Wheels on Wheels 23 – 40’ Japan Line Container on chassis

: Japan Line container on chassis

Japan Line Ltd. was a shipping company established in 1964, according to the merger of Nitto Shosen established in 1937 and Daido Kaiun established in 1930. The company was merged with Y.S. Line to form Navix Line in 1989. Navix Line was absorbed into Mitsui O.S.K. Lines in 1999. The funnel mark for the fleet was green. Reporting marks for the container were JLAU, JLNU, JLLU, and JLPU. Feb 1976 OIER lists a total of 5909 containers.

I found a photo of Japan Line container JLAU205214 on The Intermodal Container Web Page. But the JLAU205214 is not listed in the Feb 1976 OIER.

According to the photo, it had aluminum smooth sides and an end. So, I used Deluxe Innovations 40’ reefer container for the model. I shove off the reefer unit represented on the product and applied a thin styrene sheet.

I spray painted the container silver using Tamiya TS-17. I made the decal to represent the faded green in the prototype photo (Microscale produces the exact scheme as #60-311). Co-starring chassis in the photo is an undecorated Deluxe Innovations product.

Athearn announced this very item in N scale in Jun. 2019 and it was arrived in Mar. 2021.

revised, Mar. 6, 2021

’70s Japan Line container photos found on web;

: JLAU205214
: Athearn product


ジャパンライン（Japan Line）は、1964年に、日東商船と大同海運が合併して発足した会社である。1989年に山下新日本汽船と合併、ナビックスラインとなり消滅。OIERによれば、1976年には5909個のコンテナを運用していた。

模型は、Deluxe Innovationsの40’ Reefer Containerの前端部を、プロトタイプの写真を参考に改造し、タミヤスプレーのTS-17（アルミシルバー）を吹いた。Microscale製デカール#60-311は緑色が濃く鮮やかである。筆者が参照したプロトタイプの画像とでは印象が異なる（恐らく経年変化）ので、今回は自家製のデカールを制作し貼ってみた。