I'm seeking thoughts and guidance in choosing between Kato and IMRC F-units. Have 4% grade to deal with, but no over-long trains. Most of what I hear favors the Intermountain a bit over the Kato ..
I would say it is a draw. Depends on what you need. I believe so far the only IM F units available are the FTs so if you want F3s or F7s you will have to wait a while or go with Kato. The IMs have a more detailed shell where as the Kato shells have not been updated. The newer Katos are DCC compatible now. The older Katos could pull the paint off the walls and I believe the newer ones lost some traction as they are not as heavy due to loss of chassis weight to make room for decoders. However they are still OK and the IMs are good pullers too. They each have different coupler issues when it comes to close coupling so that is a wash. If you can find a road name you like go with which ever brand.
I bought Micro Trains FTs and I do like the IM or the Kato F units better. I have some gear mesh issues with the Micro Trains FTs.
What sort of gear mesh issues with the MT? In the store, the ran "like buttah" (of course). They are my 1st choice so far, but mostly because of the detailing & the 'Black Widow' paint scheme on the Cotton Belt locos. The Katos also ran smooth. Haven't seen any IM units in person..
R-dubya: I am not sure. I took the mechanism apart and could not find the problem, so I am saying it is a gear mesh problem because that is what it sounds like. I do have the black widow engines, but it is only on one B unit. The others are very smooth. I have thought to return it, but haven't done it yet. I feel sure MT would fix or replace it.
Flash - I'm sure MT would make it right ... IM has the Black Widow also, but I haven't any feedback on those. Look cool, but how do they run?
I don't know about IM personally, but I think the IM and the MT are both very smooth and, in fact, compatible to run together. My first run Kato F3s run with the IM FTs, but the Kato F3s pull a lot more amps. I put the Kato low friction trucks in a set of Kato F7s, but I haven't tried to run them with the FTs. I expect that they will not. The low friction trucks in the first run Kato F7s really dropped the amps. My goal in all this was to run 6-8 F units together. Never was able to do it. My solution was to take the motors out of Bachmann F7s and run them as dummys. It works okay, but only two dummies per four unit powered set or the drawbar pull drops a lot. I wish I could get the Bachmanns to roll easier. [ 30. May 2004, 02:34: Message edited by: sapacif ]
I bought two IM,FT sets in DRGW paint,actually you were there at the club when I ran them Flash.They would pull as good as Kato units in my opion & they run pretty well matched with LL 2-8-8-2's too! Only had one problem with one unit,a wobbly wheel but that will soon be fixed.
My recommendation would be to wait a while... The problem with the Kato units is that along with the redesign of the F unit mechanism they have a new parts policy designed to minimize their parts inventory rather than to assure availabilty of repair parts for the customer. This coupled with the factory's policy of only allowing parts to be run that are used in a current model production makes future maintenance of new and existing Kato product dicey.... the new design obsoletes all the previous Kato F units. Based on their record for accuracy and the mechanism performance, I'd hold off for the IM units which will probably show up in time for the Kato CZ cars.... Plus you never know when other manufacturers will jump into the market.... Charlie Vlk
Darn it Charlie. I never know if you are hinting about some inside information or just speculating. And I bet you enjoy teasing us.
I 'm leaning towards the IM units in the Black Widow scheme. It comes in the Cotton Belt road name, but didn't NP have a similar livery?
I don't believe they were very close. The GN FTs were delivered in the orange and green scheme. GN Diesels
Frisco Kid: NP's FT's came in the 'pine tree' livery, as seen here: http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/np/np5409dg.jpg SSW (Cotton Belt) FT's came in a somewhat similar theme: http://espee.railfan.net/nonindex/f-unit_photos/0905_02_ssw-ft-rob_sarberenyi.jpg
I was thinking of the Black Widow or second Cotton Belt scheme. If I recall correctly that is the one IM has released their Cotton Belt FTs in. The styling for those two early paint schemes is similar but the colors were quite different. The SSW was "Confederate Gray" (Dean Hale, who used to work for Hallmark, still maintains it was Robin's Egg Blue, but we won't go there. ) with red outlined yellow stripes. The GN was I think green with orange strips outlined in gold. However I was not around to remember any of that. Here I am mixing apples and oranges again. Great Northern and Northern Pacific. Why don't I throw in Milwaukee Road for good measure....Arg [ 04. June 2004, 21:09: Message edited by: r_i_straw ]
A rivet-counter question: IM released their Cotton Belt Black Widows with white grab irons, while MT released theirs with yellow. Which one is correct, or are they both correct for the numbers used?
Agreed. In my part time job as a rivet counter, Cotton Belt GP30s were the last SSW engines delivered in yellow safety appliances. Thereafter, they were all white. Seems it should be easy to change colors.
Atlas refugees needn't worry, I won't start a campaign here... I have numerous Kato units converted to DCC and all work very well. I especially like the Alco PA/PB units. However, I really like InterMountain rolling stock and the availability of MANY road numbers, so I am eager to see their F units hit the streets. Unfortunately, the F3 Phase II's are first, and InterMountain is not -- at least initially -- offering a unit with "standard" numberboards as the PRR purchased. These were the smaller, streamlined boards. Odd as it may seem, the majority of roads purchased "optional" angled, large numberboards. IM says it will be too expensive to offer a PRR correct F3. That said, looks like I'll have an even longer wait until InterMountain does the F7's. By then the angled numberboards became standard and the Pennsy purchased them. So it could be a few years! Then again, QSI has been successful in downsizing their sound decoders to N scale. So another question is: Which manufacturer will come to market first, and with what model? A previous post quoted Charlie Vlk, but I don't know when that original post was made. It's interesting, though, as Charlie is now at Broadway Limited Imports and they are doing the F7 in HO scale. I think that within the next 12 months N scale will see a great leap in technology. Better save up!!!
