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Post by txcavgr on Oct 24, 2020 4:49:00 GMT -8
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Post by 12bridge on Oct 24, 2020 5:40:46 GMT -8
Looks an awful lot like a Chinese company trying to break into the US market.
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Post by severn on Oct 24, 2020 5:57:45 GMT -8
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djh4d
Full Member
Posts: 205
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Post by djh4d on Oct 24, 2020 6:24:07 GMT -8
Early 2021 samples with a ship date of summer 2021. Their Chinese locomotives and containers look good. If they actually deliver, I would be tempted.
-Dave
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Post by sd40dash2 on Oct 24, 2020 6:30:42 GMT -8
From what we've seen, "North America" in the name is usually indicative of a Canadian company trying to hide their real location and price everything in USD. Real American companies in this hobby are usually way more specific about their location.
My advice is beware, don't get your hopes up and keep your wallet closely guarded.
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Post by severn on Oct 24, 2020 7:28:37 GMT -8
The domain lookup says Ontario. I mean I'm not beating down a door for anything but if they had some product in stock available on the website, I'd considerate it.
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Post by sp8234tim on Oct 24, 2020 10:50:15 GMT -8
There containers look like the PT Train ones with open doors & interiors. I wonder if they are a manufacturer in China or just an Importer? Be interesting to see how the working fans lasts.
Tim Hanesworth
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Post by migalyto on Oct 24, 2020 14:34:24 GMT -8
working radiator fans. That may be a game changer!
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Post by mdvle on Oct 24, 2020 15:07:44 GMT -8
Aurora is a town just north of Toronto, part of York Region, so perhaps that is a reason for the name.
Regardless of where they are located, if they want to sell enough units to cover their costs - particularly for something as unique as the SD60F - they are going to need to get out their on social media and present themselves so that their potential customers become comfortable with the idea of buying from them. The lack of train shows is going to make this a difficult task.
Particularly given that some of us up here in Canada will remember the recent Shira Trains and the claimed CPR D10 saga.
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Post by fcixdarrell on Oct 24, 2020 16:16:52 GMT -8
Aurora is a town just north of Toronto, part of York Region, so perhaps that is a reason for the name. Regardless of where they are located, if they want to sell enough units to cover their costs - particularly for something as unique as the SD60F - they are going to need to get out their on social media and present themselves so that their potential customers become comfortable with the idea of buying from them. The lack of train shows is going to make this a difficult task. Particularly given that some of us up here in Canada will remember the recent Shira Trains and the claimed CPR D10 saga. What's the Shira story. I see their web site is up but kinda out of date.
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Post by bigblow69 on Oct 24, 2020 16:44:08 GMT -8
I'd buy a couple.
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Post by mdvle on Oct 24, 2020 17:30:04 GMT -8
Aurora is a town just north of Toronto, part of York Region, so perhaps that is a reason for the name. Regardless of where they are located, if they want to sell enough units to cover their costs - particularly for something as unique as the SD60F - they are going to need to get out their on social media and present themselves so that their potential customers become comfortable with the idea of buying from them. The lack of train shows is going to make this a difficult task. Particularly given that some of us up here in Canada will remember the recent Shira Trains and the claimed CPR D10 saga. What's the Shira story. I see their web site is up but kinda out of date.
One can see more on their Facebook page if one is willing to use Facebook, but the essential is this "company" came out of nowhere in 2017 and promised a CPR D10 for $350 (DCC/Sound) - compare to Rapido at $600 for DCC/Sound. But despite showing what where claimed to be samples on Facebook the "delivery about to happen" kept getting delayed for a couple of years until they just stopped posting.
Throughout the saga, despite asking for what social media they should participate in or what hobby shops/clubs they should visit, no physical presence of anyone from Shira was ever seen / heard.
Some on Facebook decided it was an effort to attempt to sabotage Rapido's D10, I don't go that far given the videos/pictures would seem to indicate something was done, but combine that with the True Line Train promises and the whole original Point St. Charles caboose issue and a lot of potential customers have become very leery of things that aren't the now established bigger operations like Rapido/Athearn/etc.
And for what its worth, yes Arrowhead has been given flack, but both Arrowhead and ScaleTrains for example made efforts to introduce the company and the people behind the company before announcing products to help generate both interest and trust - something this new operation hasn't done.
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Post by sd40dash2 on Oct 24, 2020 17:47:23 GMT -8
Don't forget how Tom Tomblin from Canadian Model Trains in Oakville/Miss stiffed people who placed pre-orders/crowdfunding for the PSC caboose around 2014 or so. One day Tom just closed the doors and took off with our money.
Then there's the "company" (PMI, run by Ray?) that announced things like resin RS23 kits for a "reasonable price" around 2014, they never delivered either.
We've seen many times before how these things play out. Be very careful and don't be blinded just because something "fits your era".
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Post by Judge Doom on Oct 24, 2020 19:32:07 GMT -8
What's the Shira story. I see their web site is up but kinda out of date. One can see more on their Facebook page if one is willing to use Facebook, but the essential is this "company" came out of nowhere in 2017 and promised a CPR D10 for $350 (DCC/Sound) - compare to Rapido at $600 for DCC/Sound. But despite showing what where claimed to be samples on Facebook the "delivery about to happen" kept getting delayed for a couple of years until they just stopped posting. Throughout the saga, despite asking for what social media they should participate in or what hobby shops/clubs they should visit, no physical presence of anyone from Shira was ever seen / heard. Some on Facebook decided it was an effort to attempt to sabotage Rapido's D10, I don't go that far given the videos/pictures would seem to indicate something was done, but combine that with the True Line Train promises and the whole original Point St. Charles caboose issue and a lot of potential customers have become very leery of things that aren't the now established bigger operations like Rapido/Athearn/etc. There's more to that fun story too: There were a number of posts on a couple of online modelling groups discussing how there were a lot of similarities between True Line Trains and the new Shira Trains outfit that magically emerged out of nowhere and promised a low-cost sound/DCC CPR D10 as their first release, around the time Rapido was lining themselves up to proceed with their own D10 as the next "Icons of Steam" release. This was not too long after Rapido released their own SW1200RS, scooping the TLT version that had been "in development" for over seven years at that point (things were going sideways with that TLT project in the later years: TLT cancelled the CP versions, and decided to only offer a CN version in DCC/sound only (no DC) in only the noodle paint livery). And, people have found evidence online linking one specific high-level TLT employee to Shira Trains, who was said to be composed of a partnership of three people lead by one mysterious aliased "Stanley Butler" of the TV show "On The Buses" fame. This was at one point explained by them as they had bought some/select/etc assets from another unnamed train manufacturer, and may/may not rerelease some in the future as a joint product. Nobody really knew who was or is behind them, although there's speculation it was a Chinese factory working with that specific TLT employee in some sort of partnership. Said TLT employee was also mentioned by a few sources as allegedly having shopped around a pre-production Shira Trains D10 to a few Toronto-area hobby shops who were planning on carrying it (even though Shira Trains originally launched as a direct to customer online sales retail model). At last check they had some working pre-production D10 chassis and were working on their own basic home-made DCC/sound decoder to go with it (yes, you read that right, developing their own decoder) but there's been radio silence from them for a good while now so...who knows where the chips lie now. Stories like this (and the Canadian Model Trains dealer fiasco) are a perfect example of why some who have been involved in the hobby for many years get a bit skeptical when someone unknown comes out of the ether with all sorts of rosy promises and CAD drawings, promising to deliver the world on a silver platter. Right before CMT (a long-time reputable Canadian dealer) went under, Tom Tomblin was spouting lengthy platitudes on one of the Canadian modelling groups about how they were undergoing this great paradigm shift in model railroading from a distributor/retailer to some sort of next-generation model company. And then he sold off all their inventory to another modeling company (for quick cash?), pulled the rug out from under everyone and disappeared. The rest was history. There were discussions for months after about "Where in the World is Tom "Carmen Sandiego" Tomblin", inquiries from individuals and model companies who they owned money too, had consignment items with, or had orders with, and what the status of the Rapido-CMT CN Point St. Charles caboose would be (eventually the tooling was transferred from Rapido to TLT, as TLT had acquired the inventory of CMT (another odd story for another day) and evidently the caboose project was in some way part of the assets involved. CMT customers who had put money down pre-ordering the caboose project were SOL though, as there were no CMT records acquired showing customers pre-orders and deposit amounts). Then there's the "company" (PMI, run by Ray?) that announced things like resin RS23 kits for a "reasonable price" around 2014, they never delivered either. PMI did get the MLW S13 shells completed and out, and they wanted to do RS23's and fully decorated units too. But evidently, the whole project turned out to be more bitten off than they could chew, being a small one-person operation and all.
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Post by mdvle on Oct 25, 2020 8:12:34 GMT -8
Said TLT employee was also mentioned by a few sources as allegedly having shopped around a pre-production Shira Trains D10 to a few Toronto-area hobby shops who were planning on carrying it (even though Shira Trains originally launched as a direct to customer online sales retail model).
Not allegedly - can still be found listed on at least the Credit Valley Railway website
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Post by es80ac on Oct 25, 2020 9:20:47 GMT -8
It is good to have some healthy skepticism of the delivery capability of a new outfit. However I can vouch that if this SD60F project does get off the ground, the details will be fantastic. The reason being over the course of 2-3 years there were several new manufactures sprung up building models for the growing Chinese market, Aurora is one of them, they have announced another model for that market which is expected to be released soon. The Chinese buyers tends to be even more nit-picky than the American river counters, so the details of the models have been pushed to almost an extreme. I own some of them, the details are even beyond Scaletrains and Athearn Genesis 2. Please take a look at this German diesel hydraulic model here, how many of our American models have this level of truck details underneath? www.chinesemodeltrains.com/encyclopedia_ny6.html
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Post by cp6027 on Oct 25, 2020 11:01:47 GMT -8
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Post by mdvle on Oct 25, 2020 11:13:59 GMT -8
It is good to have some healthy skepticism of the delivery capability of a new outfit. However I can vouch that if this SD60F project does get off the ground, the details will be fantastic. The reason being over the course of 2-3 years there were several new manufactures sprung up building models for the growing Chinese market, Aurora is one of them, they have announced another model for that market which is expected to be released soon. The Chinese buyers tends to be even more nit-picky than the American river counters, so the details of the models have been pushed to almost an extreme. I own some of them, the details are even beyond Scaletrains and Athearn Genesis 2. Please take a look at this German diesel hydraulic model here, how many of our American models have this level of truck details underneath? www.chinesemodeltrains.com/encyclopedia_ny6.html
If they have a track record in China great - but they need to understand that the market in China and the markets in Canada / US are different and that consumers behave differently.
There is a long list of companies, whether small companies or large multinationals, who have pursued business in a different country assuming the new market will welcome them with open arms only to retreat a short time later with nothing but financial losses to show for it.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Oct 25, 2020 11:20:19 GMT -8
If they have a track record in China great - but they need to understand that the market in China and the markets in Canada / US are different and that consumers behave differently.
There is a long list of companies, whether small companies or large multinationals, who have pursued business in a different country assuming the new market will welcome them with open arms only to retreat a short time later with nothing but financial losses to show for it.
Coming to mind is that company that did the "other" U25C. Ed
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Post by es80ac on Oct 25, 2020 12:44:26 GMT -8
It is good to have some healthy skepticism of the delivery capability of a new outfit. However I can vouch that if this SD60F project does get off the ground, the details will be fantastic. The reason being over the course of 2-3 years there were several new manufactures sprung up building models for the growing Chinese market, Aurora is one of them, they have announced another model for that market which is expected to be released soon. The Chinese buyers tends to be even more nit-picky than the American river counters, so the details of the models have been pushed to almost an extreme. I own some of them, the details are even beyond Scaletrains and Athearn Genesis 2. Please take a look at this German diesel hydraulic model here, how many of our American models have this level of truck details underneath? www.chinesemodeltrains.com/encyclopedia_ny6.html
If they have a track record in China great - but they need to understand that the market in China and the markets in Canada / US are different and that consumers behave differently.
There is a long list of companies, whether small companies or large multinationals, who have pursued business in a different country assuming the new market will welcome them with open arms only to retreat a short time later with nothing but financial losses to show for it.
I am not saying they will be successful or that you should by their products. I am just suggesting we might expect to be suprised by the level of details and it may open some eyes. I also hope that will encourage Scalestrains and Athearn to up their games even more.
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Post by es80ac on Oct 25, 2020 12:46:17 GMT -8
If they have a track record in China great - but they need to understand that the market in China and the markets in Canada / US are different and that consumers behave differently.
There is a long list of companies, whether small companies or large multinationals, who have pursued business in a different country assuming the new market will welcome them with open arms only to retreat a short time later with nothing but financial losses to show for it.
Coming to mind is that company that did the "other" U25C. Ed Ed if I remember other than Rivarossi there was another company that did U25C too right? Korea something? If memory serves me correctly, that U25C looked very good as well. What happend to it?
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Post by wp8thsub on Oct 25, 2020 12:57:51 GMT -8
...other than Rivarossi there was another company that did U25C too right? Korea something? Korea Brass. They disappeared rather suddenly.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Oct 25, 2020 13:25:51 GMT -8
Well, not exactly: www.korea-brass-usa.comBut note that they don't have a US address. And they don't have a telephone. And they won't tell you their e-mail address. It's not so much that they disappeared rather suddenly. It's more like they never exactly showed up. Ed
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Oct 25, 2020 14:40:42 GMT -8
I went to the link in the reply above, Charming, and lifted this paragraph out of it’s information:
Some interesting observations...
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Post by TBird1958 on Oct 25, 2020 15:06:07 GMT -8
I wonder if they come in a nice box......
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Post by The Ferro Kid on Oct 25, 2020 15:37:36 GMT -8
Korea Brass had planned to do Oroville Dam Constructors in its second run of U25Cs. Good thing I bought some extra Rivarossi units for cheap -- looks like I'll have to do my own. And I doubt there are any decals for it, either.
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Post by keystonefarm on Oct 25, 2020 17:04:39 GMT -8
Awhile ago we had two very nice U-25c's available. Now we have none !! I know that TCS the decoder people were the US distributor for the Korea Brass version. I wonder if we will ever see another run of either manufacturers U-25c again. Both were great locomotives and I had hopes that other units would follow . What ever happened to the Rivarossi line did any other manufacturer pick up the tooling ? Time will tell I guess !
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Post by mdvle on Oct 25, 2020 17:24:15 GMT -8
Awhile ago we had two very nice U-25c's available. Now we have none !! I know that TCS the decoder people were the US distributor for the Korea Brass version. I wonder if we will ever see another run of either manufacturers U-25c again. Both were great locomotives and I had hopes that other units would follow . What ever happened to the Rivarossi line did any other manufacturer pick up the tooling ? Time will tell I guess !
Rivarossi was purchased by Hornby, who a year or 2 ago decided to cut back / almost eliminate their North American product lines to try and concentrate on the UK and European markets as they attempt to return to making profits.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Oct 25, 2020 17:31:04 GMT -8
Profit in business is a good thing, and I'm for it.
The molds for the U boats aren't gone. Hornby would probably be happy to make more after they make more: Profit. Someday.
Meanwhile, these were available dirt cheap on Ebay, back in the olden days. I even got a couple of "extras". I love 'em. Well, I do wish the BN green was a bit less BRIGHT.
Ed
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Post by es80ac on Oct 25, 2020 17:47:24 GMT -8
I went to the link in the reply above, Charming, and lifted this paragraph out of it’s information: Some interesting observations... Actually Charming is not Aurora. I gave that link as an example of a recent brand that poped up over last 3 years that seems to set the bar for details really high.
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