Kato/Lemke ICE4 DCC decoder

[gavino200]

I have a Kato/Lemke ICE 4 on preorder. Supposed to be released in December. 

 

http://www.lemkecollection.de/de/Uebersicht/Spur-N/ICE-4-DB-Ep.VI-7tlg.-Grundgarnitur

 

Anyone know what kind of DCC decoders this thing is likely to take? 

[Yavianice]

I have a Kato/Lemke ICE 4 on preorder. Supposed to be released in December. 
 
http://www.lemkecollection.de/de/Uebersicht/Spur-N/ICE-4-DB-Ep.VI-7tlg.-Grundgarnitur
 
Anyone know what kind of DCC decoders this thing is likely to take? 

Where do you see it’s supposed to be released in December?

[kvp]

According to a dutch site it's nem651, like every european N scale train made by Kato so far.

[HantuBlauLOL]

no price yet?

[Yavianice]

no price yet?

When it is about to be released, they will announce the price. It probably won’t happen this year.

[gavino200]

On 11/12/2017 at 2:43 AM, Yavianice said:

 

Where do you see it’s supposed to be released in December?

 

 

It's been quite a while since I made the pre-order. I could have sworn that there was a time estimate for release. And I thought it was December. I just checked the site where I made the order and there's no time mentioned. There's also no release date mentioned in the pre-order. Since it was listed as a 2017 release I figured I must have been right about my recollection. We're running out of 2017 months at this stage. 

 

I also could have sworn that there was a price quoted when I saw this first and made the pre-order. There's no price listed now. 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by gavino200

[gavino200]

I'm sending a message to Lemke. I'll let you guys know if I hear anything back.

[Yavianice]

I see. Note that hobbytrain/Lemke is a very small company and what they announce doesn’t always get released when they say they will, and why they keep release dates and prices intentionally vague.

[Yavianice]

I'm sending a message to Lemke. I'll let you guys know if I hear anything back.

 

They will probably say what they told me. “We will release it when we will release it. Plz stop sending msgs k thxbai” (free interpretation)

[gavino200]

Response from Lemke:

 

"We suspekt that the N-scale ICE-4 will come at the end of 2018, but we have no exact date. If you have any other questions please contact us. Kind regards"

 

 

[TSK1000]

30 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

Response from Lemke:

 

"We suspekt that the N-scale ICE-4 will come at the end of 2018, but we have no exact date. If you have any other questions please contact us. Kind regards"

 

 

It seems that Lemke-branded products are often given low priority on Kato’s production schedule. What a shame, I too was looking forward to seeing the ICE 4 released soon; but definitely not as soon as December 2017, my wallet is already aching from several pre-orders.

[Suica]

6 minutes ago, TSK1000 said:

It seems that Lemke-branded products are often given low priority on Kato’s production schedule. 

Obviously. It's not their home market. Also, it always depends on how much your contractee is willing to pay. Looking at Lemke's price policy for imported Kato trains, one  might conclude that they show similar behaviour when contracting companies. Maximum revenue with minimal funding. They don't care if you, the customer, wait one, two or three years, as long as they can be sure nobody else will release this model.

 

Here's a pretty nice example: DB ET 403 (by L.S. Models) was announced in 2006. Even a prototype was shown around 2009(?) and to this day there's no sign of a release.

 

 

[Gryphr]

6 hours ago, Suica said:

Obviously. It's not their home market. Also, it always depends on how much your contractee is willing to pay. Looking at Lemke's price policy for imported Kato trains, one  might conclude that they show similar behaviour when contracting companies. Maximum revenue with minimal funding. They don't care if you, the customer, wait one, two or three years, as long as they can be sure nobody else will release this model.

 

Here's a pretty nice example: DB ET 403 (by L.S. Models) was announced in 2006. Even a prototype was shown around 2009(?) and to this day there's no sign of a release.

 

I have the feeling that L.S. models is kinda greedy in general. I'm used to European, especially german models being a bit more pricey, but L.S. models prices really take the cake...

[TSK1000]

12 hours ago, Suica said:

Obviously. It's not their home market. Also, it always depends on how much your contractee is willing to pay. Looking at Lemke's price policy for imported Kato trains, one  might conclude that they show similar behaviour when contracting companies. Maximum revenue with minimal funding. They don't care if you, the customer, wait one, two or three years, as long as they can be sure nobody else will release this model.

 

Here's a pretty nice example: DB ET 403 (by L.S. Models) was announced in 2006. Even a prototype was shown around 2009(?) and to this day there's no sign of a release.

 

Thanks for the quick and helpful insight into the business of model train manufacturing, Suica. I figured that this wasn’t coincidental and probably do to the contractual agreement between Kato and Lemke, but I did not want to speak with certainty to avoid creating misinformation. 

 

This may be getting too off-topic, but regardless, I am curious to find out if we will get a Japanese release of the ICE 4 (with more reasonable prices). Kato has released TGVs in the past and they’ve sold well enough to earn further production, so the precedent for selling European high speed trains to the Japanese market is there. But as you have pointed out, it is improbable this will occur until after the Lemke release as Kato would not want to undercut it’s businss partner’s min/max corporate practices.

[cteno4]

Some lemke items like their tamper actually released in japan at a much higher price than Europe!

 

jeff

[mrtinvan]

The Kato website says that it will use the EM13 and other Function Decoders, that are installed in the bottom of the cars. In an initial press release they also said they would one day release a sound decoder from Zimo. 

[chadbag]

4 minutes ago, mrtinvan said:

The Kato website says that it will use the EM13 and other Function Decoders, that are installed in the bottom of the cars. In an initial press release they also said they would one day release a sound decoder from Zimo. 

 

There are Lemke part numbers for the Zimo based decoders and you can pre-order it at all the various European suspects (like Lippe)

[mrtinvan]

2 minutes ago, chadbag said:

 

There are Lemke part numbers for the Zimo based decoders and you can pre-order it at all the various European suspects (like Lippe)

Yes, but those are not sound decoders, just a package of Function Decoders and a Motor Decoder.

 

Probably better than the Kato branded decoders, Those are made by Digitrax and run horribly. 

[chadbag]

Just now, mrtinvan said:

Yes, but those are not sound decoders, just a package of Function Decoders and a Motor Decoder.

 

Probably better than the Kato branded decoders, Those are made by Digitrax and run horribly. 

 

Good point.  I missed that you said "sound".

 

For normal Japan KATO use, I use the Ersatz EM13 board developed by someone here on the forum, with D&H decoders (the board was made for D&H decoders).  I have approximately a dozen trains running with Ersatz EM13 boards and D&H decoders.

 

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, mrtinvan said:

 

Probably better than the Kato branded decoders, Those are made by Digitrax and run horribly. 

 

I'm not a fan of the Kato decoders either. What are some of the problems you've encountered? For me, they're just hit and miss. The function decoders are sometimes a bit glitchy to program. I have one that doesn't respond until I tilt the cap to lift the wheels on one side off the track. Then it runs fine for the whole session. But I have to do it every time. Not a huge problem - just weird.

 

With the motor decoder it seems to do pretty much what I need, though that's not much. 

[chadbag]

So Modellbahn-Lippe shows these are available now (The Lemke/ZIMO decoders).   I have a reservation on them and will be ordering.

 

If anyone in the US wants to piggy back on the order to save shipping let me know in the next day or two.  (Either for these, or anything else form Lippe.  Their flat rate US UPS shipping is one of the cheaper European shipping charges to the US but is still steep so if we can gang orders together it helps each person save).