Ztrack Center Now Offering Tenshodo D51s

We have them and they are shipping NOW!!!

Ztrack Center is excited to announce the immediate availability of Tenshodo's D51 Mikados! The class D51 was built by the Japanese Government Railways and the Japanese National Railways between 1936 - 1951. A total of 1,115 of these locomotives were produced. No other Japanese locomotive was produced in such a quantity.

The Tenshodo D51 features intricate detailing, sturdy injection molded construction, separately applied number boards, spoked wheels, tender pickup, window glazing and choice of couplers.

Ztrack has six versions of the D51 in stock and ready to ship! Check out the full line at:

www.ztrackcenter.com/tenshodo/index.html

Rob Kluz

Okay Tenshodo fans... we have a little treat for you. Check out the free D51 Wallpaper at www.ztrack.com/

John Cubbin put together this great design. Enjoy!

Rob

Wow... I can't say I'm very interested in Z scale steamers - but at that price! Why so cheap? Why can't there be more Z locos for around the US$100 mark? Would go a long way to help grow the gauge's popularity.

No joke. Seems like we all dislike the famous auction site, but generally it's the only crack at such prices.

Will some of these be available at the Convention in Medford?

It is possible. I have not decided exactly what I will be bringing. Space is a premium since I will be flying in. I do plan on delivering prepaid orders of items.

On another note, we are already out of stock on the 81103. And we are getting low on the 81104. These are going fast!

Rob

So I finally got to see a brand new one of these locos in action at the Portland GTE show. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in its pulling power as the one we ran had a really tough time pulling about a dozen freight cars on a very slight unintentional grade on the layout, in fact we didn't even realize there was a grade there until this engine started seriously slipping.

Was this likely an issue with this particular unit?
Was such a load too demanding for this loco?
What have other folks experienced?

In Z if you find you are not pulling what you should you need to ask, what is the condition of your wheel sets? I have found that if you switch to metal wheel sets you get better performance and longer trains than if you stay with the original MTL delrin plastic wheels. The plastic wheel are great when brand new but after some running they get dirty and add drag which the metal wheels do not do. I have 15 log cars and 3 flat cars with logs plus a caboose and I can pull that with one D51 once the wheels were changed to FVM or Uncle Wills metal wheel sets, as I have a mix of both. The caboose I did not change the wheels under it as it provides a bit of resistance to keep the train stretched out. No question what you can pull on the flat is reduced if you get an incline approaching 1% in the mix intentional or otherwise. Those inclines always seem to creep in at shows.

The best I have done with a single D51 is 22 cars from Pro-Z and PRMloco all with metal wheels sets (6 container flats, 10 Tank cars and 6 2 axle box cars. There is a video on u-tube showing it running on 20 x 40 inch loop of track. The trains occupies just over half the loop of track.

cheerz Garth

Well the one at Portland was mine and was new out of the box at the show.
Yes it did slip on that one section of track but then so did the other steam engine they had there with the same load (13 cars). Cars all had plastic wheels from what I remember and on it's second lap a few cars derailed on the curve and that stalled it out. So I guess the choice is 300 for a merklin or 100 for a D-51 that does as good from what I could see. I was only there to see it run for a few minutes then left it for them to play with while I went back to my booth.
rich

TENSHODO D51 UPDATE

The Tenshodo D51s have been selling fast. Ztrack is temporarily out of stock of the 81103 and 81104 standard version locomotives. We are taking reservations for these and expect a new shipment of both versions in the upcoming two weeks.

Two new versions of the D51 will be released in the next month. Ztrack has already placed orders for these and will have announcements as soon as we have them in stock.

Rob

Good news! The 81103 and 81104 standard version D51s are back in stock! We have processed back orders and are again taking orders for this very popular version.

Rob