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Monday, May 16, 2016

Fleet Review: MicroAce C56 2-6-0 Mogul


What the dickens!? A new post? No were not dead yet. My computer needed to be rebuilt after catching a nasty virus, but its back online, and the blog is back on track(pun intended).
    What we have here today is a cute little engine produced by MicroAce. A Japanese N scale producer that I guess is analogous to Atlas here in the states. I dunno. Either way, what an engine!
    MicroAce makes a lot of high quality stuff from my research on them, and can sometimes be compared with Kato in quality standards(just like Atlas). But I never really had a sample to test that until now. Any ways, I picked this bad boy up at the scale show in Timonium MD. Nabbed it for $50 brand spanking new.

 New train smell,  mhmmmm...

Right out of the box the detail on this thing is amazing. I have a thing for Japanese locomotives now. My thinking being; since Japan modeled the way they run their railroads initially on the US, but based much their engineering on more European engines, they look to me like a perfect cross breed of Euro-American styles. Its got the boiler and cab shape of an American loco(and Japan uses knuckle couplers too) but the tender and smoke deflectors arguably give it that European vibe. I love it, you should love it, trains.

 "I cant decide if I like french fries or freedom fries" - Train probably

At first glance I was very impressed with the ornate detailing and paint on the boiler and running gear. It initial y came with a rapido on the back(the more popular coupler in Japan) but I replaced this with an MT knuckle(which was NOT easy). The motor is a tiny 5 poler squeezed into the cab with a brass worm that drives the center axle the rest being turned by the cranks. The main running gear on the wheels is metal but everything that connects to the pistons is plastic. This worried me at first, but after a few hours of run time they seem to be fairly reliable.

Got me a pair of goods wagons too, courtesy of Kato Trains

The engine is actually slightly larger than what it would be compared to everything else on the layout since Japanese N scale is 1:150(American is 1:160). but since there is nothing else like it that I own, I think I can get away with this one.  
    Running of this beast is simply sublime. It creeps along at a good slow pace and the top speed is not too bad. pulling power isn't great, there are no traction tires, but since its a small loco I don't really expect to be pulling the earths axis out of alignment with it, so I think were ok. I did notice that right out of the box the whole thing, and I mean everything, was very dry. There was a lot of binding and sticking, but once I basically gave it an oil bath, she ran like a watch. I don't know if this is common with MicroAce stuff since I only have one, but I plan on getting some more steam from the Orient so I will find out!
   Over all beautifully detailed and amazing running little engine. Its a real head turner on the club layout. I hope to get more Japanese steam because I'm really digging the look.

A resounding A for MicroAce on this one!


Sayōnara!

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