I like Kato locomotives in N scale but do not like the fact that they have NO transition era locomotives or freight cars. I would like them to come out with some Maine Central,Guilford stuff, B&M stuff and other New Enlgand roads. Also just maybe make a few more freight cars!!! Atlas and Micro Trains and now Athearn must be killing Kato in the freight car department. Kato make more products for the consumers and more green for you! Any one else have the same opinion or an explanation to why they dont make these things? Tim
No one has any opinions about this??
If I remember right, Kato’s main focus is not the American market. They focus on overseas markets much more then some of the competition. The oriental market is the biggie for them. I heard it had something to do with the American loco’s (steam especially) being so road specific, so it was difficult to please everyone and do accurate models. Overseas there is more standardization, so one loco can represent many lines accurately.
That’s what I heard, but I don’t know enough about trains overseas to attest to the accuracy of this.
I did not know that there were a lot of Asian Modelers. In there countrys anyway.
With all the high quality stuff being made by other manufacturers, why would it matter? While I like the coal porters and cabooses that Kato has done, I certainly don’t need any more transition era products to choose from. Besides, as far as I can tell Intermountain is leading the way with the level of detail they put on all the new N scale stuff (have you seen the new F3 and F7?), and even some of the other companies like Red Caboose and Deluxe are releasing great new products.
Jeff
Kato does not make a “full line” of American freight equipment. But do they not make a fine transition era 2-bay covered hopper. Be thankful for that and get other stuff from other mftrs.
I was saying the same thing to my Hobby Store wondering why Kato only had one Steam. I own Kato F7 with Super Chief Cars and the PA1 that goes with my Kato CA Zephyr. They run like no other. I did have to go to other Mftrs to get my steam. Concor happened to have a descent Baldwin steam that Im pretty happy with. Now the Concor Zephyr is nice but I find it to be too noisy. I know Precision Craft will be coming out with the Big Boy and the M1 soon if they havent already. Kato has a great plug and play design for DCC. Im not so sure about the other Manufactuers. I did see some of Athearns steam and they look Hot! Never ran them though.
Kato is Japanese, and they are big there. Here is a link to the Japanese website (though in English): http://www.katomodels.com/index_e.shtml They make a lot, almost all N scale. It would make modeling Japan interesting. What I do not know is whether the N scale stuff other than the Shinkansen are modelled as narrow gauge, or if N is not 1:160 there so that the scale works out right on N scale track, of course then the Shinkansen would be wrong. I bet someone here knows the answers!
Well, a little looking around, and I can anser my own question, I think. It looks like the standard gauge Shinkansen are 1:160, and the narrow gauge (3’6") is at 1:150. Which doesn’t really work out right by my math, but it might be a good compromise. So a layout with the Shinkansen running next to the “normal” trains wouldn’t look quite right, if one was being picky, since the Shinkansen would look small relative to the narrow gauge stuff, and be running on the same size track. The narrow gauge is really noticable. I notice walking across a crossing that the track was only a little more than a stride, prior to that I did not know it was narrow gauge.
I think IM, Bachmann, Atlas & MT products are good enough to forget about Kato. There’s a lot of '40s & '50s era available from various places. Here are links to current eBay items of your RR interest:
Maine: eBay - maine, maine N Scale, Micro-Trains Line MTL, Atlas items on eBay.com
MEC: eBay - MEC, MEC N Scale, Atlas, Micro-Trains Line MTL items on eBay.com
B&M: eBay - B M, B M N Scale, Atlas, Micro-Trains Line MTL items on eBay.com
I am from N scale modeller from Singapore and also like Kato engines. I noticed that Kato has rarely released engines of fallen flags and small railroads and concentrated mainly with BNSF, UP & NS.
For freight they have recently come out with coalporters and the twin stacks. Lets hope they would continue to release more rolling stock.
Cheers,
Kato has been an odd manufacturer to figure out. Always high quality N-scale products, but limited mainly to modern equipment and major road names. Hardly anything in freight cars, but they do like passenger models. They could have cleaned house in N-scale if they expanded a while back. But now the likes of Atlas, IM, LL, etc. have been filling the voids with high quality models. It would be much harder for Kato to significantly expand if they wanted to today.
I’m wondering if they chose to stay dominant in N-scale because they underestimated the potential market growth in US. Or maybe they saw that the others would someday dominate the market and chose not to compete?
I have a few Kato N scale items…but most of my stuff is Atlas. Their diesels are awesome though–I have an older E8 that runs great. It’s still in need of a new paint job though–it’s Southern green, and I’m a Penn Central guy. Throw some relettered stainless (Con-cor) passenger cars behind it, and I’m all set 
Kato sold a USRA heavy mikado. The USRA designs lasted until th eend of steam on many roads. the Busted and Mined never had mikados; I do not know about the Pine Tree Central.
Kato sold Budd RDCs, but strangely they ignored the Busted and Mined on those as well. Strange, considering that the Busted and Mangled had the largest fleet of them. They did do NYNH&H. Id do not know if anyone sells Boston and Maine RDC decals, but I have seen some custom jobs on B&M RDCs.
Kato sells F-7s and F-3s, but again, I do not think that they ever did Pine Tree Central, BAR or B&M.
Kato sold RS-2s and RSC-2s, but I do not know that Maine Central, B&M or BAR ever had those. New York Central had RS-2s, in fact the numbers on Kato’s RS-2s reflect passenger units. Kato issued them in grey, which triggered a small debate on ya-Hoo’s NYCs list as to whether or not the DRSP-2s were ever grey. NYCS RS-2s did operate on the Boston and Albany, as did PA-1s, which Kato also sold.
Kato also sold E-8s, but I forget if MEC or B&M ever had any of those.
Kato is a Japanese manufacturer, based in Japan, and their main customer base is Japanese model railroaders, who purchase Nj (1:150 scale, not 1:160 American/European N scale) models of Japanese prototypes that bear almost zero resemblance to American prototype equipment. Also, they are NOT General Motors. If, as I suspect, their capacity is almost entirely devoted to satisfying the demands of their domestic market, there isn’t much incentive to devoting more resources to American prototypes that don’t sell well in Japan. Since Japanese modelmaking history includes several examples of small manufacturers who expanded to serve a perceived market need, then imploded when the market proved illusory, one can hardly blame the Kato management’s conservative attitude.
Chuck (who models in HOj, twice American N scale)
As limited as Kato’s line is, they have many things that I use, or would use. The Bethgon coalporters and double stacks are very nice, and of course, their engines are fantastic. It is unfortunate that they don’t come out with more variation, but what they do come out with is generally awesome.