you add.

 

Lead tape is used by golfers and tennis players to add heft to their clubs and racquets. It doesn't cost much, can be cut with scissors and is available in Australia from Tennis Warehouse. No doubt it's available from many suppliers in the USA and the UK.

[dawdawes]

Thanks guys I am building a new z exhibition layout, one end will have 195 curves the other 220 in Rokuhan track.I've used the weight before and another good one is putty weight used by fishermen. I will try one, thanks again, DD

[beakaboy]

Hi Dave. I have 2 as well. The issues I have are that the gear covers on power bogies sit too low , so when sitting on Marklin track the friction causes wheel spin and loss of traction. I could only run 4 coaches in a train. I brought a circuit of Japanese Z scale track and it is much better. seems to be a slight gap on the cover where it connects. One set was worse than the other. I will have to investigate how to remedy this. The mech and drive look really solid and well designed.

[ozman2009]

The detail is nice too. In my experience, one set ran better than the other.