Has anyone heard any news lately on any up and coming releases from Kato ?. I heard a rumor recently that they’re soon to rerelease the Santa Fe Super Chief, but not sure how true it is…
If you are talking about HO Scale, the following items are/were listed as a 2006 Release:
Another Run of AC4400CW’s(Same schemes as the newest N-Scale AC4400CW’s)
UP and NS SD70M’s w/ Flared Radiators and Phase ll cabs
The AC4400’s are still on the website, but the SD70M’s have been taken off. Also, this is pure speculation. Kato HAS NOT, I repeat, HAS NOT, said that they will bw coming out with these.
Hadn’t heard that one. IMHO, wouldn’t necessarily be a wise move if Kato decided to produce an F-unit. Athearn Genesis units have been drawing rave reviews and sound equipped versions will be out soon. BLI’s are also scheduled to hit the market as well.
There was a rumor a year ago that Kato was considering doing EMD cowls but no word on that so far or which ones (F45, FP45, F40C, SDP40f, or SDF40-notch nose).
Best thing to do is send them a letter or e-mail and ask.
That would be good for Kato. I might buy it IF Kato makes them. And Walthers does not suck. I have one of their engines and it runs very well and besides that now that they have PROTO 1000 and PROTO 2000 they really don’t suck.
I hear (From their website) that they’re making a fast clock. I’m not totally sure if it does what it says it does, which it probably does. It is a software thing.
Trainboy
A dose of reality is in order…Kato does not seem to care for the HO market.As much as Kato is bragged up one would expect Kato to do better but,apparently they don’t care for their loyal customers either…I couldn’t even get a reply from a e mail I sent asking if they plan on releasing their GP35 in C&O.Not even a thank you for asking or drop dead reply.[V].
I will never understand why Kato doesn’t become a heavy contender instead of a light contender or why Kato says their engines are RTR instead of RTR lots of assembly required.
I have four Kato GP35s that I traded four Atlas GP40s for…Frankly and seriously these Kato GP35 s is no better or worst then my other units and that includes my tweak Athearn BB engines…Also my Athearn RTR C&O GP35s look and runs as good as my Kato 35s.
First you have to consider KATO’s major market. N scale, and with a heavy dose of Japan! US prototype is a small part of their offering. And like a lot of of f-shore train companies, N is the dominant scale. It is hard to get production space for a run of HO locomotives when they can sell all of the N scale stuff as fast as they can build it. You will notice that they seem to do more US prototypes in N scale - they seem to be more comfortable there.