Search the Community

Finally found somebody that will save my fingernails from the most terrible couplers in the world: ICE 3 Arnold Needle couplers. Context for those that do not own an ICE-3 from Arnold: The train uses a literal needle that is poked into the coupler hole on each car. You have to really be careful and delicate to couple it correctly because it fails most of the time you try to join 2 cars together. Afterwards, the coupler is pretty much locked in and it is a pain to decouple the car. But, when you want to stop playing and put the train back into the box, you have to remove the needle with your fingernails or very tiny but resilient tweezers with brute force, because otherwise the train won't fit into its box. The needles are also tiny and go missing easily (like a needle in the modeltrain version of a haystack) and are a pain to get replacements for when they do go missing. In brief, these couplers really make it a PAIN to own the Arnold ICE-3 and most people like myself just don't bother and either never run the train or just return it. In Japan you can actually purchase a replacement 3D coupler pockets for this train, but then you have to disassemble the car (difficult because the bellows break easily and the clips aren't the greatest), desolder the coupler (on the older models), remove the existing coupler bracket and be mindful not to lose the coupler spring, reassemble everything AND paint the coupler yourself AND since it's an empty coupler mount, put your own coupler in it (from KATO for example). No more! I finally found someone that makes magnet couplers for the Arnold ICE 3. These couplers simply clip on to the existing coupler mount. No disassembly necessary. Just clip the couplers on both cars, put the cars together, and DRIVE! Done? Just pull the cars apart from each other, put it in a box, no disassembly, the couplers stay where they are, and you keep all your fingernails. I have tested these with all radii of superelevated double track from KATO. The Arnold ICE-3 with magnet couplers The magnet coupler (left) sticks right onto the existing "Needle Pocket" (right) The original fingernailbreaking "Needle" coupler, and the Magnet coupler below, compared. Interested people can pm me (located in Belgium) to order them. Contrary to some other 3D printers of couplers, the couplers are already with the magnets in place (no gluing of magnets into the coupler necessary)

I've been missing a thread on this Japanese railroad forum for new releases and products announcements for European trains, so I decided to make one. Since European manufacturers do not make that many models each year compared to any Japanese manufacturer, I decided it would be OK to place everything in 1 thread. I also placed it in "Worldwide Models" instead of the New Products thread; it seemed more at home here. But if the admins have a different opinion, let me know. Here are the catalogues for 2018 (N gauge and HO gauge are usually placed in the same catalogue, otherwise I only link the N gauge catalogue) Arnold/Hornby: https://www.hornby.com/media/euro/Int_SS_2018_SP.pdf Liliput http://www.mbs-sebnitz.de/media/pdfs/prospekte/Liliput_Neuheiten_2018.pdf Hobbytrain/Lemke/LS Models http://www.lemkecollection.de/media/files_public/hbsimnfu/LEMKE NH Katalog 2018.pdf Jägerndorfer: http://www.jaegerndorfer.at/images/stories/pdf/prospekt_jc_2018_01_N.pdf Brawa: https://www.brawa.de/fileadmin/Kundendaten/Downloads/Broschueren/BRAWA_Neuheitenprospekt_2018_DE.pdf Minitrix: http://streaming.maerklin.de/public-media/nh2018/EN_trix_nh2018_Internet.pdf Fleischmann: http://www.fleischmann.de/uploads/dportal/doc/downloads/de/Kataloge/20180116_FLM_Neuheitenkatalog_DE_WEB.pdf PIKO: http://www.piko.de/KAT_PDF/99518.pdf What are you excited about?

Good evening, I have been having issues with my Arnold ICE 3 not running well (stalling, jerky/noisy running, etc) and I need to disassemble the motorized end car in order to investigate further. Unfortunately it is not obvious to me how to remove the shell from the chassis. The shell appears to attach to the chassis with 8 clips. On most Japanese trains I could pull the sides of the shell apart and insert guitar picks / plastic strips to keep the shell spread open. But this model has no way that I can see to pull on the sides of the shell because the chassis is in the way. And the chassis edges are painted white (very easy to scratch). Yavianice has a lot of experience with this model, so I would greatly appreciate his input. If anyone else has disassembled one before, or has some ideas, please let me know. Thank you for your help.

Hello, I need some help with my C11 (Kato 2002). It is a very smooth running locomotive but I have problems with the leading axle as it often derails on my turnouts. I use Arnold turnouts which aren't the finest but I would still like to run the C11 until I switch to a better track system. I have already widened the leading axle and it got a little bit better but not much. Any help will be appreciated!