What did you order or the post deliver? (Worldwide Models)

[nah00]

I'm really surprised there hasn't been a Russian model of it made. The cars really aren't anything special except for the two missile cars which had opening roofs and stabilizers for firing the missile. Maybe since Good Smile Co. did the Soyuz they'll do this...?

[Kiha66]

The YZ22 hard seat coaches arrived!  The detail is very nice, but the packaging isn't very good so two cars have broken parts.  One had a batter box that was loose that was very easy to re-attach, while the other has a broken coupler box that will be more difficult to repair as all the tabs that hold it together have sheared off.  They run nicely though and look very good.

[gavino200]

2 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

The YZ22 hard seat coaches arrived!  The detail is very nice, but the packaging isn't very good so two cars have broken parts.  One had a batter box that was loose that was very easy to re-attach, while the other has a broken coupler box that will be more difficult to repair as all the tabs that hold it together have sheared off.  They run nicely though and look very good.

 

You should contact the merchant and tell him. I bet he'll replace the coach if it can't be fixed. You can tell him you have a buddy who will buy one if he can fix the packing problem.

 

They're beautiful by the way!!!

[Kiha66]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

You should contact the merchant and tell him. I bet he'll replace the coach if it can't be fixed. You can tell him you have a buddy who will buy one if he can fix the packing problem.

 

They're beautiful by the way!!!

 

I'll do that, the boxes were packaged very well and arrived without damage, its the cars themselves that don't fit very well in the factory packaging.  It looks like the coupler boxes may have been copied from older bachmann models, so I may see if I can cannibalize a box car for some spares to fit the coach.  On the plus side it means the cars probably can be upgraded with microtrains couplers if you want too, although the factory ones seem to work just fine.

[Kiha66]

Hooray for Chinese not! originality!  The coupler pockets are indeed copied from old bachmann design, so a freight car box fits with a little force.  I'll give it a trial run at the club tomorrow, and email the seller to see what they say.  I would definitely order these cars again, just be aware you may have to reattach a part or two.  I ordered from eztranscom on ebay, but it seems that this may have been that sellers whole supply as they have not posted any more.

 

The original broken coupler box


The reassembled truck using parts taken from a bachmann freight car

[serotta1972]

2 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

The YZ22 hard seat coaches arrived!  The detail is very nice, but the packaging isn't very good so two cars have broken parts.  One had a batter box that was loose that was very easy to re-attach, while the other has a broken coupler box that will be more difficult to repair as all the tabs that hold it together have sheared off.  They run nicely though and look very good.

 Very nice, now need to get some Casco cases for them - it'll fit perfectly in an 8 car case.

[Kiha66]

14 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Hooray for Chinese not! originality!  The coupler pockets are indeed copied from old bachmann design, so a freight car box fits with a little force.  I'll give it a trial run at the club tomorrow, and email the seller to see what they say.  I would definitely order these cars again, just be aware you may have to reattach a part or two.  I ordered from eztranscom on ebay, but it seems that this may have been that sellers whole supply as they have not posted any more.

 

GOOD NEWS!  It turns out the seller included a free set of rapido couplers in case I wished to use those instead, and I missed it in the packaging.  And they include spare springs, couplers and coupler boxes!  I dont know if this comes standard with the cars, but its a very thoughtful inclusion and makes me much more inclined to get more in the future!  Plus now I have plenty of spare parts for the future too.
 

[Kiha66]

14 minutes ago, serotta1972 said:

 Very nice, now need to get some Casco cases for them - it'll fit perfectly in an 8 car case.

 

Sadly the seem too big for casco cases, they would look great if I could find one that would fit.  Maybe the shinkansen ones could work?

[serotta1972]

Need ones for 25 m cars.  The ones I sold you are narrower boxes.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2018 by serotta1972

[gavino200]

1 hour ago, Kiha66 said:

  On the plus side it means the cars probably can be upgraded with microtrains couplers if you want too, although the factory ones seem to work just fine.

 

I used to switch out couplers, but oddly enough I've developed a significant liking for Rapidos.  I started by loving how reliable they are. I don't think I've ever seen a pair uncouple. Now I actually like the look of them. I know, it's weird.

Edited August 21, 2018 by gavino200

[railsquid]

8 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

I used to switch out couplers, but oddly enough I've developed a significant liking for Rapidos.  I started by loving how reliable they are. I don't think I've ever seen a pair uncouple. Now I actually like the look of them. I know, it's weird.

 

Clearly you've never tried to run British Graham Farish and Dapol coaches in the same rake 😉

[gavino200]

44 minutes ago, railsquid said:

 

Clearly you've never tried to run British Graham Farish and Dapol coaches in the same rake 😉

 

Wait a second! Why am I laughing? I just received a Dapol loco and three Graham Farish coaches last week. They're waiting for a decoder. 😮

 

I hope this isn't going to be like the horrific experience I used to have with multiple American "almost-but-not-at-all-compatible" knuckle couplers. Part of my love of Rapidos comes directly from that period of US knuckle coupler frustration. What is it about English speaking countries and crappy standards?

 

(gavino200 shakes his fist in the air and screams in anger) 😱

 

Nothing to see here folks, move along.

Edited August 21, 2018 by gavino200

[railsquid]

1 hour ago, gavino200 said:

 

Wait a second! Why am I laughing? I just received a Dapol loco and three Graham Farish coaches last week. They're waiting for a decoder. 😮

 

 

 

 

That should be less problematic, it's doing crazy things like coupling a Dapol Mk3 to a Farish Mk1 which results in the coaches detatching from each other at the slightest provication. I suspect mainly because the Mk3 couplers are mounted too low.

 

Having said that, I agree with you Rapidos are on the whole surprisingly reliable across brands, countries and production eras.

[Yavianice]

22 hours ago, kvp said:

Are those 25 meter or 26.4 meter cars? As those restaurant cars were the first long cars that are standard nowdays. How about halberstadter coaches (ddr stadteexpress wagen, 1978) or the UIC-X-wagen or anything built in the last 10-15 years? The length difference is very small and many cross border trains still use the shorter cars but the newer ones are longer. Anything built in ep.6 or 7 would probably have the longer 26.4 meter length. Or even longer for the newest 27.9 meter DBAG cars. (i'm assuming most of your cars are older ep.3, 4 and maybe 5 cars and DB or similar western types and 25 meter long or below)

 

I cannot find the detailed length of the european cars in my possession. Currently my entire collection of european cars is now in CASCO cases. This includes stuff like:

 

Minitrix Touristik cars, Fleischmann IC cars in blue and orient red, Fleischmann double decker cars in traffic red, SBB IC and IC2000 cars, Prestige Continental Express, Railjets, Dutch ICM cars, ICE-T (which are very long), Sleeper cars from various operators etc all fit without any issue or cutting. The only ones that did not fit are the extended restaurant cars from some sets and the Lufthansa Airport Express middle cars. Maybe your particular cars won't fit. But the CASCO cases I referenced are the ones that have the longest holes, so it has a higher likelihood to fit compared to any other foam.

[Welshbloke]

Went to the nearest shop with a decent 2nd hand section in search of something oddball. This happened:

 

 

Running is improving with oil and exercise. The body is metal as is the chassis block which fills it. I realise there are better models of the Br. 112 but this and a few of the old Minitrix short TEE coaches will fill a gap in my early N collection.

[railsquid]

Not exactly a recent purchase, but I picked up this Kato TGV a couple of years back as a poor runner, which it was until I chipped all the gunk off the wheels, but it has lain dormant since, until I embarked on a campaign of "run all the things" to test the layout track.

 

Kato TGV (original style) by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

Not sure exactly when these were made, the packaging forensics indicate 1987 at the latest, for its era a very nice model which still looks the part, only niggle is the large gap between power cars and the coaches. Motor is a trifle noisy but I think a bit of TLC will help that, otherwise runs perfectly.

[Welshbloke]

I still have an old Bachmann TGV in the attic. Unfortunately they never made extra coaches for it. Bit plasticky and with a very similar mechanism to the Kader-built Tomix locos, but it did run fairly well.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Welshbloke
typo

[Suica]

I have never been to Spain, neither do I know much about Spanish railway other than the fact that they use some absurdly wide track gauge, but when I saw this Kato RENFE Serie 251 on ebay and nobody was interested in it, that was just a total no-brainer!

Thanks to Yavianice I also got an Ibertren Talgo Pendular so it got something to haul along.

[chadbag]

39 minutes ago, Suica said:

I have never been to Spain, neither do I know much about Spanish railway other than the fact that they use some absurdly wide track gauge, but when I saw this Kato RENFE Serie 251 on ebay and nobody was interested in it, that was just a total no-brainer!

Thanks to Yavianice I also got an Ibertren Talgo Pendular so it got something to haul along.

 

Awesome!  I was just reading about these the other day.

 

If they look like Japanese trains, there is a reason.  The Class 251 is a Japanese train by Mitsubishi made for Spain.

 

[Yavianice]

1 hour ago, Suica said:

I have never been to Spain, neither do I know much about Spanish railway other than the fact that they use some absurdly wide track gauge, but when I saw this Kato RENFE Serie 251 on ebay and nobody was interested in it, that was just a total no-brainer!

 

Thanks to Yavianice I also got an Ibertren Talgo Pendular so it got something to haul along.

 

An EF66 looks quite interesting in Spain, not what I expected to be actually existing before I also saw the same train on eBAY. I thought it was just some cheap repaint for pretends like PIKO does for fake non-existing fantasy dutch double deckers. Enjoy, Suica! Glad to be of service!

[kvp]

On 8/21/2018 at 2:22 PM, Yavianice said:

I cannot find the detailed length of the european cars in my possession. Currently my entire collection of european cars is now in CASCO cases. This includes stuff like:

Minitrix Touristik cars, Fleischmann IC cars in blue and orient red, Fleischmann double decker cars in traffic red, SBB IC and IC2000 cars, Prestige Continental Express, Railjets, Dutch ICM cars, ICE-T (which are very long), Sleeper cars from various operators etc all fit without any issue or cutting. The only ones that did not fit are the extended restaurant cars from some sets and the Lufthansa Airport Express middle cars. Maybe your particular cars won't fit. But the CASCO cases I referenced are the ones that have the longest holes, so it has a higher likelihood to fit compared to any other foam.

Yes, those are very nice 24-25 meter cars.  The ICE-T cars are 26 meter, just a bit shy of the longer 26.4 meter ones i'm talking about. The ICM should be even longer though, at around 26.8 meter or 167 mm at 1:160, so i'm not sure about those. The 25 meter cases are great though as you can still cut a bit out to fit the modern cars and most older cars will fit without any modifications.

 

ps: The 25 meter (E4 shinkansen) case should be 1:160, not 1:150, so the inner length without the coupler pockets is probably 156 mm instead of 166 mm. Could you measure yours?

[chadbag]

Thanks to @gavino200  (for posting a link and suggestion, not for selling me his)

 

(Posted here since this is an American brand and in 1/160)

 

These came a day or three ago by mail.

Edited August 28, 2018 by chadbag

[Yavianice]

On 8/28/2018 at 4:35 PM, kvp said:

ps: The 25 meter (E4 shinkansen) case should be 1:160, not 1:150, so the inner length without the coupler pockets is probably 156 mm instead of 166 mm. Could you measure yours?

 

Sorry for the delay @kvp. CASCO E4 shinkansen slots are 18.8 cm wide with the coupler space included, 16.7 cm wide without the coupler space, and 3 cm high.

[kvp]

1 hour ago, Yavianice said:

Sorry for the delay @kvp. CASCO E4 shinkansen slots are 18.8 cm wide with the coupler space included, 16.7 cm wide without the coupler space, and 3 cm high.

Thanks! This explains many things. First is that the 16.7 cm means 25 meter in 1:150 or Nj. This is 26.7 in 1:160 or standard N, which should be good for most modern cars, except the longest and newest ones. The BR403 had really long cars (27.450/27.160 meters) which are still not common (for example ICE 4 sets have longer cars).

[Suica]

Since the prices for Berlin S-Bahn models are out of this world I got the next best thing.

 

Rivarossi DB ET 182 21, which started life as a Berlin S-Bahn EMU.

Edited August 30, 2018 by Suica