Kato C44-9 shells on sale

[Scottl]

I knew there were several differences, but I'm glad an expert came to the rescue!  I hope to deal with some of these issues on my second version of the model.

[sizemore]

That cab makes it look like its on steroids. I like it.


The S.

[Smike]

Is the 1994 shell compatible with the rest of the re-tooled model?  Lighting, underframe, & fuel tanks are all different, IIRC.

Ed

To further back up what Scott has said, they older shells drop onto the latest AC4400 frame.

[ryan_wilkerson]

Thanks for the heads up! Undec Kato shells are hard to come by at a decent price. While I was looking around for other parts, I noticed some are $45!

[reinhardtjh]

Does anyone know which are the best to use as a basis for a NS Dash-9?

[GaryHinshaw]

Of the sets that are on sale, the closest shell would be #921345: high number board, 6 steps, wide end handrails.  The compromises that I know about would be:

* Nose headlight instead of high headlight,
* No rear ditch lights,
* Front ditch lights mounted in the sill instead of on the porch,
* Some minor vent differences in the rear radiator.

It's the first item that bug most NS modelers.  Note, if you need a mechanism too, you can buy the newer release in undec. #176-3610.  That gives you porch-mounted front ditch lights, but narrow end handrails.  Still no high headlight or rear ditch lights.

-Gary

[reinhardtjh]

Thanks Gary.  I knew the high headlights and the rear ditch lights would be a problem. I just could never figure out how the number of steps were counted and the pics of the Kato shells were too small for me to see which matched the NS photos.

Knowing now that the 176-3610 undecs have the same basic shell means I can use those.  Maybe get a couple of extra shells for spare/parts.

  John H. Reinhardt