I recently purchased a new Kato Traction loco and wanted to share my experiences with it. I like small locos and this one fits the bill. It is very small and I have it running on 7" radius Unitrack with no issues. This is one of the first to have the new coreless motor and it has Kato knuckle couplers. I believe it is made for DC only and this thing will creep with the best of them. A smooth quiet runner for sure. I am buying a couple more as spares. If you look online, you can find them for about $35. Amazing little loco. https://www.katousa.com/N/Pocket/index.html
@Dave McDonald Mine derailed on #6 turnouts and the re-railer track. Did yours? I'll test it on the 'Y' turnouts but I'm not hopeful.
I got one and I really like it. Don't have too many short cars I can use it with on the small radius. Want to get more since it is fun to run. I also did some upgrades like painting the inside of the cab black to make it look a bit better.
I have the pocket line steamer and it runs great on my Unitrack passes over the rerailers fine and through the turnouts outs great. Since I already have a pair of Bandai steeple cabs powered by Kato I passed on this one. I did buy some short Kato boxcars to run with it.
What speed do you run at? I don't own one of these, but they hold appeal to me as an industrial switcher.
I just tested mine on my small layout with no issues. I have two #6 switches, a double crossover and a road crossing that it traversed doing several laps.
Is there something on the bottom that you need to remove before running? If so, I may have missed that.
You may have something slightly raised or out of line. These locos do not have a lot of clearance under them so uneven track joints or some thing in the center of the track will cause a derailment.
I am predisposed to trust @Dave McDonald . He likely has newer track and surface *and* better vision. I think mine is stuck behind some Chrismas stuff so there will be a delay.
I found it while looking for some power stuff. Argh, and now I can remember thinkg, 'I'll never find it in there.' Tomorrow, (Thursday, 29, 2021) I will build an oval of track with turnouts and track that are still new in box and provide a video of results. ☻
First and formost: An Appologiy to the Kato community. I previously reported that the new Kata Steeple Cab derailed on #6 Kato turnouts and retailer tracks. Before posting that I should have tested further. I have now tested the locomotive extensively on turnouts ranging from 6 months to 6 years old and several re-railer tracks. It runs very smoothly and slowly across those as long as they are flat and clean. On the straight it could move from 6 to 8 cars. On 9" curves and less it stalled out with 5 cars. So, yes, industrial switching with a few cars or more if broad curves. It is just what the 'Grey and Grandure' ordered it for. I do appologize again for the mis-information.
I promised a video for today. The linked vid shows the mighty 'Kato Steeple Cab' strutting its stuff. There is quite a bit of 'living room' noise. I'll try to post a more quiet one tomorrow. Enjoy
This particular power truck can be purchased by itself. It is a good runner. I used this as a base and converted a Plymouth Switcher shell to fit on it. I did add a small Digitrax decoder. It runs great on my little DCC layout. Kato 11-109 powered chassis.
There are two versions of this power chassis. One without the handrails and one with the handrails. The chassis is rated for 5 cars for pulling power without any additional weight. The chassis with handrails is normally for some locos and passenger cars that have end rails. The one without handrails is intended for powered boxcars and locos without end rails. When I purchased some extra boxcars to use with my steamer and passenger cars I also purchased the version without handrails to install in one of the two axle boxcars I bought. The power chassis used in the pocket line series is completely different from the power chassis used for the My Trams.
Transfer Caboose? or large 4 wheel 'bobber caboose I won't try it but would one of the mentioned chassis work for a 'home grown' transfer caboose to augment the pulling capacity? Just a thought. I'll be happy to use it for work on the 'Westcott Yard' and local industries. I'll use my geeps for longer trips South and West.
Below is the 11-109 and 11-110 two axles power chassis. The white one is a Kato 11-105 four axle power chassis which is the most common used one for a cheater car or a power car to add pulling power. The power for my pocket line steamer is the 2 axle one with end platforms that fits in one of the coaches. The limitations is the 30 N scale foot length which means using a short box car or a steam tender or again maybe a 28 to 30 foot caboose. 100_1554-1 by John Moore posted Dec 31, 2021 at 11:23 AM
@John Moore I always admired your 'critters'. I have a pair of the Kato chassis you pictured which I bought a long time ago, (Rapido Couplers). Was thinking to use those with a kitbshed transfer caboose. That said the whole idea behind the 'Grey and Grandure' short-line portion was to only move a few cars at one time servicing the local industries along the way.
