Locomotive Roster: NS Koploper; Minitrix 12749 and 12865

UPDATE: Please read this newer post which updates some of the info in this review!

Taking a small break from reviews of my French fleet of trains, we'll now turn our sites to the northeast of France to the Netherlands!  In particular, Minitrix's model of the Nederlandse Spoorswegen "Koploper" Electric Multiple Units!  Actually, I believe the official designation of these trains is ICM (for Intercity Materieel), but I think most people refer to them as "Koplopers".

If you've seen any of my videos or photos on this blog, then you will have seen these trains appear quite a few times.  I have two versions, the 12749 in the traditional blue and yellow of the NS from 2004:

I also have a slightly older model from somewhere between 1994 and 1999 in the light blue KLM advertising livery which is also packaged in the older Minitrix boxes before the Marklin acquisition:

Despite the fact that both models were produced between 5 and 10 years apart, they both appear to be identical except for their paint schemes and the packaging.

What surprised me was that the KLM model (when it was produced is not quite clear to me, but the packaging very clearly makes it certain that it was pre-Marklin acquisition in 1997) has an NEM 651 interface.  This seems amazing as we're talking about mid-1990's production with a plug and play socket for a decoder! If that's true, then this must have been one of the very first models to be so equipped!

I suspect, though can't confirm, that the recently released (and still available) version of this train in the Olympic livery (model 12184) is basically the same as well.

Despite being an older production model, in some ways it lives up to contemporary standards.  The details and printing are crisp and clean, the models feature white and red lights for both directions and, of course, the NEM 651 interface for easy (usually) conversion to DCC.

What's not so good is that these units appear to use an older type of can motor (although it does have a flywheel) that seems quite noisy compared to more modern production.  Additionally, only two axles are powered.  While these are provided as 3 car sets, you may not need too much traction or power, but I expect that on a significant grade, these might struggle a bit (I have 3% grades on my layout and have not noticed any problems yet).

 

 There is more detail and additional information on these two sets in the video above.  Thanks for reading!