KATO and the EAST

[victor miranda]

That's the smartest thing you've posted all week.   I'll stop egging you on so that you'll stop making a fool of yourself. 

hohohohohohoahahahahahaha
ah that is a riot!   do another !

Stephen Cobert,  eat your heart out!
your post is the finest example of truthiness I have ever read!

encore !

v

[Zox]

...normally intellegent clients make $#@$#!# out of themsleves arguing about something that they have no stake in; knowledge of or input to whatsoever...

Quoted for great truth.

[CBQ Fan]

That's the smartest thing you've posted all week.   I'll stop egging you on so that you'll stop making a fool of yourself. 

Big fish little pond.  Just keep swimming in circles.

[inkaneer]

One other rather obvious point regarding a dream Kato K4:  Kato-Japan makes a ton of stand-alone Japanese-prototype steam models and has for years, so the company isn't adverse to the concept.  Kato-USA offered their lone stand-alone model, the USRA Mikado, in 1996.  They also released the GS4 steamer in 2008 for the Daylight consist, all variations of which are still in stock.  Don't you think, if the demand existed, that Kato-USA would have offered more steam engines over the last 15 years, of any kind? 

I will answer thjat question.  The answer is not necessarily.  I have been around and in enough businesses to know that the idea that business decisions are always made in a reasoned logical manner consistant with the facts is a myth.  Sometimes businesses get so entrapped with their business model that they cannot break away from it even if it means more profit to do so.  Kato has their marketing plan that apparently has remained unchanged.  That is the Japanese market is primary the European market is secondary and the North American market is tertiary.  That is why Kato makes, in your own words, "a ton of stand-alone Japanese-prototype steam models and has for years".   Now maybe if Kato replaced the Japanese market with the North American market and started to cater to the wishes of that market they would be devoting more resources to developing North American steam power.   But I don't expect it to happen as long as Kato suffers form "Japanitis" to coin a word.  There have been a number of books written about the Japaanese way of doing business and the Japanese model.  The conclusion has been that they have a tendency to become locked in to something that it is nearly imposible to break out of because to do so is seen as an admission of failure.   In the past failure meant committing suicide.  The nuclear plant disaster from the earthquake /tsunami is a prime example where they continually denied there was a problem despite the whole world knowing otherwise.  To admit there was a problem was seen as a failure.   

[Mark5]

I have lots of Kato locos. I like most of them.

Re: Kato and the East. I don't think that offering PRR, PC, and Amtrak covers the "East" - what an insult . That said I don't really care about what roads Kato offers any more, as long as they offer Undecorated (which they don't any more).

After decades of poor availability on certain "key" models that Kato happens to have tooled up, I am at the point that when hoping for locos that should be "readily" available - I don't want Kato to do them.

Mark

[sirenwerks]

I'm still trying to figure out what makes a road "east" or "west". What's the criteria for discerning an eastern or western road? At this moment it seems whether Kato manufacturers a few models of one particular roadname is the only criteria? You guys seem to forget that there's a middle of the country which is distinctly different from the coast's and their hinterlands. While the Midwest may host railroads from both coasts, it has its own uniquely Midwestern railroads. For instance, the CTA and Milwaukee are Midwestern roads. The Burlington and its California Zephyr (no, the WP or Rio Grande do not own the rights to this train) are Midwestern. These are featured by Kato and neither western or eastern. And the more contemporary you get the less choice you have to begin with. The only thing I can derive from this thread is that "coastal" modelers have bigger bladders.

[Scottl]

15 minutes with 99% polyprop alcohol and then some paint and decals, and you can have any road you want.  I just finished stripping a BNSF unit for use as a CN.  You could even bring the WM or Conrail into the modern era with some AC4400 or GEVOs 

The level of modelling expertise on this board is so high, I can't understand why a paint job on a loco is so much of an issue.  This topic is so old, but it keeps going, going....   

[Mark5]

15 minutes with 99% polyprop alcohol and then some paint and decals, and you can have any road you want.

Provided you can actually find the loco you are attempting to model ...

The level of modelling expertise on this board is so high, I can't understand why a paint job on a loco is so much of an issue. 

There are some excellent modelers here without a doubt, but I think it is wrong to assume that all modelers on this forum are at the same level or even that they would want to be.

Mark

[victor miranda]

I'm still trying to figure out what makes a road "east" or "west". What's the criteria for discerning an eastern or western road? At this moment it seems whether Kato manufacturers a few models of one particular roadname is the only criteria? You guys seem to forget that there's a middle of the country which is distinctly different from the coast's and their hinterlands. While the Midwest may host railroads from both coasts, it has its own uniquely Midwestern railroads. For instance, the CTA and Milwaukee are Midwestern roads. The Burlington and its California Zephyr (no, the WP or Rio Grande do not own the rights to this train) are Midwestern. These are featured by Kato and neither western or eastern. And the more contemporary you get the less choice you have to begin with. The only thing I can derive from this thread is that "coastal" modelers have bigger bladders.

the only criteria is the daylight and the broadway  limited.

and this thread has wandered far away from my original complaint/whinge/rant.

victor

[inkaneer]

15 minutes with 99% polyprop alcohol and then some paint and decals, and you can have any road you want.  I just finished stripping a BNSF unit for use as a CN.  You could even bring the WM or Conrail into the modern era with some AC4400 or GEVOs 

The level of modelling expertise on this board is so high, I can't understand why a paint job on a loco is so much of an issue.  This topic is so old, but it keeps going, going....   

Which maybe why there are still a lot of PRR modelers today, at least for diesels.   Let's face it PRR paint was easy.  Get a bottle of DGLE of whichever shade you prefer then paint and decal.   Not a hard paint scheme  to do.  Hardest part was getting the decals straight.   Same with N&W.   Steam is a different matter as PRR had their own steam designs and largely ignored the USRA designs.   

[Scottl]

I know there are some models of loco not modeled, but that is not just Kato, it is the industry.  When I look at what is out there (in terms of diesels), there are a lot of options covering the spectrum of geography and era.

I agree that not all modelers feel up to chopping into a shell- but again, like all the other aspects (scenery, electrical, kitbashing), building skills and experience will go a long way in reaching a level of comfort.  Kitbashing with freight cars and other less "critical" equipment will be a great way to build the confidence to cut into that loco shell and make it the obscure model you have always wanted or is critical to your prototype.

I'm not one to be sympathetic to the pleas and mutterings for this road name, model of box car, bus or truck etc.  I have to kit bash every one of my locos and while I'm not as good as many here, I get enjoyment out of creating something I want.  So, in the spirit of  , come on Kato, forget all that US stuff.  How about some locos from the ONLY transcon- CN.   

[Scottl]

Here's a model for some new tooling by Kato:  they built about 20 of them, I think!  Covers both eras, the 1990s and 2000s!

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=378357&nseq=4

[ljudice]

The real blame goes to NS and CSX for constantly ordering options that Kato doesn't make!  When will these "real" railroads learn that they're making our lives miserable and get with the program.


 

[unittrain]

Another thing  that 2 railroads that are among the giants of the past C&O and B&O didn't purchase SD45's I'm quite sure with B&O I'd have to verify with C&O but I'm almost certain they didn't, and outside of the Conrail group I'd say the next most popular would be B&O and C&O. That might help to explain a little bit why SD45 eastern roads are light. As far as the the SD40 goes B&O didn't purchase many of them and the ones they had they sold most of them in the early seventies, I think most of Chessie's SD40's came from WM and C&O. Now when it comes to the SD40-2 Chessie had quite a few so they could do some Chessie more often and hopefully get the paint right!! This is just my 2 cents worht I might be wrong but I think Kato for the most part only see's large class 1 railroads. I also forgot to mention that B&O didn't purchase GE's at all eliminating that scheme for the U30C ect. But they could do some C&O and chessie with the GE's.

[Puddington]

The real blame goes to NS and CSX for constantly ordering options that Kato doesn't make!  When will these "real" railroads learn that they're making our lives miserable and get with the program.


 

Logical.....very logical......