All CZ Fans---New set now up on Katos site Chuck at Feather River has something interesting up on his site. He's confirmed it as well...
Remember the old addage: "Be careful what you wish for... cause you might get it." Well... many years ago I wished a good quality California Zephyr set would be made by a reputable manufacturer. Voila... Kato makes a California Zephyr set in 2004! I was so happy I bought a couple of them because... after all... Kato will never re-run this set within the next 10 years! Lo and behold... Kato announces the second set of California Zephyr cars for Christmas 2006 delivery. "Wow". I said, I don't have to rename/renumber one of those first sets now! Maybe I should get a couple of the second set too... certainly Kato will never again run the California Zephyr cars after this release... So here we are only 4 months since the second set was released... a third set is announced... now I wonder if the fourth set is due to be announced for Christmas of 2007. As the eastern railroad modelers are furiously flogging their dead horses... screaming for a Broadway Limited, Twentieth Century Limited... or just about anything else east of the Mississippi... California Zephyr fans are feasting on a seemingly endless buffet of CZ consists. I actually feel sorry for those modelers waiting for a totally new passenger train release for their eastern railroad. Of course... I'm feeling sorry with a grin from ear to ear...
Cal Z, I spoke with Leon at Kato a few months ago and he was telling me Kato was going to have the CZ sets as "open stock" items. He explained that meant something like it wasn't going to just be a limited run anymore. Or something. I told him Kato should just reletter the cars with new names and make all 77 cars available---people would buy them. He sort of said "interesting." No more, however. This third set tells me they will do all six consists over time. As for the extra 11 cars, maybe we will just be on our own---but if they were smart, they'd letter those for us too. I mean, if you think about it, this is a layup for Kato. They are selling cars tooled exactly the same way, with just different lettering. I know I'll buy all six sets if they come with them. These sets are a steal compared with IMRC/Centralia cars or what Walthers will be coming with. They MAY look and MAY run ok, but you can't put together a very good consist with the limited car types offered. Being able to "field" a full consist in one purchase, and at a price per car that is more than reasonable...this will continue to be a winner for Kato. Not as good as the first set was; I mean not everyone is cooky enough to buy all six consists like I would do. But to make these always available---its just great. Should help their loco sales also. I would think they will continue to re-run the F units as well. Leon....Can we see the PA units in the D&RGW Prospector livery please??????????????? How good would that look heading one of your CZ sets! By the way, in that same conversation with Leon, he said they would like to come out with a new passneger train every year. And to stay tuned. Asked him about an NCL---and he quickly said no. Asked him about an El Capitan, and he said they had a lot of requests for that. Interesting. Would love to see an El Cap. But I have heard someone else say they have committed to an eastern road, and a large east coast dealer told me they were going to do a Braodway Limited---which would be great also. El Cap or Broadway Ltd. Why not both!!!
Well... I would say that I'm Kooky too. If they make them... I will buy more California Zephyr consists. I'm not going to buy multiple quanities of the same sets though (not anymore than I've already got ). I'm glad that they are going to do more totally new sets for the other modelers. Too bad that the NCL is not on Kato's list of consists to do. That one would have been a slam dunk for many western railroad fans. I think the problem with it is that too many cars would have been 'one-of-a-kind' molds that would not be appropriate for multiple set re-runs or other roadnames.
Will one of the Kato Direct dealers please complain to them about the re-releases having the same part number! This is a stocking and inventory nightmare for us dealers since we may want to order the 2nd release item from our distributor, but without new part numbers placing orders is kind of like playing russian roulette. Case in point: Coalporter single cars. I try to order these cars after the second release, and my distributor still sends 1st release cars. Wait another two weeks...you guessed is, first release still shows up. As far as the distributor is concerned they have filled my order correctly, and rightfully so. The only difference is the contents of the package which they don't have the time or means to verify. In todays computer driven world, every unique item needs its own part number!
For those of us with interests on the east coast, maybe this will generate enough capital for an east coast named train. I did my part and bought into the 1st CZ, but being an eastern modeler, I have had to and continue to pass on the new offerings from Kato. I could justify the CZ and a set of PA/B/A's to pass my DMIR M3 on occasion; as the M3 was leased to the Rio Grande in the winters to run Tennessee pass. Probably off about 7 - 10 tears on locomotives. I've had to say no to the Super Chief offering as they also just had to come out with the NS SD70M's. I've got room for an NCL, Broadway Limited, Crescent, Hiawatha and Pochahantis to run on occasion. More so than the CZ. I'm glad that the CZ and Super Chief fans have had their day in the sun, but give us easterners a break!!! We need some QUALITY passenger cars too. Bob
That's one of the interesting aspects of the multiple releases which Kato could do. They actually may be able to run the F3 and PA units using the different paint schemes for the D&RGW. I would love to have he Aspen Gold 4 stripe PA's. Both ConCor and LifeLike did the PA's with the one stripe scheme.
I guess Kato found out us CZ fans have deep pockets!!!!! or nanny and pop-pop are still willing to raise the children and thank god for the free breakfast program at school.
Funny... "nanny" and "pop-pop" are the names my oldest grandson calls his 'other' grandparents. They feed him much better than we can... after all model trains are expensive . Thankfully... Kato isn't gouging the modelers with the CZ sets. Discounted at about $170.00 for 11 cars (track is a bonus)... comes out to $15.45 per car. That's less than the ConCor Budd cars sell for!!! Kato could sell CZ sets ad-infinitum at this price point. I'm sure there may be several modelers of other railroads which would buy these sets and repaint certain appropriate cars into another roadname simply because the price is about half the amount a Walthers or Centrailia Car Shops version would cost.
Just out of curiousity... What other consists could Kato make using the existing molds which they have developed over the past few years? They have smoothside and corrugated cars... so... perhaps some consists that used a combination of both types of cars regularly might be possible. Perhaps they could introduce a couple of new passenger carbodies mixed in?
Bob, According to my east coast source, you MAY get what you wish for with a Broadway Ltd. As you can tell from my name, I would be all over that one too. I am not the source, however, I am only reporting what I heard from someone whom I think is a reliable source. Cal Z, Yes, LL and Con Cor have done the single stripe PAs already. Couple things with those. I haven't seen the Con Cor models so I can't comment on them. I did actually buy the LL sets. Every picture you see on every web site depicts these as the Aspen Gold color. When you actually get them they are more orange than anything. That may be the Grande Gold. That was actually the color used on the ski train. Also, prototypically, a one stripe PA never pulled the CZ. By the time of the repaint---early 1960's---the PAs were taken off CZ duty and relegated to lines such as the Royal Gorge and Yampa Valley. The only one-stripers to haul the CZ were the F units. I would like to see Kato produce the F units in a one stripe scheme. I think that would quite well---and not just for CZ people, but other Rio Grande modelers. Obviously the four-stripe Prospector livery in the PAs would be a home run. Cost effective from a buyer's standpoint too---only need 3 PA units instead of 4 F units! As for other trains that the tooling could be used for...I am pretty sure---and maybe any Can Pac experts can help me out here---that CP's Canadian was patterend somewhat off the CZ. I know their Dome Obs was almost identical---at least on the outside. I would think the other, more stock cars are similar to those of the CZ. There's a train that would do really well. But I think they don't really need too many more trains. If they produce all the CZ cars, that alone will be a bonanza for Kato. Throw in a Canadian and that is a bonus for them. They need to produce tooling for a pool of smoothside cars that they can interchange. Getting the right smoothside cars could give us a Broadway Ltd, 20th Cent Ltd, NCL, Oly Hiawatha, Capitol Ltd, maybe even a mix of smooth and corrugated for a Golden State. I think they are really close to having everything pretty much covered. If any of the other manufacturers were smart, they would be doing this themselves. Kato is getting the entire passenger universe to themselves. Not that I am not complaining, they are my first choice to do it all. But they can't do it all NOW. Why haven't others stepped up and produced a really nice consist of their own? To finish on the Kato CZ molds...they need to produce one more mold for individual cars...the 5-6 Sleeper. Don't know if they'll find that cost-effective to do as there were only 6 of those cars produced. But there were only 7 Dome Obs made and they did the mold for that.
I say, why not? I already have enough CZs so I won't be buying any more but if they sell, that's good for Kato, hobby shops and N scalers. Hopefully Kato will see strong sales and return on their investment so they invest in more great N products.
Well, as the old saying goes, "you can never have too much of a good thing." Us CB&Q fans used to be starved for good quality RTR items. At one point, all we had was the Atlas/Kato GP35s. Now we're getting deluged with high quality offerings.:thumbs_up:
I sure hope so... They can bring the rest of the consists out this year or next, or keep them for a slow period. They can still bring out an all new passenger train, and keep this in reserve for when they have nothing new, but we are asking for something. Nice move on Kato's part.
