i was thinking about picking up on an older [1999] Kato SD40-2. any opinions on Kato quality and accuracy? thanks, michael.
The first run Kato SD40-2s were pretty accurate, however they are not quite up to today’s detail level of Genesis or BLI - no see-thru fans or grills, fatter handrails and grabs. You can’t beat Kato’s drive and dependabilty, best running locos period. Some of the first run locos did have a pickup problem. The first run used an experimental prong and rubbing strip to transfer power from the trucks to the circuit board, this was not always reliable, some never showed a problem, some had intermittent electrical contact. The solution is fairly simple, solder wires to each of the pickups and run them up to the circuit board, all later runs were wired this way and eliminated the problem. If you can get it for a good price and do the modification, you’ll have an excellent running model that will likely give you many years of pleasure. I have 8 of them and they’re my best runners along with my Atlas units (whose drive is a Chinese clone of the Japanese Kato).