A third vote for the SP AC4400. Number 318 would be nice, as I saw it a few weeks ago, still unpatched.
Here's a thought- a Lindbergh Special set, with E6s #460, a B60b baggage car, and a P70 coach, all in their roaring 20's splendor. It might've been a one-time run, but since it featured in Pennsy ads for decades, it certainly meets Kato's apparent standard for visibility, it'd be a smaller set and therefore more affordable, have wide appeal thanks to historical significance, and add a good-running Atlantic chassis that would be more desirable to more people than, say, FVM's MILW A (which, despite being amazing, is not very bashable, whereas the E6s was closer in size to other Atlantics). I know Kato's never done any steam that small, at least not US-prototype, but there's a first time for everything, right? I might just be a little biased towards the notion of having accurate, up-to-date models of one of my favorite engines and two cars I'd want piles of. Call me greedy... I just got two Pennsy steamers and Centipedes, and I want more! Just about any steam-led set would be a no-brainer for me, though, no matter what road. I missed out on the Daylight and 4449 when it was still relatively easy to find, so I wouldn't mind a re-run of that, either.
I've got a question. Remember the Kato corrugated side passenger sets that came out c. 2000? How accurate would it be if the dining car in the set was repainted as a contemporary Amtrak diner? I understand the prototype was a Burlington diner and that a number of these remain on the Amtrak roster. At a glance it looks pretty accurate, but is it good enough to please rivet counters? If it passes muster, it would fit in nicely with the Viewliners and Amtubes in a future Kato run of a Phase VI Amtrak intercity set. Rick
I believe that Amtrak removed, if any of it was still there at all, the skirting on these cars to make the underbody equipment more accessible.
I'm surprised that Atlas hasn't done an F unit. I have a lot of Atlas locos and really like them, Kato is a close second.
I wish Kato would make -- Curved Turnouts like Tomix. Diotown road plates - where you could apply decals to make the roads either Left-hand or Right-hand driving. Slip switches More crossing tracks than just the 90 and 15deg pieces
That should be on the 'I wish Athearn would make' thread. They made them in HO scale so they already have the data and information...wait, I forgot that Athearn doesn't really release much of the N scale they already have, let alone produce new items. For the record, I'd take AT LEAST 4-5 MT anythings.
Charger: The problem with releasing a GS-4 in WP is that the WP GS units came without skirts. Kato would have to modify their molds to remove the skirts...humm. Then they could also run the GS-6 is SP as well. This also gets my vote.
I also want a NP NCL . Whats wrong with green Kato? A Great Northern Enpire Builder re-release would be nice too. I don't even care its not proto , its just cool.
So... today I got a survey from Kato regarding the 'possibility' that a TA locomotive with a Texas Rocket 3 car set might be offered... and they wanted to know which paint scheme was preferred for the TA. I like Rock Island and the TA powered Texas Rocket would be a nice set to have. I guess that Kato was happy with the response to the Silver Streak Zephyr with the E5A locomotive...Hmmmm??? I certainly would prefer the larger sets of named passenger consists with the existing F unit tooling... or... perhaps a new E7 A/B tooling. The thought that Kato would produce a TA locomotive for this train is more stunning than the E5A tooled for the Silver Streak Zephyr. In both cases... these locomotives are particular to ONE railroad and there were very few prototype models available. Not a logical product development for repaying for R&D and tooling costs. Hopefully... Kato does the Rock Island Texas Rocket and it does very good in sales. There were only 6 numbers for the TA locomotives... I guess they could run this set six times with a different locomotive in each release.
Oh, I meant to say Texas Rocket...ignore all of that other junk I (and everyone else) asked for. My life would be complete if only I had a Texas Rocket! Really, Kato?
So it's to be a shift in focus to shorter consists targeted at folks with smaller layouts... okay, well, I'm one of those folks, so that doesn't bother me much. I have enough long passenger trains already that I can't run anywhere that I own. As for the choice of prototype... well... it wouldn't have been my first, second, or tenth choice... but I can definitely see the appeal! It'd be an affordable plastic model of something that nobody could have ever expected in anything but limited-run brass. The more road-specific power- especially niche stuff- that gets produced, the better. If it does well, the bean counters will take notice and be more likely to greenlight further such releases. Who knows... if the price is as reasonable as the Silver Streak Zephyr set was (and that was also a pretty niche release... or at least it looked that way, but it sold really well), I might just wind up with one for the collection. Goodness knows I've managed to accumulate enough other equipment that has no business running on my side of the continent.
