Kato's Anti-Eastern Bias

[Mark5]

1. I would buy an NS Dash-9.  It would be nice if it had wide end handrails (easy), high headlight (medium), and rear ditch lights (hard).

Wow, I totally forgot* about the NS dash 9 - for a long time the quintessential NS loco. I would definately get a few!

(*possibly because Kato keeps ignoring these)

Mark

[Brakie]

Guys,I always had a secrete passion for the Santa fe and UP and yet never actually modeled either one even though the thought keeps crossing my mind.

[David Leonard]

Kato is hard to figure out. I know they prefer to make models that sell out (and eastern roads do tend to stay on dealer shelves longer), but I cannot see where the Algoma Central fits in. But the NW2 offerings have been fairly diverse. A related question might be, Why don't eastern roads sell better? My theory is that there were so many more eastern class 1's than western class 1's, that the demand for any particular eastern road is bound to be less than the demand for any particular western road.

[FrankCampagna]

Kato is hard to figure out. I know they prefer to make models that sell out (and eastern roads do tend to stay on dealer shelves longer), but I cannot see where the Algoma Central fits in. But the NW2 offerings have been fairly diverse. A related question might be, Why don't eastern roads sell better? My theory is that there were so many more eastern class 1's than western class 1's, that the demand for any particular eastern road is bound to be less than the demand for any particular western road.

That sounds reasonable. It also may be that there are more Western N scalers, even if they are not as vocal. Did not N Trak start in California?

Frank

[Mark5]

The whole east vs west thing is silly to me. Other manufacturers represent all areas fairly well.

[wm3798]

I'm sorry now I sold my Kato SD45's.  Factory Reading paint, and SD45's in general, seem to be an impossible dream anymore.  That being said, I'd prefer a newer model with scale width hoods.  The flared radiators just don't seem to be flared enough on those Katos due to the fat hoods.

Lee.

[Denver Road Doug]

(1) For EXISTING KATO TOOLING, (say, 1996 or later...anything in the "decoder-lightboard-swap" era; no changes whatsoever other than things like using other EXISTING Kato parts...like different trucks for example) what Eastern road names would you want THAT YOU WOULD BUY?
(2) What ALTERED TOOLING would you like to see Kato do for an eastern specific loco and in what road(s)?  This would have to use an existing mech/wheelbase combo and an existing "model", but can have any number of phase specific changes, cab change, light configuration, new truck tooling, etc.  Again, that you would buy....I know a lot of you can regurgitate entire rosters but try to keep it to something near and dear.

The questions!   The questions!    ??? ;D

Man, I cannot figure out why the eastern roads don't get love from Kato, honestly.  I think Santa Fe gets the nod for its Warbonnet, that's no secret.  UP, well they've been around quite literally forever from the railroading perspective.  BN was built from the western giants of yesteryear, even though it's actual history timewise is comparable to Conrail.   BNSF rides on the coattails of ATSF and to a lesser extent BN/GN....but really, not sure I get the love from Kato other than...somebody in Japan likes them?   NS and CSX....well, I'm not really sure they've had any great heritage and/or "Hollywood" paint scheme to fall back on until recently with the newer CSX scheme.  (Chessie rainbowpuke inspired CSX scheme, anyone?)

[lock4244]

Too many eastern roads, but not many with the big name like a UP or ATSF. Look at the L&N, a very large and sprawling road that seemed to fly under the radar outside of it's region. Big Boy, Warbonnet, Super Chief, Sherman Hill, Tehachapi, Cajon. Stability... UP is still around, ATSF was around for 100 or so years. CSX and NS are new, as was CR.

Some might say N&W was plain (not me, though), WAB, NKP, ACL, C&O gone too long to be remembered by many, geographically restrained due to size and route and therefore limited appeal. The western roads have long mainline runs through wide open spaces and scenery that is hard to beat... and great scenery that is hard to beat that goes on for hundreds of miles uninterrupted.

The dark times in eastern railroading of the 60's and 70's may have turned many off. The appeal of the west with it's prosperous roads would have been hard to ignore when compared to the likes of PC, EL, LV, CNJ, B&M... all were fascinating roads in their own right, but those hard times were unpleasant.

[Mark5]

We have these discussions about Kato every 6 to 9 months and probably will continue to have these discussions for years to come.

The fact is that Kato's thinking remains an enigma.

Mark

[Bob Bufkin]

Definately think that the head honcho in Japan is behind all this.  Didn't help that the Broadway set bombed on them, although the GG1's see to be doing well. 

Old man Kato pulls the strings and he definately likes the AT&F over others and I think Western roads in general. 

[James Costello]

3. Meanwhile, back out west, how about a UP SD70M/flared with the standard cab instead of the funky ACe-style cab?  The former make up 90% or more of their flared '70M fleet, the latter only ~10%...

I've got one on the work bench, so that should ensure Kato releases one later this year. Between the garden and holiday planning, the train room hasn't seen the light of day!

[Dave V]

Didn't help that the Broadway set bombed on them... 

It did?  I hadn't heard...

Seems hard to imagine they'd take a shot at PC passenger cars if the PRR Broadway was a flop.  I know that running the GG1 in all schemes to include PC was a big factor in those PC passenger cars, but they could just as easily picked a freight G number for their PC version and called it a day.

The last time the N Scale Juniata Division was at a show, it was one of five N scale layouts.  Three of them were running Broadway Limited sets.  And this was Omaha, Nebraska, not Philly or Harrisburg.

[Bob Bufkin]

Dave, the Broadway sets are not selling as they like and dealers I've taked to say they are sitting on their shelves.  Hell, I bought 2 just to make the sales look better and hope they redo it with other cars like some of their other sets.  I think part of doing the PC is to use up some of the PRR cars instead of just having them sit around gathering dust.

[sirenwerks]

The whole east vs west thing is silly to me. Other manufacturers represent all areas fairly well.

I agree for a different reason. The US has more than just an east and a west. A majority of those complaining about no eastern models really mean Northeast (Conrail, N&W, B&O, etc.) whereas , some of the so called western roads (UP and SP) really did go from the bottom of the west coast to the top and significantly east, to Chicago and past (SP in Texas, then UP, same for BN post-Frisco and BNSF).

And then there's a whole middle of the country that's got a plethora of 'other' roads, not to mention that the so called eastern and western roads both run into the Midwest.

'Other manufacturers' (Atlas, LL/Walthers & IM) represent all areas fairly in large part because they concentrate on 1st and 2nd gen diesel models, the ones owned by the many more roads that existed early on. The later mergers and 3rd gen and up diesels are the problem.

Kato's NW2 was offered in more geographically representative roads because that's who owned them. Same with its RS units. It's really only Kato's SD and U Boats where the issue starts, and prototypically those are hitting their prime during merger mania's start too. Maybe this figures into Kato's product development. UP SD40-2s were on the rails longer than WM or B&O SD40s, no? Maybe geographic coverage or length of time on the rails figures into the Kato algorithm?

Of course, it doesn't explain the Algoma SDs. What does Algoma mean in Japanese; maybe its an inside joke on us Americans?

[MichaelWinicki]

You know, I was thinking about the GG1.   Seems like at cannot possibly be more "eastern" than that, yet it doesn't seem to have even registered with most of the folks with respect to the bias argument. 

The thing with the GG1 is that it represents more of a "niche" of eastern roads than being something that truly represents eastern roads. 

I mean where it didn't or couldn't run far outnumbered the areas that it did.