Gold-Plated C11 (Poketrain)

I came across this item a few days ago and was immediately intrigued. It appears to be a gold version of the JNR C11 steam locomotive. After doing enough digging, I discovered that it was a limited ‘Poketrain’ product made by Takara and given out in a sweepstakes in the RM Models magazine. Here’s the kicker: ONLY 50 were given out!



This rare beauty (with its original packaging) should arrive sometime in the next few weeks

You bought it? How much did that gem cost you? Are you still going for Golden Thomas after getting it?

Surprisingly, it was only $45 + shipping! There’s actually another one still there for an even lower price, though it doesn’t have the box. I can send you the link if you would like.

The Gold Thomas became too pricey for me (it ended at around $1700!).

@TrainsRAwesome What? $45+ shipping? I presume it came from a japanese website? and yeah $1700 is a crazy amount to spend on one engine, if you could send the link to the other C11 I would be quite grateful

@TDD I PMed you the link.

@TRA I saw, thank you!

This is AWESOME!
Very cool.
Does it run on blue track?
Can I see a better picture of the couplings?

These are the best I could find of the couplings:


It appears that the second car is permanently connected to the engine and has a power switch underneath. The third car looks to be detachable.

I’m not entirely sure if it can run on blue track, but I don’t so because it seems a little smaller than Plarail.

Keep in mind that the Poketrain range was made before Takara merged with TOMY, meaning it had no affiliation with Plarail / Tomica World. It used its own gray track system, shown below.


Also, I found the cover of the RM Models magazine that held the sweepstakes (that being issue 89, released in January 2003). Interestingly, it also features a “silver“ version, but I haven’t been able to find any info on that.

Pics

[Super]

Very shinny