This will require great patience. They've let us know it's coming. Perhaps as a means to let us quit wasting money on inferior products and to save our pennies for the masterpiece (which is a win/win for Kato and consumer). Perhaps as a courtesy to brand X so they don't waste their resources trying to compete with the King. Perhaps other..... The 20th Century Limited will likely hit the shelves before the Big Boy, and that may be a year or two away. I'm fine with all of this. I have plenty of Kato trains, but am looking forward to both. I've even downsized about 10% in anticipation of needing more space. It's all good!!
We have been hearing a lot about this possibility for quite some time now. KATO is pretty quite while developing, however you may remember that they released info about the GS-4 and FEF along the way. I just hope they do not try to over design the thing. IMHO, they now have an excellent operating centipede tender with the FEF unit. Also, I think they have one of, if not the best, 4-8-4 locomotive currently being made. Isn't a Big Boy, very simply thinking, just two Northerns into one. My point is I hope they stay with what has worked extremely well for them and put that knowledge into a BB. Their normal handling of details is fine with me as long as it "runs like a KATO" right out of the case. ESU option would be great! However, I am a realist and will expect some, probably little thing, to be a problem. I am a KATO fan all the way but can not help but remember their 1st Mikado release and broken draw bars as well as the 1st release of the GS-4's with the shorting problem. I can guarantee that when they are announced I will be 1st to post a pre-order. Can't wait!!!!
When talking to the guys from Kato at the NTS in SLC last year, Kato was working on the design and prototypes of the mechanism at the time
I'd love to see the Big Boy by the end of this year but betting it will be sometime in mid to late 2021. Either way, I think each Kato release has gotten better and better so hopefully this one will be as good or better than the FEF-3's out of the gate.
I think you're about a year to early on that. Kato has a lot of work to do on this (design plus tooling plus process development). I'm guessing that the 20th Century Limited will be the big release for 2021. I'm looking forward to both, but if I have to wait a while that's just fine.
One of the retailer sites I visit often is now taking pre-orders for the BB. I wasn't able to find the listing on the katousa site but the pre-order price with DCC/Sound on the site I was at is a bit better than the Athearn version I recently acquired. I would recommend anyone wanting one get their dibs on it before inflation has a chance to pump up the final sales price up when they are finally released.
An e-tailer which does not advertise here and therefore will not be named quotes MSRPs of $400 DC, $450 DCC equipped and $550 DCC/Sound Equipped, but those are only estimates. Said e-tailer will discount the final MSRP-- whatever it is. So it's not a lock-in by any means, at least there.
I'm thinking said retailer is just trying to get as many reservations in before anyone else posts them in their store. I'll happily wait till I see something official from Kato. The good thing with Kato is that they make a bunch, and if it sells out, they make more.
It will be interesting to me to see how the kato and athearn compare. From a detail perspective the athearn is pretty dang comprehensive including applied valve wheels throughout and etched metal details. My last Kato steam was the GS-4 which I thought was very well done enough to get a second. I'm hoping kato keeps on with that attention to detail and gives athearn a run for their money in that regard. By default I also assume performance will be along the lines of the previous kato steams. I've read and seen some concerning issues with their FEF which I've yet to get but have a greyhound on order. Has anyone seen a vid of their upcoming FEF in greyhound? horrible! If I'd seen that vid prior to placing a reservation I would have likely not ordered one. The two Athearn big boys I currently own are very nice but took a few minutes of running to get the low speed notchiness out after I first received them. If I can set the kato version on the tracks upon unboxing and get the same smooth performance I get from my mikado and GS-4s then that will definitely be a mark in Kato's favor. All that being said I've made a reservation on one of these. If at the time of final invoicing the price is too much I'll decline the order and take my lumps.
Now Broadway Limited has just announced a BigBoy. Do we really need a fourth manufacturer of the same loco when there are soo many other engines that have not been done yet?
