Attempting to second-guess model manufacturers is a harmless form of amusement. For Kato, the North American prototype segment of their business is merely a sideline. They run their business for one purpose only: profit. They will produce only what they believe will sell. What MoPac fan would not want an Eagle consist? What Illinois Central fan would not want a City of New Orleans? What B&O fan would not want a Capitol Limited? Kato would probably say that many of them would buy such models - just not enough of them to make it worthwhile. Kato has nearly exhausted it's opportunities for exploitation of the North American prototype market when it comes to classic railroading. From now on, it's going to be modern, modern, and more modern.
All you people lamenting that Kato will not make your name train gets really boring after a while. If somebody does not make your perfect train, why don't you guys do what used to be done. Hunt down the cars that closely represent the train your looking for. Many of the cars that your train was made from have already been built. What it takes is the effort to hunt them down and buy them. If the car is not available in the correct colors then paint them. If you look hard enough there are companies that make replacement sides. This is how Centrailla Car Company came to be, they sold car sides. If you cannot find the exact stuff then accept CLOSE ENOUGH. It doesn't hurt and is much cheaper. When a new box car is closing in on $40 a car and passenger one closes in on $60 it's time to stop putting on the detail. No one can afford the hobby then. Did all you guys, that want every detail, know that brass passenger cars used to come WITHOUT interiors, window glass, couplers and trucks and sold for $100 each. At the same time a similar plastic car had all those things and sold for less than $10. The sad part that that was the '90s. Just go out and find the cars they are out there and make your name train. Besides there were a lot more second stringers that never contained the same car twice. And they'll fit our your layout better.
Next is the 5th set of the Zephyr, a second run of the phase VI Viewliner and Amfleet and the start of the first of the P42 heritage units.
But they are just reruns and new paint schemes. Good to see reruns though for those who missed out the first time.
Each of the first four Cal Zephyr sets had different car names. There was only six (or seven?) prototype equipment sets so Kato is running out of car name possibilities before they will have to do a rerun. Andy Tetsu Uma
What about the 1971=1981 version of the Auto Train...Seriously It is a relatively ingenious idea and would actually be fairly easy for them to do. Kato already has the molds for the former CZ budd stainless cars, the smoothside passenger cars, the GN and ATSF full domes, and a cupola caboose. The only things they would need to develop are the auto carrier boxcars (former CN cars,) and the U36Bs, which could also be marketed with Conrail, Seaboard (to include their bicentennial units which a;so compliment the AFT), Family Lines, CSX (Stealth, YN2, YN3), Trans Kentucky, Nashville Eastern, Georgia Central, paint scemes...
Did I miss those? As far as sets go, they are just as likely to make all new molds to model a train if they have to. Existing molds seems to not figure very heavy in their choices. They did use a lot of older cars when they released their City of LA but that seems to not be typical with them.
The MP36PH and bi-levels show Kato aren't limited to stuff they already have tooling for, they can spring anything on us at anytime. We should be just about due for a new name train, but I think Amtrak California would more likely be suited to a release in between full name train sets like the bi-levels and Amfleets were.
Some folks on the Forum have made comments as if they 'know' what Kato is working on presently. One member mentioned it would include 'pacific'... while on another thread someone else claimed to 'save your money now' to a comment about the Milwaukee Road Little Joes. I believe these are two different persons... but the comments would fit the possibility of an EF-4 or EP-4 Little Joe... because Chicago Milwaukee St. Paul & PACIFIC also fits both of the comments. The chassis of the Milwaukee Road electrics is similar to the Pennsy's GG-1... and might be a good starting point that could save Kato some tooling costs and time. The Milwaukee Road passenger cars are a bit more unique though... with porthole windows in the vestibule doors and elsewhere. If they do an EF/EP-4 the most likely Milwaukee Road named train would the the 'Electrified Columbian'. It would be a great place to introduce a full dome passenger car too. The locomotive could be used for freight as well as passenger service, though I don't know what differences there would be between the two variants. Great Northern also had a 'type' of Little Joe as well... as well as a full dome... so that might also be a way Kato could go... introducing an accurate Empire Builder with it. While these are fairly regional models... it's possible that model railroaders outside of the Pacific Northwest & Northern Plains of the U.S. would purchase either of these models. The Pennsy Broadway Limited with GG-1 did pretty well on the first go around... and many of the buyer were not eastern road modelers.
The CMStP&P didn't run domes on the Columbian (although it would be an interesting train to model with its mix of heavy and lightweight cars). My money is on the 1952 Olympian, Skytops, Superdomes and take your pick for locomotives. The train used at least 4 different locomotives from Chicago- Seattle, Be neat to see either a Little Joe, FM Erie builts, Quill drive boxcabs, FP-7s, 4-8-4s, 4-6-4s E-7s, E-6, Bi Polars...... The Columbian is not easy to do if you want exact matches for the cars. Almost all of the Milwaukee shops built cars would need to be built from scratch (except for the Coach dorms, and coaches that are expected from FVM). The Columbian had 10 section open observation lounges, the only ones I know of are Peco's River brass ones. The Micro trains heavy weight sleepers are good stand-ins for the 10-1-1 and the 10-2 cars the Milwaukee had. The 12-1 sleepers are a near exact match to the old Rivarossi sleepers. Motive power for the trains is kinda tough, a good 4-6-4 is not easy to find, the S-1, s-2 and S-3 4-84s are non existant, E-7s are rare, of course the electrics are no where to be found.. I think Kato might fill some of the gaps for Milwaukee modelers and FVM products will certainly carry on the tradition Matt started with high quality models of shops built cars.
It is fun to speculate, but with Kato, anything is possible. They could just as easily tool an all new train from the wheels up like they did for the California Zephyr when they had many similar cars that would be perfectly acceptable and were already tooled up. Or they could use a lot of old tooling and add a few new cars like they did with the UP City of Los Angeles. It has been pointed out that their highest priority seems to be a train that had a pretty standard (consistent) consist over a period of time and is likely to be popular and sell a lot. They like a boxed set with possibly a few additional cars to extend it. They have already done the no brainer "home run" trains and have rerun the ones that really sell well. They stuck their toe into the eastern train pool with the Broadway Limited and the Penn Central train. I don't know if they felt that they were successful enough to bring out another classic eastern train or not. They have run out of the sure fire western trains so now they have to decide where to cast their lot. I do not envy them. They could hit another home run with the Twentieth Century Limited, Powhatan Arrow, Southern Crescent, Panama Limited, Texas Special, Golden State, Sunset Limited, North Coast Limited, Hiawatha or whatever. Or their choice could fall flat. They really need a high tech Ouija Board that comes with a guarantee.
