Join us live on YouTube at 11am EST this morning as we reveal four all-new locomotives (2 HO and 2 N) live from the Railroad Hobby Show in W. Springfield, MA. When the show opens at 9am EST, a 360-degree camera will be live streaming from the Better Living Center (BLC), booth #34A. You’ll be able to control the camera and see everything that’s happening throughout the BLC. All live feeds are courtesy of our friends at Virtual Railfan. Visit our YouTube page. https://www.youtube.com/c/scaletrains We look forward to seeing everyone at the show and online. Shane Shane Wilson President ScaleTrains.com, Inc. Moderators: if this type of post is not allowed, please accept our apologies and delete.
Or, just delete it now. The new product announcements via the live feed were made two days ago and the train show ended yesterday. The "big reveal" was a bit of a non-event because the microphone wasn't working throughout most of the presentation.
Well how about some pics and an explanation. I figured out the Dash 9 from their web site but what else is new?
The announcement was somewhat over-hyped. While "four all-new locomotives" could be interpreted as four different locos, in reality the four locos are all Dash-9's - two in HO and two in N - with the difference being the level of detail - "operator" versus "rivet counter". Some welcomed the news, while others asked why we need another model of this loco when it's already been done (by Kato).
Because Kato hardly ever runs them! Scaletrains in one run has matched the same number of BNSF Heratige 2 road numbers as Kato has done in the last 10+ years! Bnsf has around 1,000 Dash 9's in Heratige 2 and Kato has done 6. Not to mention that for Norfolk Southern, who also has over 1,000 copies, Kato just won't run NS Dash 9's because of the cab headlight. I mean come on, Kato has how many hand rail, step, numberboard, window, cab configurations but won't do a cab headlight for NS. I love how Kato's locomotives run but am very tired of being onsied twosied on road numbers all the freeking time. I am very glad to see multiple manufactures finally cracking the "N Scale only needs one" attitude. I know HO is more popular but look at how many manufactures have done the SD40-2 at different price points and detail levels. When Intermountain did their SD40-2 then BLI there was a lot of grumbling about it and how N Scale can't support it. But we need it to promote competition! Let Kato do their special paint schemes and fancy passenger sets, but for the guys that need more than 2 road numbers every 5 years, let's get anyone willing involved! Thanks Scaletrains! Ok off my soap box, thanks for your time.
So much this. The Dash 9 is an iconic locomotive of the 1990s but Katos releases are infrequent, geared towards present day paint schemes, and ignore some important road names all together. For the latter it's not just NS, CN has also been completely left out by Kato.
Right now, I am running steam and all the modern equipment is put away in boxes, drawers or on a shelf. One thing I will say for Scale Trains, NOBODY touches them with the level of exterior detail on their locomotives, including the ET44AC and GTEL Turbines. If I were in a diesel phase I would jump on a couple. I already have at least 8 Kato Dash 9s. THe sound and lighting aren't bad either!
No Dash-9 in SP? Also wondering if they'll also be able to do an AC4400, since the cosmetic differences between them are very minimal.
