Cheap & Cheerful 7 - Tenshodo 9600 class 2-8-0

[marknewton]

Just a short video showing my new Tenshodo 9600 class hauling a long string of four-wheel wagons. Like all my other Tenshodo locos, the 9600 runs smoothly and quietly, and has ample power.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/94424961@N00/16949104107/

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[ozman2009]

Very nice. My two Tenshodo Z scale steam locos (D51 and C62) are also very good runners.

[marknewton]

I've never seen a Z scale model in person, they must be fascinating little things to play with. :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[enodenlover]

The largest hobby shop in the Chicago area carries a sizable selection of Z scale engines and rolling stock and the detail in these little gems is just amazing, as good as the best quality N scale stuff. I've been told that the locomotives run very nicely too. When I look at them in the display case I sometimes find myself being a little sorry that I'm into N instead of Z; my kitchen table layouts could be twice as large ( and twice as much fun too. ) 

[ozman2009]

I've never seen a Z scale model in person, they must be fascinating little things to play with. :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

Yes, they are, but they can also be frustrating at times. The rails really do have to be clean, and your trackwork has to be good. Any unevenness can result in a derailment or unscheduled uncoupling. In the Marklin world, those couplings are grossly out of scale, but if you're like me, you come to ignore them after a while. Another thing is that proportionately Z scale locos are lighter than their N and HO scale big brothers, which means traction isn't always as good.

 

The small size also stops the installation of all except one maker's DCC decoders in Marklin and Japanese locos. Because they represent smaller prototypes than US locos, there's no room inside the models. The exception is the Velmo decoders you can get for Marklin locos. They're 65 EUR each, but on the other hand they're so simple and easy to install that even the most unskilled modellers can install them.

 

BTW, my personal opinion is that the Rokuhan and Tenshodo locos are better than Marklin, in that they run better and smoother on lower power settings. With the Tenshodo C62 and D51, the motor is in the tender and drives the loco drive wheels via a shaft.

 

In their favour you can have more track in the same area as larger scales, and longer trains. It's a matter of pragmatism. What is most important to you?

[ozman2009]

The largest hobby shop in the Chicago area carries a sizable selection of Z scale engines and rolling stock and the detail in these little gems is just amazing, as good as the best quality N scale stuff. I've been told that the locomotives run very nicely too. When I look at them in the display case I sometimes find myself being a little sorry that I'm into N instead of Z; my kitchen table layouts could be twice as large ( and twice as much fun too. ) 

 

It's a bit of a fallacy that an Z scale layout would be half the size of an equivalent N scale layout. Just going on the scales (220 v 160/150), a Z scale layout would be about 72% of the size of one in N scale. Often ,when you're reducing from a larger to a smaller scale, the real determinant is curve radii. The more or less standard Z scale curve is 195mm, or 7.7 inches. How does that match up with, say, Kato N scale?

Edited May 4, 2015 by ozman2009