Happy birthday to me! This set was a gift from my wonderful wife. Actually, we kinda picked it out together, for reasons I won’t yet reveal.
The box reads “J.R. Limited Express Sleeping Cars Series 24 Type 25 ‘Yumekukan’ with Electric Locomotive Type EF81″ (which is far more terse in the original Japanese: “JR ＥＦ８１・２４系２５形特急寝台客車（夢空間）セット”).
The centerpiece of the set is these three cars: The “Yumekukan” part of the title. “Yumekukan” means “Dream Space”, and is a set of three luxury cars that is sometimes tacked onto the end of an existing train, much as American railroads in the past might attach a business car to the end of a scheduled passenger train. The Yumekukan set is always run as part of the Hokutosei overnight express which runs between Tokyo and Sapporo (more on this below). Each of the three cars were separately manufactured by the three major railcar manufacturers, and appointed by their respective department stores to showcase the companies’ talents and wares. (In Japan, almost every major railroad and railcar manufacturer also owns very large department stores, for interesting historical reasons I won’t get into here.) Each manufacturer was told simply to build (respectively) a sleeping car, a lounge car and a dining car, and then given carte blanche to appoint it in the most luxurious manner.
Tomix did a splendid job of modeling these cars. The interiors are incredibly detailed. The lettering and painting of the exterior is impeccable. The dining car—OSHI 25-901 (オシ２５−９０１), which is the last car in the set, features table lamps that light up! They light a rather cold blue, which is a shame, but I’ll see what a little yellow paint can do. Just for kicks, I disassembled these cars, to see how they fit together. The fit and finish is perfect, and Tomix very clearly thought out the assembly of these cars in detail. I cannot find fault with anything here. These cars provide provisions for body-mount TN couplers—although the instruction sheet doesn’t bother to mention what model will fit (TN couplers are Tomix’s brand of close couplers that have a prototypical appearance).
That said, converting OSHI 25-901 (the dining car) to DCC will be an interesting challenge. There three LEDs in the car: Two power the table lamps, and are lit (on DC) regardless of direction of travel. The third powers the red taillights and the “Yumekukan” sign at the rear. This only lights in one direction (on DC). The entire lighting circuitry is fit onto one very tiny PC board; the LEDs are all tiny surface mounts, as are the resistors and an IC (what’s an IC doing in here?). The whole thing is designed to be low-profile to fit under the incredibly detailed car interior. Although there is ample room (in the galley) to fit a decoder, there is no way in hell I can dissect this board to dissociate the three LEDs into two functions. No way. This car stands, and I’m serious here, as the greatest DCC conversion challenge I’ve ever heard of. Of course, I’ve got a really great idea on how to actually pull this off, which I’ll share later.
The second component of the set are three token cars from the Hokutosei train that the Yumekukan is attached to. “Hokutosei” means “Big Dipper”, and its logo is a shooting star. This train makes overnight runs between Tokyo and Sapporo, and is a favorite with business travelers because it arrives at its destination several hours before the first Shinkansen—and you arrive well slept and fresh, too. This set includes a luggage/generator car and two sleeper cars in Hokutosei livery.
Not too long ago, Tomix sold complete Hokutosei sets and individual cars to expand this set, but these are now nearly impossible to find. It would have been nice if Tomix had made available individual cars to expand this token train into something more prototypical. That said, the cars provided in this set are quite nice. The cars in the set, according to Tomix take the 0391 bogie-mount TN coupler, but again, the instruction sheet fails to mention this. The KANI 24-500 (カニ２４−５００) baggage/luggage car has directional red taillights and a lit “Hokutosei” sign board; it appears a very easy DCC conversion.
The third and final component of the set is the EF81 locomotive. The set includes EF81-98 which is painted in the Hokutosei livery of red with a white shooting star. No. 98 is special because, according to Tomix, it has a slightly different paint scheme from other Hokutosei-liveried EF81s. The shooting star is painted just a tiny bit lower than usual. Compare EF81-98 with EF81-97, which is painted in the usual manner. It took me a couple of looks to spot the difference. For those (like me) that love small details, this is pretty cool. For those (like most every one else) who don’t care about small details, this is utterly insignificant.
According with everything else I’ve read about this loco, Tomix has produced a real winner here. This is one smooth-running loco. I had it at lowest speed pulling 24 cars—everything I own that’s fitted with Arnold couplers—up a 4.5% grade, and it hadn’t even broken a sweat. It’s amazing. It is a little noisy: It’s not as quiet as my Kato locos. A disassembly reveals thoughtful construction. It comes apart very simply, but one thing Tomix has done is—get this—label every part so that you know exactly where it goes, and in which orientation. When you take it apart, there’s no wondering how a piece goes back on. Kato and American manufacturers, take note: This is a small touch that really impresses!
The downside? As my comrade stevenh has discovered, there is very nearly no room for a DCC decoder! I actually found more room in the tiny Tomix DE10 I recently converted than inside this comparative behemoth. I’m really not sure how that can be, but the result is that I rank this loco as second only to the OSHI 25-901 mention above in difficulty of conversion. I’m not looking forward to converting this thing.
Summary: Cons: might prove a tricky DCC conversion. Instructions don’t bother to mention which TN couplers fit this set. Indeed, the Tomix site claims that all the cars in the set require the bogie-mount coupler, when in fact a visual inspection of the three Yumekukan cars reveals that they can be fitted with body-mounts—and who knows which ones? (If someone out there knows, please don’t hesitate to tell me!) But that’s it!
Pros: This set is an amazingly thoughtful model. Paint and lettering are top notch; the interiors are incredible; the loco is a champ; and the table lamps in the dining car light up! What more could you ask for? Really, nothing. This is set is truly stupendous.