People’s Republic of China N Scale trains

[Sheffie]

To be clear, I'm not looking for any old coaches. I only wanted the Minitown ones. Apologies for not being clear. I should probably have quoted this before:

18 hours ago, Nozomi329 said:

...

Minitown is also extremely limited in production quantity. They do have multiple runs, which is a good thing.

Their BSP25T coaches are already released. Currently they had 2 buying options as well:

1, 18 passenger cars full set (released August 2020, sold out everywhere)

2, set A (DF11G loco set + 2 passenger cars) + set B (8 passenger cars) + set C (8 passenger cars)

...

 

[gavino200]

40 minutes ago, Sheffie said:

To be clear, I'm not looking for any old coaches. I only wanted the Minitown ones. Apologies for not being clear. I should probably have quoted this before:

 

 

Ah, ok. Just curious, do you think there's a quality difference between Minitown and Kunter? Or are you just interested in those Bombardier coaches from the Shanghai-Beijing route?

 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.175.678b46e5cP8rV0&id=633111818982&ns=1&abbucket=20#detail

 

These Kunter coaches aren't identical but they're very similar.

 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.168.5fa81256DeYk0D&id=636012359617&ns=1&abbucket=20#detail

Edited March 15, 2021 by gavino200

[gavino200]

I need to stop looking. I'm one iota of willpower away from buying the Minitown BSP25T 2 loco/ 18 car set. 😱

Edited March 15, 2021 by gavino200

[cteno4]

it will be assimilated, resistance is futile!

 

jeff

[Kiha66]

9 hours ago, roadstar_na6 said:

I've come across some CMR Line DF4Bs that are DCC. Are these with a NEM socket and can be replaced with an analogue plug?

 

DO NOT BUY THE DCC DF4Bs!   I bought two and they are not DCC compatible, they run on address 3 on some DCC stations but not all, and do not take programming.  I was very disappointed I couldn't run them at my club.  The DC version has a light board that will be much easier to add a decoder too, I suggest doing that instead.  You'll have to cut some traces and hard wire it in, but it'll be much easier than trying to rebuild the precise light boards yourself.  

Edited March 16, 2021 by Kiha66

[Kiha66]

2 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Ah, ok. Just curious, do you think there's a quality difference between Minitown and Kunter? Or are you just interested in those Bombardier coaches from the Shanghai-Beijing route?

 

Kunter coaches do not come with knuckle couplers, your only options are their proprietary TN couplers or rapidos.  Minitown come with MTL compatible knuckles.  I know JR got a kunter coach set but couldn't run it with his Minitown loco due to the coupler mismatch.   CMR locos come with rapidos and and kuncles, but their knucles have a tendency to uncouple often and should be switched for body mount MTL for improved operation.   

[gavino200]

Believe it or not, I’m a big fan of rapido couplers. I think I may be the only one. I love them. 😱

[Nozomi329]

5 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Ah, ok. Just curious, do you think there's a quality difference between Minitown and Kunter? Or are you just interested in those Bombardier coaches from the Shanghai-Beijing route?

 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.175.678b46e5cP8rV0&id=633111818982&ns=1&abbucket=20#detail

 

These Kunter coaches aren't identical but they're very similar.

 

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.168.5fa81256DeYk0D&id=636012359617&ns=1&abbucket=20#detail

There is a quality difference. Kunter is a Kato level brand, while Minitown is a Scaletrains level brand.

[roadstar_na6]

4 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

DO NOT BUY THE DCC DF4Bs!

I wouldn't want to run it on DCC anyways, hence the question if it can easily be converted to DC 🙂

[gavino200]

On 3/16/2021 at 1:07 AM, Nozomi329 said:

There is a quality difference. Kunter is a Kato level brand, while Minitown is a Scaletrains level brand.

 

I had never heard of Scaletrains. That's some very impressive level of detail. Thanks!

[Szdfan]

I was poking around looking at sone of these Chinese models. Anyone know what shipping from Hong Kong to the US is like? 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Szdfan

[Yavianice]

2 hours ago, Szdfan said:

I was poking around looking at sone of these Chinese models. Anyone know what shipping from Hong Kong to the US is like? 

 

Similar shipping options and similar prices like with japanese dealers. Note that from April 1st, shipping prices using UPU are increased. I'm not sure by how much but you can use the japanese prices as reference.

[Nozomi329]

Unfortunately the photos have to be removed for now according to forum rules.

Recently a set of photos floated around some Chinese model group chats. Rumors say that these are experiments conducted by Charming model studio, a Chinese brand currently known for top quality HO trains. The photos include some grey/white shells of what might be the 8K, 6K, HXD3, HXD3C locomotives and C64K gondola in N scale.

Be aware that there is no reliable sources for these photos yet. They do not indicate any future production for any brand. In fact, Charming has been spotted for creating experimental N scale shells in 2018 for CRH2, and there hasn't been a single word about it ever since.

 

Edited May 3, 2021 by Nozomi329

[Kiha66]

Wow, very interesting!  Seems the past year or two has been slow for Chinese modeling, hopefully more quality releases like these will come out to keep the the chinese market going.  interesting they'd also choose the C64 gondola, as both minitown and CMR have made that prototype already in N.

[Nozomi329]

59 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

Wow, very interesting!  Seems the past year or two has been slow for Chinese modeling, hopefully more quality releases like these will come out to keep the the chinese market going.  interesting they'd also choose the C64 gondola, as both minitown and CMR have made that prototype already in N.

It's not slow for HO scale. N scale is just starting up in China so the selection is limited. However in 2020 many brands decided to reduce plans and productions in respond to what we all know. 

As many Chinese homes are smaller comparing to the US, n scale should be a better place to start the hobby, but this market was not noticed until recently.

[Nozomi329]

Some photos of the (partly painted) sample models of an unclear brand here: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7404964484

It is speculated that these are from Charming models. The models are 6K electric locomotive, HXD3 electric locomotive, and C70 gondola.

[Yavianice]

 

Picture of the E2 CRH2A by KUNTER which is about to be released.

[Nozomi329]

On 7/5/2021 at 7:09 PM, Yavianice said:

Picture of the E2 CRH2A by KUNTER which is about to be released.

By the way, it seems that this train received more preorders in Japan than expected, and only very few of them (rumors say about 100 sets) is left for Chinese market.

It's going to be difficult to get one of this set...

[Yavianice]

Here is a video of the CRH2 train you can't buy (unless you pre-ordered)

 

Also, what is the train at 0:18? Secret spoiler for a future model?

 

Edited July 8, 2021 by Yavianice

[disturbman]

Could be a CRH5.

[Nozomi329]

3 hours ago, disturbman said:

Could be a CRH5.

The shape contour and light/window locations don't really match CRH5. I couldn't find any CR train that completely match this one.

I would suggest that this CJ1 (Now known as CRH3A, https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/和谐号CJ1型电力动车组) looks more appropriate, but the color band is different.

I can't understand why they're making such a rare-sighted train. There are a lot of much common trains that are not covered by anyone yet.

 

And speaking of CRH2A, The preorders are just opened in China on Taobao, so anyone interested could still try to find one there. However I'm currently worrying about their qualities as in the video, the height (and especially the blue color band) of each car doesn't match...Hopefully that's just a problem with that test production and won't appear in the actual product.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Nozomi329

[disturbman]

6 hours ago, Nozomi329 said:

The shape contour and light/window locations don't really match CRH5. I couldn't find any CR train that completely match this one.

Agreed, I couldn't find any that completely matches, CRH5 was my best guest due to the color band and general shape.

[Nozomi329]

Charming models officially announced their first N scale product, 6K electric locomotive, here: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/VDyHFb6nfREMuAQsCaSIpg

The model will include 18 pin interface for ESU micro decoders, and reserved space for speaker.

 

And here are some photos of the more completed HXD3 (along with 6K, so this might be their next product) here: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/7463294523

[Kiha66]

These both look quite neat, The use of the Next18 interface is very welcome.  I hope US models pick up that design as well, its very easy to use.

[disturbman]

A HK shop is taking reservations for the 6k: https://www.facebook.com/CNRailModel/ They are also taking reservations for the CRH2A.

I'm looking forward the HX3D, that model looks really neat.