I have the same problem with KATO, the Kato east coast locos that were done, were poorly done with bad color choices and lettering, of course they weren't bad for 20 year old models but they don't hold up to modern offerings. The eastern roads that I am interested in haven't been seen in 20 years. I couldn't buy one if I wanted too and the B&O blue and gray paint is one of the harder ones to roll your own so I will gladly pay more for a painted, better detailed IM. Sorry, I don't worship at the altar of Kato. They screw up just as much as any other company.
As to believing what Kato reps say, I was told by the Kato rep at the WGH Train Show in SLC last year that Kato was going to introduce U.P. FEF-3's along with appropriate heritage cars by the first quarter of this year. Anybody out there see any Kato FEF's???? So, take what the reps say with a grain of salt. Cheers! Bob Gilmore
You'll notice I never said Kato's decoration was any better. In fact I'd bet that I've been the most critical of anyone on Kato's painting and lettering since the re-release of the SD45s. Kato has decided to just mail it as far as I'm concerned. I can only hope they will put in a better effort on the Heritage units since so many people will looking forward to those. When it come to detail, the IM unit is certainly more detailed. It's not better detailed for my tastes. I'd rather have molded closer-to-scale handrails than oversized ones that stand 1' off the body and I still haven't figure out what they were thinking with the lift rings, they're the size of basketballs, LOL. Also all the detail is so soft like the fans. I assume this comes from using aluminum tooling but I wouldn't know (and the why doesn't really matter). Everyone has they're own preferences, that's for sure. My secret hope is that Atlas will start their own F unit line, right after they retool the gp30. Jason
Actually, no. We have to tell them what we want. If everyone who grips & moans about the lack of road names and model types filled out the following form Kato just might get the message. Otherwise, they're not mind readers. http://www.katousa.com/suggest.html
Glen, You have to understand how Kato works. Those suggestions are just a little PR ploy for them. Kato USA doesn't get to do anything until KATO Japan approves it. Kato Japan determines what is run and what gets made. You can suggest all you want but unless Kato Japan finds something interesting it isn't going to happen. The US product get squeezed in between runs of Japanese products.
My only issue with IM is that I've had a set of WP FTs on order since 2010. Chuck doesn't know where they are. I never got the chance to oreder the F7s or the FP7s as they were gone fast. At least I know that I would get the Kato F7s. BTW, this isn't a bash on Chuck, IM has him pulling his hair out on occasion.
Yeah, I know. But it wouldn't hurt if there was suddenly a flood of requests for Eastern roads via the form. I can't imagine that would be ignored. As Rick indicated, there is money just sitting on the table. Either way, doing something is better than simply b**tching and moaning here in the forums.
To get my personal preference out of the way I'll buy a Kato F unit if they make the scheme I want over an Intermountain one any day as long as IM insist on gluing the windshield glass in from the outside. As for Kato Skipgear is right about it being what will appeal to the Japanese that they produce. Of course they would need new tooling because the old ones don't have illuminated number boards, but new tooling is not a problem for them given the recent F3 with stainless steel grills that they haven't produced before to the best of my knowledge. I'd love more F7's in the ATSF cigar band freight scheme, even Intermountain ones but they don't seem interested either. This poll would only get meaningful results if Mr Kato himself is a member of Trainboard because he's the only one who knows.
Thanks Mike. I tried talking to the various rep's that came through our little HS and the response I got was..."They aren't going to listen to me". Thus my remark about certain mind sets and where their heads are. I kept score so to speak of what our customers were looking for. Everything eastern with just a few western modelers in the mix. What our customers were doing is buying up the western motif, stripping the paint off and repainting. Sometimes... making their own decal sets. Pretty inventive. I was invited to a club layout on a operations night. One of the fella's I recognized as a customer came up to me and shared with me an HO, Athearn, GP9 he purchased from our store...now in Chessie paint. I think part of the problem is the cost of licensing. If the fine folks of the 1X1 foot scale would ease up we would most likely see a greater variety of eastern railroads. Any way thanks for the read.
I don't mean to be a hard @$$ but I will not reserve or pre-order any train equipment or locomotive. I don't usually buy first runs...waiting for them to work the kinks out. Sometimes! Look, it is what it is and can't be anymore then that. So, put away the shell games and quit second guessing. Take on a wait and see attitude and rejoice when whatever it is you wanted finally gets here. Later gator's.
Once again , I agree with Rick. Mike PS , I did that with the NYC M497 and thought I would NEVER NEVER see one and all the sudden POOF! Kato Kobo with sound and DCC!!!! It didn't get more obscure than that.
That's nice for you and all, but if other people didn't preorder, nothing would get made and you'd have nothing buy later on so don't get too preachy. Most of what I buy ends up getting stripped so I'll pre-order or buy the first run before the price increases. Jason
The reason that John didn't get his WP FT's is just because of your methodology. The FT's are nowhere near a first run or new. They are a very good loco and well proven. IM and MTL ran the pee water out of them before everybody adopted the preorder/reserve method of business. Both companies lost their butt on them because they both overproduced and the market for FT's was flooded. They learned their lesson and it's not going to happen like that again. Not enough pre-orders were recieved so IM didn't schedule the run. It saves them from fire saleing the locos 6 months from now when they quess wrong and nobody really wanted a Yahoolee Northern FT unit. If you don't pre-order, you will not get it. Even the distributors appear keeping tight to pre-orders and not loading up on product. Most items that go through the pre-order system are sold out in weeks. Kato and Bachmann are the only big ones not subscribing to the pre-order method, but even Kato has their own version of the pre-order system now, if you don't pre-order, you don't get any until the second container ships. If it is something you want, you better pre-order it. Wait and chances are, you won't get it. The market is too small and magins too thin for manufactures to risk their company on a guess. I have a hard enough time guessing what people will want in the hobby shop, and I know the area and the customers. I can't imagine trying to plan an nationwide or world wide distribution order. Some of these roads are barely making 200 production units for the world.
While I do not 'wish' for my NO answer to be the correct answer... it may be that Kato will continue to produce models they feel is the most positive for them internationally. This would include European and Asian model railroaders. We seem to discount that American railroads are collected and run in Asia... particularly Japan. We have lots of North Americans which like eastern roads... but how about the Asian market that collects or runs North American roads? Do the Asian model railroaders like eastern US railroads over the western US railroads? I frequently see European modelers also gravitating to western (or even Canadian) railroads instead of eastern railroads. I could just be the fact there are fewer eastern US railroads represented... or that the western railroad influence of over 50 yrs has been the standard accepted internationally. Of course... none of that explains why Kato has not done any Northern Pacific F units... or an NCL passenger consist. Are they MAD at the MONAD???? BTW... they haven't done any MoPac or Rock Island F units that I can recall either. DO those count as 'eastern' railroads too?
Hey, I've got a suggestion for those who want eastern road single-headlight F's so bad. Go to Kato USA and order an undec'ed F body (for 25 bucks ea.), take a piece of Styrene and plug the bottom light hole, sand it nice and smooth, take your slightly modified body and paint it. VOILA!! The eastern road of your choice, for a couple of nights work and 25 bucks a shell. Or is that too much work for ya? Of course, it's not nearly as much fun as complaining. If it's not too much work, you can even do more than just fill the headlight hole and paint 'em. Here's what I did when Kato first introduced F-3's back in the 80's with only one headlight...which isn't prototypical for UP F's. I bought undec'd units, built a new bottom headlight housing out of brass and installed it, cleaned up the parting lines on the nose, shaved off the cast-on lift rings and grabs, drilled holes for new grabs and other details (uncoupling bar, front door door latch, windshield wipers), installed everything, including a Z-scale coupler on the front and painted 'em with Scalecoat II, painted the details behind the chicken wire, decaled 'em, weathered 'em up a tiny bit and there I was...better than brass. Thought I'd post this so you'd know I'm not just blowing smoke. Cheers! Bob Gilmore
I can't speak for most of Japan, but I don't think that very many US trains are sold in Tokyo. One reason is that Kato USA trains are almost twice as expensive in Japan as in the US. Go figure. I've tried looking for Kato USA trains in Tokyo and save for the Kato Showroom, only Tam Tam in Akihabara had any Kato US trains. Out of half the floor devoted to trains, only a small shoulder high display case had any US/foreign trains. Liberty, a second hand store that has N-gauged trains has some Kato US trains for sale for the first time in about a year, but after three weeks they mostly remain unsold, even if cheaper than buying them in the US. Save supporting the mother company, I don't think that we can depend on sales in Japan on helping the production of US trains. Sorry, Grant
