All, Kato has posted pictures of the new Amfleet and Viewliner cars: http://katousa.com/N/SS-Amfleet/index.html Looking pretty sharp! Chris
I'd like to be able to get just the coaches or at least a set with two extra coaches in place of the viewliner sleepers to run a daytime local train. Notice the wording they use, "An all-new collector’s set concept", to make us think they are doing something great for us, their main market in Japan is more likely to buy a set than individual cars. They do look great though, nobody does passenger cars, especially stainless steel ones, like Kato.
Hopefully after the initial offering they'll sell the individual pieces separately. I'd like a three or four coaches to go with the Bachmann cafe & coach I have. Dave
Is this the first time that they've issued a Phae IV baggage car? I could sure use one of those to go with my Phase IV superliners. (That and a transition sleeper)
Those do look good. I forsee a pile of P42s and Viewliner cars becoming available at the Trainboard TrainStore and online auctions sites, however.
I have to ask...how common are the Viewliners? I have never seen one in person. It seems to me that if Kato replaced the two Viewliners with two more Amfleet coaches or Horizon cars, they would sell tons of this "collectors set."
I was wondering how prototypical it is to have two sleeping cars but only one coach in a train, I would have thought the opposite to be more realistic, in my limited experience traveling Amtrak sleeper space is usually pretty scarce. Is the consist based on any prototype train or is it just a figment of Kato's imagination.
I would have preferred an all Amfleet set. But still, I have ordered the set. I just like those Amfleet cars!
It would have been more realistic to have one Viewliner and two coaches. I don't know why they did it like this (and I don't think the American Kato employees do either).
I see Viewliners on some of the trains coming through D.C. (CSX by L'Enfant Plaza VRE station.) Some trains will have a few in their consist. I'll watch more closely from now on. I've been out of Chicago for a few years but I believe the Viewliners go that far west. (Capital Limited D.C. to Chicago is a Superliner consist, though.) With all the regional trains though, I agree that Amfleet cars would be a top seller.
Word has it that Kato will be offering add on sets of the Amfleets and individual cars. I found that some of the usual suspects are already accepting pre orders.
This is great news, now I don't have to buy the whole train just to get the baggage car to go with my superliner train.
Viewliners, being shorter than Superliners, are assigned to East Coast overnight trains that run under wire or through old restrictive tunnels. This would include trains that originate/terminate in New York and go through Washington or Albany, and the Lakeshore Limited Boston Section. It would not include any trains that run within the NEC because those trips are considered too short for sleepers. As for the usual configuration of trains with Viewliners, I can speak only of the Crescent from first-hand experience, though the other NYP trains probably are similar. The usual makeup has been Baggage, Transdorm, 2 Viewliners, Diner, Lounge, and 3 or 4 Amfleet Coaches.
Kato is releasing a Baggage Car/Step Down Coach set as well. That would be more prototypical for a Superliner train.
It is for a pase 3 stripe train circa 80's-early 90's and I'll get that too but the baggage in the pase 4 stripe is for the late 90's+ era superliners.
I am another who wouldn't want any sleeper cars, regardless of make or livery, on my new layout! Regards, Pete Davies
I see Viewliners all the time in, they are on all FL/NY trains. The Silver Meteor I saw this morning had 3 Viewliner an 4 Amfleet coaches.
