The Platz Kiha 40 I had been promising myself one of these for a while but the colour schemes were all wrong for the look I wnated on 'Hakuho' my Japanese Z gauge layout but when I was ordering one of the value packs of Rokuhan Shorty chassis from Plaza Japan I noticed they had done it as JR Central's Kiha 40 6309 in 'Old style colours' so I took the plunge I was most interested to see how it compared to the Rokuhan products and was very pleased with it. The packaging, like all Japanese products, is superb Crystal case, male and female inner liners with the instructions and accesories underneath. Instructions are in Japanese only but the diagrams are self=explanatory all axles powered, Dummy couplings with working ones in the box to swap Nicely detailed, good dense paint finish and captures the look of this ubiquitous vehicle. In service, straight from the box ran at a very nice slow speed and start up running on both Marklin and Gaugemaster controllers. pickups must be good as the Relco electronic track cleaner never kicked in Very reasonably priced and arrived from Osaka only four or five days after posting. Will get a couple more, for sure and will be interested to see what they bring out next. Anyway the video will give you much more of an idea of its performance. test run on the office test track, Republic Steel and our Brooklyns's evil Bavarian layout with its kinks, tight curves and gradents Kev
Kev, Nice review. Good quality pics, plus the excellent video, are always much appreciated. Good work! Lance
