Rare - Red Suspension Bridge.......Not!

[Super]

I have always seen on occasion a Red Suspension Bridge Listed on the Japan Auctions and was interested in obtaining one because it had to be rare because I had not heard about it and it would go with the other 3 variations of Suspension Bridges I already had. This Red Bridge looked identical to the Tomy's except it was red with yellow supports. I thought it was strange that the 'Crowns' as I call them were never pictured. The crowns go on top of the 2 towers but I figured that maybe these bridges were the first rendition of the and they added them on the next 3. I never bid on the ones I had seen in the Japan Auctions because the least they were asking was 4500yen I thought it to be too much especially when you add in the double shipping and all the Fees.

While nosing around on the AliExpress web site I saw the same bridges new at, what I thought, was a ridiculously low price so I bought 2 of them because our collection had 2 of each of the other versions (Green, Orange & Blue). When they arrived it was somewhat obvious that these were Knockoffs but very well done. The plastics are not up to Plarails but just a notch below which is acceptable to me. I put them together and they looked good. I figured I would swap out the 4 normal yellow risers with the better Tomy version just to make the bridge a bit better..........this is when I discovered.........................

The Yellow Knockoff risers, which look like a perfect Tomy match are.........1/4" taller so the Tomy ones won't fit as the lower portion of the red bridge is also 1/4" taller. This will make adding the bridges to a Layout problematic because it won't perfectly line up with other tracks and risers leading up to the bridge and sloped rails would be sloped a little high which is still workable. My plan was to mix and match the different bridge colored sides with other versions for a unique look like mix the red and green for an Xmas feel but that idea is now out the door.

So this wasn't rare at all which would probably explain why I could never find any Tomy info on it especially what set it may have come in. There is currently one listed in the auctions for 4600yen but I got my 2 from AliExpress for a grand total...now get this,...including Delivery for....1000yen less than the 4600yen that they are asking in the auctions....and thats for 2, including shipping. So I am glad I didn't pay high for what I thought would be a very rare Bridge.

Sorry for the long story.

       

some of the tomy sets have an elevated bottom like the thomas coal hopper.  The knock off may work well with the knock off bridge

If the bridge was smaller it could fit on the original Plarail piers.

[Super]

My Guess is that when the Knock Off makers went to measure a real Tomy Suspension Bride before the designed the tooling to make the molds for the plastic, the person who did the measurements measured a real Tomy riser from the bottom to the top of the nubs and not to the shoulder of the top where it should have been. Just look at how perfect the measurement is next to the Tomy one.  The top of the Tomy Nubs is exactly where the shoulder in on the Knockoff. So of course once that measurement went into the Cad software program the red sides were made to fit the taller risers. Could be why these are so cheap as they are total errors. Why would they go to all the trouble to make a Tomy copy cat and make it wrong?

Do these same people sell other knockoff rail parts? This bridge might only cater perfectly for these parts.

[Super]

I will check but most of the Knockoff makers from China that I have seen sell a lot of their items under different names.

EDIT:
You are right Vio, this Seller does also sell the yellow risers in 4 packs and they are the taller size.

The best place to find this stuff is Taobao (which has its own cheap forwarding to some countries).
It seems to be from the same line as Southward/Dumica. 
Here is one seller's track category:
https://shop35869883.taobao.com/category...C%B5%C0#bd

Trains:
https://shop35869883.taobao.com/category...5%CF%E1#bd

Sets:
https://shop35869883.taobao.com/category...1%BE%B0#bd

Scenery:
https://shop35869883.taobao.com/category...1%BE%B0#bd

[Super]

I don't see any Plarail type stuff there BRT. I also don't see where you can change the language?

Also with the couple of Dumica sets I have had, all the copy cat tracks and track accessories were exact copies where this suspension bridge isn't. It could have been the same maker but they made a mistake in measurements.

I also forgot to mention that those yellow knock off risers aren't the exact type that come with the real Tomy Suspension bridges. The real Tomy Suspension Bridge risers are slightly different the normal Tomy Risers to accept both blue track and road track.

It's Chinese language only - I use Chrome's auto-translate to browse and order.
There are 3rd party English language forwarders ala FromJapan/Buyee but I have not used any of them.
Forgot that Taobao requires you to be logged-in for most browsing when posting those links.
Here are few product links which should be viewable without being logged in:
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z...4461730797
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z...2493029769
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z...0918362963
Interesting that the risers are different. Some of the trains this seller has look identical except for lettering.

[Super]

Those risers look to be the same size as the tall ones 8cm's. The bridges are also more expensive than AliExpress but I can't tell for sure how much one bridge is. Also I wonder if those sloped rails compensate for the taller risers or are the same size as the real Tomy blue slopes.