new car under developement

www.rokuhan.com/english/news/2013/08/we-would-like-to-introduce-our-taki-1000-which-is-under-development.html

This one could be used in North American consists. paint it black and add Texaco, Esso, or other shipper decals and even add 903's under the end decks with a shim eh voila

cheerz
Garth

Garth,
Stony fixed the link above..

Nice looking car and I agree they would fit well on my railorad. But a couple of quick questions:
- The couplers appear to be nothing we use in the U.S. and not compatible. Correct?
- Will the couplers be easy to exchange or would we really have to go to the expense of trucks?

Mark

Looks a little like stonysmith's tanker whale belly but longer! I have a few toy trainz that are "N" scale size with the same couplers here is one. It's 4" long and no motor Southern Pacific

just looking at the photo it is hard to say, but the that Japanese truck in real life has a longer wheel base than our Bettendorf so not sure. as for changing out the coupler no one makes a dummy knuckle that can replace the Rapido like the Unimat in N scale. I have suggested a dummy knuckle to Rokuhan or a compatible auto latch type of coupler of their own design so far have not heard if they have anything on the drawing board. I know they did a dummy knuclkle for their first diesel the DD51 which did not sell in any great number here in North America. They did not offer this type with any subsequent Japanese model, But I found 905/903 was easy to install on both the DD51 and the KIHA52.

Without having a car in hand I can not say if a replacement truck would work or not possibly the AZL truck which has a longer wheel base than the MTL one, but I can not say definitely yes. what I can say is with the end platforms it definitely looks like a 905/903 could be mounted there but it might require a shim to get the coupler height correct. Anyway that is what I plan, and to add weight if the care is too light. I expect the trucks to be mounted with screws not push pins and that the trucks hold he end platforms in place the tank ends should come off and I am not sure how the weight is added to the car body The platform on the top will probably be a push fit of cast on pins into a hole in the body. It should be quite easy to take apart for painting and lettering.

I like Stony's design also and with a bit of work both will be on my layout.

The container cars I have found a 905/90 body mounted works fine and I just cut the arapido coupler pocket off of the truck. on the shore gondola cars there is a different system of attaching the coupler to the car and I have not tried converting them yet. It might be possible to mount the 905.903 on the base of the pocket fore the container care but I have not looked into this as I prefer body mount over talgo mounted couplers. O as;p have a ready source of conversion cars as all the Tenshodo freight cars come with a coupler change out to allow for use of dummy knuckle that works with existing Z scale couplers of the knuckle design be it Micro Trains or auto latch instead of a Rapido that they come with standard. It is any easy change pull out the rapido and insert the dummy knuckle.

if you want a dummy knuckle for this car then you have to take the time to tell Rokuhan via their web site or via Facebook.

Garthah,

we where talking about the couplers on that new tanker by rok. I have about three cars and the Engine above they aren't designed for running on track I think they where some toy product the couplers have very little play but look like the same design they can't be run on curved track because the couplers have no movement.. I have a hopper, Log Car, tanker. They all say Southern Pacific and southern Pacific design are trademarks of southern Pacific Transportation Company used under license by high Speed Metal products. Some one was saying they haven't seen those couplers before. but these look like the ones on the tanker.

For those of us who like Japanese trains the Rapido coupler has been a standard for N-scale in Japan for 40 years now. It has been adapted in a mini form for use in Z scale. so it is quite common in Japan. We use to see it on allot of N-scale in the 70's here.