That is great news! Did he specify Amfleet Is and/or IIs? Did he say what phases would be done? Thanks for the info! Chris
Greeeat, now I'm going to have to junk my Bachmann Amfleets (and these are the new-generation ones), since they're going to look absolutely pathetic next to the Kato version.
I believe the latest run of F40PH's are in the phase 3 scheme. I would expect the cars to go along with this. More than one scheme would be more than welcome. Frank
Not only that, they will actually work! We will be able to run more than one or two.The wheels would actually roll.What a concept!I hope they do a cab car.We would then be able to do a '90's San Diegan! Enjoy, Wolf
If they as good as other Kato passenger cars Bachmann might as well scrap their tooling now. I hope they do a variety of car styles and paint schemes. If they tool up for a cab car how about going all the way and doing a Metroliner?:tb-ooh: While you guys are talking to the Kato people (they don't get down this way very often), also welcome would be a Superliner transition sleeper so we could prototypically model the majority of Superliner equipped trains.
Well, there goes my no Amtrak policy on my layout. If they can bring out some cab cars too, they will be making money hand over fist. I am surprised it has taken them this long to do it though...
Why???? Stop me before I kill again! There are some things I can't resist and a yard full of Amfleet cars is up there. And could it be? A cab car? Oh my! There goes the retirement fund. Oh wait! It's already gone.
Like this, which they announced about a month back? Or does it have to be a sleeper? http://www.katousa.com/N/Superliner/106-7121.jpg
Mark, Those where retired in 93/93 when the Superliner II Transition Sleepers came into the picture. This release will make most Phase II/III Superliner trains (78 - 94) complete. The Transition Sleeper would make most Phase IV/IVb Superliner trains (94 - present) complete. Chris
I see. Well I guess from a marketing stand point, the step down coach seems like a better choice since they're rerunning the F40PH. I assume the difference from the Step-down coach and the Transition Sleeper is primarily the windows? Sounds like one could do an easy peasy kitbash using the Step down coach. Chop off the end, and put it on a sleeper.
They also reran the P42 and Superliners in phase IV scheme so the transition sleeper would have been a good choice too, but would have required new tooling.
Yeah, true. But that was about 6 months ago now? I'm guessing they held off on the new tooling for the F40PH release thinking it would appeal to a larger number. If so, they probably wont do the Transition sleeper until the next run of P42s.
We'll keep our fingers crossed, after all, who saw the Amfleets coming? Or the SD45 rerun? Kato can be full of surprises.
"If they tool up for a cab car how about going all the way and doing a Metroliner?" I'd be really surprised if they were to do a Metroliner cab car since this would mean all new tooling for an additional car. The Metroliner's inspired the Amfleet design but they have a number of differences compared to Amfleet, including windows that are larger. I'd give this one's chances the same as a snowball in hell. To be exact we likely have a better chance to seeing Budd SPV2000s done before anything to do with Metroliners. Course if enough people were to write Imperial Hobbies they might consider doing resin models of them... providing real commitment is made towards that end and not just talk.
OK, the new guy at Kato (last name Conway, but no relation to Jim) was not too forthcoming with details. I think they will be the newer version (phase II?) with the current paint scheme. However they will eventually release more of the older paint schemes over time.
