Fantasy Alert: Wiring Drops: All future Unitrak will have built in drops for wiring. New Release: One meter lengths of straights New Release: Reliable wired drops for existing Unitrak Like I said, fantasy.
I know you say it in jest but there is more to Japanese railways and model railroading than bullet trains. Some of Kato's latest Japanese releases are two new versions of the D51 2-8-2 as operated by JNR in Hokkaido in the late steam era along with coal hoppers to go with them and a completely retooled C57 pacific with specific Kyushu area detailing so the turntable would be totally in line with Kato's program of Japanese releases.
I can't see it mentioned yet so how about an Americanised version of the new grade crossing? I say new but the Japanese version has been out for nearly two years now. http://www.katomodels.com/n/xing_gate_s/
Absolutely... the speculation on the new track segment is a pure as... Kato's upcoming announcement of a prototypical North Coast Limited... and... the long awaited pre-announced UP FEF with Greyhound scheme passenger cars. Oh... yeah... Kato will also be making a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge to sell too.
SO basically, we will get curved turnouts, longer pieces, a trestle system for regular unitrak, different turnouts, a flat dcc ready round table, and code 55 US spaced ties, right after Mr Kato, himself, announces an Amtrak F3 AB set here first (so i can run my Arnold Amtrak cars, on a shelf loop).
Has Kato USA ever marketed the clear display track? It's more weird than 'knock your socks off' though.
my personal observation goes back to the analog sound box they showed and said would be available in 2014,you can google it and see kato's demonstration. if not there is a turntable that keeps showing up in their loco adds and it isn;t tomix..again just my humble opinion. REGARDS&LATER KEWATIN
The turntable in the ads is made by Fleischmann and is a german prototype, it was sold in Japan by Kato years ago but hasn't been in their catalog for quite a while. The new turntable supposedly will be a Japanese prototype similar to the Tomix one.
Here you go. [video=youtube;wMRyygKXD9c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMRyygKXD9c[/video] Apparently a pre-production prototype on display at the Kato booth at a model railroad show in Yokohama on Feb 6th.
I'm only guessing that's what Kato USA were talking about on Twitter but doesn't exactly knock my socks off either because it has been in the Japanese catalog for two or three years now. The only advantage is seems to have over the Tomix turntable is that it will connect directly to Unitrack and will be seemingly available in the US for those of you over there. Of course the price will be the other thing when that is announced, the Tomix table retails for about US$185 at Japanese dealers. I don't want to smell your socks by the time Kato come out with North American C55, as much as we'd all like to see it.
If this new Kato item is a turntable as seen in your video, I could get interested. I have the dc version of the Walther's Indexed turntable and have enjoyed it very much, however I did a lot of modification to use it on a layout that is 100% Kato Unitrack.
The ATSF roundhouse that was at Slaton, Texas, had three different turntables. The first was a 60 foot "armstrong" bridge. The second was an 85 foot girder bridge very similar to the Tomix/Kato units. This was replaced with a 99'6" bridge. A rare photo of the 85' bridge during the time that the pit wall for the 99' bridge was being built can be seen here: https://www.google.com/search?site=...os%2F108690497%40N08%2F10850008985%2F;640;640