what is your guy’s opinion on the Kato SD40? im thinking about getting a U.P. one. and why arnt any of the SD40-2’s done in modern U.P. paint?
KATO SD 40’s are good in any paint. Some of their SD-40 'snoot’s had a fixable elecrtric problem, and I would avoid one of these off of EBay.
the Kato SD40 is an excellent model. i have several of them. the SD40-2 is the one with the electrical contact problems. the SD40-2 “snoot” didnt have any problems.
I agree !!!
KATO´s SD40 / SD40-2 is an excellent model !
Have 2 BN SD40, 3 UP SD40-2, 1 MP/UP SD40-2, 2 C&NW SD40-2 and 2 BNSF SD 40-2
I have two UP Kato SD-40"s, and to make it short, They are extremely good runners, but they screwed up the UP yellow paint on both of them, Should be yellower, That said, The Kato SD-40 locomotives are great.
Mac
I had problems with a snoot. I had to remove the copper contacts that run underneath the running boards and replace it with small-gauge wire, soldered directly to the truck contact and the circuit board. Runs like a charm now!
Have the two UP SD40’s and must say I really like those locos. Along the lines of what Trakster said, I just had them out with the 2 new UP C40-8’s (Atlas) and they’re a closer match to the C40’s yellow than the UP armour yellow on the Kato SD90’s and Genesis SD70’s - and I think the C40’s yellow is not near yellow enough. So I guess de facto I agree with Trakster on the SD40’s yellow, though I actually like these SD40’s yellow much more than the C40’s. I also have the I&M RL SD40. The color is a bit wrong on it too (the blue is perhaps too bright) but I still like it. Oddly enough, in this case I like the wrong blue. I have the ATSF blond bonnet SD40 as well. Kato’s yellow on these and on the SD45’s is a very faded or washed out yellow, and is very different from the yellow on the Atlas GP’s and the P2K GP’s and SD’s. I prefer the Atlas or P2K ATSF yellow, though the Kato ATSF yellow arguably still looks prototypical because the real units yellow often fade in a variety of shades. Overal, IMHO the SD40’s are very nice locos and can be had very reasonably these days (my LHS had a slew of them, in many roadnames, on sale this past weekend for $63.00). Enjoy the hobby.
Greg
Greg.
SWchief:
I forgot to mention that I repainted the trucks on my two Kato SD-40 Locomotives, I couldn"t handle that awful silver color that the factory painted them, so I painted mine the modern Grey UP colors, Incidentally, those two old Kato"s still perform right with the best of my modern motive power, and better than some of them, The SD-40 is arguably the best Kato of them all.
Mac
I have several of them and like all Katos (except the snoot nose) they are good runners.
The SD40 is excellent. I’d like to get my mitts on a couple in CN paint.
The Kato SD40-2 has electrical issues, which are easily solvable by hardwiring. It shares a electrical design with the Kato NW2. All other Kato drives have the more reliable design. However, the model itself is excellent.
If you are handy at repairing the Kato engines by all means buy it, but I had two Sd-40-2 that wouldn’t run because of the electrical problem talked about above, and I had an sd 40 wis central engine where the motor froze up on it and it was under 6 months old. Everything was lubricated properly. I do not buy Kato products anymore, and LHS here have had trouble selling Kato’s now because of the screwing Kato has given its customers. Since we wisconsin people are cheap ########## we expect junk we buy to run. I am currently using Atlas. To make matters worse, I still have the first Ho engine I ever bought, and it is an Athearn, which still runs with no repairs. Now what does that say about Kato?
That is a very good point, Those old Athearn"s are virtually indestructable, and so utterally simple, that they are a breeze to repair in the unlikely event that something does go wrong, but I do think that most Kato"s are very good locomotives, I have a bunch, and there have been a few issues with a couple of them, but nothing that was too hard to resolve, I love em both, don"t you?
Mac
ok i have boughten one UP SD40 #3039 runs great, and looks great, except for the handrails.but i have a solutions! i will fill in the Kato handrail holes with styrene, then add a striping decal over them, then drill new holes. I plan on using the new style of plastic Athearn SD40-2 handrails. what ya think?
Sounds like a lot of work for a scale 1". I find the factory handrails are adequate. I would go the replacement route if I were entering the model in a contest. Other than that, I’d rather be running the engines over replacing the handrails.
I took the liberty of editing your complaint. I lived in Milwaukee (no complaints) for 10 years and bough much of my RR empire there.
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Most retailers take back defective merchandise, and many Hobby shops have repair shops, and will exchange or repair what they sell. (Perhaps that’s your problem). Where do you take a garment that doesn’t fit, or a car for repair? Levi Strauss’ ? General Motors??
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QC is expensive. KATO has one of the best; Athearn one of the worst. I speak from experience.
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MORE Athearns stop running because of poor electrical connections than any other brand. I have two new Genesis F-7’s that the motors went sour on in less than 20 hours of running.
I think it says more about YOU.
Place your Athearn on the track with a Kato sometime, and slooowly turn up the power. Watch the Kato move and your Athearn sit .
One of the handrails on my AC4400CW is broke called Kato and they say the parts are not in stock that was when they came out Kato still says that talk about QC.
Mr. Gibson
My pleasure to reply to you. We have an owner of the Hobbytown USA stores here where I live that refuses to take back, honor a warranty, or help with service on items bought from his stores. That he says is not his problem, that is the manufacturers problem. As for me Mr. Gibson, I work in manufacturing and have done so for over 25 years. I have the say on the production line what leaves the plant, as I am fully responsible for it. If any product we are manufacturing doesn’t meet the quality criteria I put the skids on it and send it to broke. That is why I am still employed Mr. Gibson and many competitors in the same industry are closed up. As for me, if a company like Kato wishes to make and manufacture junk it is there right to do so. However, as I said before 3 brand new Kato’s purchased within the last year have failed. My first athearn years old and still running strong. I orignally thought when I bought the Kato engines they were the slickest thing out there. However their failure rate is too high for me to waste my money on any more of them. I have 1 Kato engine left, and have started to replace those Kato engines with Atlas engines. We will trial that brand now. As for getting junk fixed, even if I had all three repaired I wouldn’t buy anymore Kato’s because of the failure rate experienced. When you work in manufacturing everyday, you understand more about what keeps the customer coming back. That salary over $70,000.00 a year I have, must prove my philosophy and my company’s philosophy is right.
This is the first time I have hooked up to the forum and was quite surprised to learn that others were having electrical problems with Kato. I have an SD40 (CP) which is DCC. I can program the engine - It moves forward visably during programing, but when I switch to “run” mode, it refuses to move in either direction. Does anyone know what the problem migh be. I am relatively new at the hobby and would be interested to hear any comments
WRONG. He’s the one that took your money as well as kept most of it… A well written letter to KATO USA might get him removed. However, I think I would recommend skipping the ‘Junk’ part.
You REALIZE from reading this thread that your experince - product wise - is counter to most, and exacerbated by an outlandish dealer who bought a franchise, and little else. I don’t think I would even buy ATLAS from him.
This “electrical problem” with Katos SD40´s isn´t so important as it sounds!
You need two pieces of wire and a small soldering iron and 3 minutes!
I try it also more simple: A drop of solder to the connection point between the power lines at the frame and this strips to the print circuit! Works!!!
And I had never real problems with spareparts from KATO !!!
BTW I have 52 Katos and when I must made a decission between Kato and Athearn (SD70MAC) I vote for Kato. The Genesis locos looks great, perfect detailed and are good runners but the Katos are better in running and this made my decission!