Kato Tweets E5 pic. I'm officially concerned.

[skytop35]

I knew I had a side profile pic somewhere....

Nice photo Matt !

[NorsemanJack]

Fortunately i'm no burlington modeler so I can wait to see the model in real life.

Marc

Ironically, the burlington modelers seem to remain the happiest folks in this (and other) threads.  We've gone from having no hope of an E5 to assurance of one that's 95% - 100% accurate (variation apparently due to the eyes of the beholders).  There isn't a model produced that couldn't be improved upon with more time, money, effort; however I'm glad N scale is where it is at today.  I doubt any of the concerns expressed in this thread (real, perceived or just made up) will honestly sway someone to not buy one of these.  It's a Kato quality model of the finest locomotive ever produced. 

[GaryHinshaw]

I don't have a dog in this hunt, but I was curious enough to hack together a composite image of the two photos Jason posted above.  As has been noted, they are taken from different angles and the lighting is different which makes the reflections different.  But one can rotate and rescale the images to approximately match them up:



[I made it as an animated gif, but the sequence doesn't loop, so best to download it and step through the frames by hand.]  The thing that stands out most to me is the headlight placement: the model headlights appear to be lower than the prototype's which could possibly be an artifact of the viewing angle, but could also be due to a difference in the nose profile.

Also, it looks like the lower edge of the windshield should follow the nose profile more closely, to give it that classic droop.   That could be fixed, but not without changing the glass.

In general, I think the model looks great, and I would not pass on it if I wanted this prototype, but I can understand being bothered by a few things.

-gfh

Edit - here's the middle frame, with the model superposed at 50% opacity:

[CBQ Fan]

I think it is so darned hot some of out here are trying to convince themselves not to buy one.  Just give in to the Silver Side.  You want one, you know you really want one, you can't resist it, you have to buy it, you must order one now, no resisting the temptation.  It is the only way you will continue to breathe, your heart continue to beat, your brain to function.  Must buy one!!!!!!!!!

[NorsemanJack]

It is the only way you will continue to breathe, your heart continue to beat, your brain to function.  Must buy one OF EACH!!!!!!!!!

Fixed.

[CBQ Fan]

Fixed.

   Of course!!

[FrankCampagna]

Threads like this are always so much fun to read.

Frank

[mcjaco]

Nice photo Matt !

Thanks Bill. Got lucky that day. There she was sitting with nothing on the middle track. If anything this made me feel better about Kato's nose. It is really long!

[pennsyfan1361]

I think it is so darned hot some of out here are trying to convince themselves not to buy one.  Just give in to the Silver Side.  You want one, you know you really want one, you can't resist it, you have to buy it, you must order one now, no resisting the temptation.  It is the only way you will continue to breathe, your heart continue to beat, your brain to function.  Must buy one!!!!!!!!!

                             Wow after reading that I NEED TO GET ONE!!!!! Wrong road for me otherwise I would get one.                Rich

[Nato]

               Jumping very late into these threads,as probably the only Railwire member to own a N Scale Brass A-B Oriental Limited E-5 locomotive set which I ran alot at train shows during the early 1970's and being an old enough Phart to have ridden on the Texas Zephyr pulled by E-5's  also having viewed my first E-5 in Union Station in 1954 on a family vacation and thinking loco had real grills next to headlight, later learned they were add on pieces,here is my 40 cents worth. Kato has done a very nice job with these loco's. Yes the mold lines are very annoying,this always bothered me about the old Rivarossi E-8/9 nose. Thanks Gary for the overlapping photos. There may be a we bit of roundness that one could say is offputting,but to my old eyes the model looks vedy good. Better than the pretty good Nose Shape on the Life Like E-6.         We  must remember we are looking at a pre-production pilot model and the final paint finishing would vary. I agree with Bryan that untill we see the actual model it will be hard to judge. It would appear that the truck skirts, which were removed by the Q in the war years for better access,are cast with the side frame much like the CAL Z passenger trucks have only bottom detail to clear the car skirts. The un skirted locos have a complete unskirted side frame,which I hope is not their E-8/9  one as there some slight  differences in early E and later E trucks. I'am up for the set and the two single locomotives to run with my earlier Burlington Kato Budd car set. This brings up one last point. Yes the dome windows as pointed out on the CZ train are not quite correct. If you want to see correct look at the Budd dome car (a Twin Zephyr coach prototype) in the original Kato Budd sets. They even modeled the box over the center dome windshield windows, that were once where the center windshiled wiper, TZ & CZ domes had them on all windshield windows were in 1947&49.Wipers were removed (car washer damage) about 1950? Boxes on dome ends by late 1960's . Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[peteski]

No one sees any issue with the windshields?  I was sure someone would see that. 

Jason

So you give us another hint without actually telling us what you see wrong in that area. 

I did mention that I think that the lack of rubber gasket on the model makes its windshield look smaller than the 1:1 loco.  That's not it?

[OldEastRR]

Looking at the picture: The rubber gaskets ARE molded into the window glass. They aren't painted black, however. Possibly this is a preproduction shot and the finished locos will have black-edged windshields. However, with the gaskets part of the window, if the window glass is not fully inserted into the opening then the glass will look too deep, and too small.
Not sure about how the roundness of the "cheeks" actually is, but using the picture of the E5 in Bal''s "America's Colorful Railroads" (p. 200), which is almost exactly the same as the side shot of the Kato engine, the nose length, slope and overall outline looks dead-on. I didn't put a protractor on the pix to compare angles, tho.
As for pilot differences there were two types: one like shown and another sharper rounded cutaway one.
(these were as-builts). Locos 9913-15 had the pilot different than the Kato one. Burlington Bulletin #10 has pretty much everything you'd want to know about individual Q E-Units, from the EMD plant to final salvage, sale, or wreck. There's even a placement diagram for all the later added grab-irons over the nose and on the roof. It even lists the E units that didn't come with stainless steel panels.

[wcfn100]

  I doubt any of the concerns expressed in this thread (real, perceived or just made up) will honestly sway someone to not buy one of these.  It's a Kato quality model of the finest locomotive ever produced. 

I've never intended to sway anyone with any of my threads.  These are just observations. If you want to think they are perceived or made up that's fine.  But just for fun I'll give you these.

-The lower part of the windshield doesn't follow the curve of the hood it's much straighter which causes it to squint a bit as it reaches the sides.

-The corners of painted on grills are half the distance away from the marker lights and number boards than the prototype.

Did I just make those up?

edit:  Let's just call that last question rhetorical. 

Jason

[peteski]

-The lower part of the windshield doesn't follow the curve of the hood it's much straighter which causes it to squint a bit as it reaches the sides.

-The corners of painted on grills are half the distance away from the marker lights and number boards than the prototype.

Jason, now since you mentioned those details, yes I can see the discrepancies. I guess they did not bother me enough to notice.

I think that if the model's windshield gasket (and inside part of the windshield opening) were painted black, that would greatly minimize the mismatch.  I know, there is no black paint on that model.

The front grille are just as you state and they are also further away from the headlight. But I suspect that there were several different types of those grills on various locomotives (I think at least couple of slightly different grills were shown in photos in the last 7 pages of this thread), so unless you are actually comparing the model to a photo of the exact loco modeled, I would not call this an error.

If Kato USA reps are reading this thread, I have feeling that they are rolling their eyes, but I am enjoying this intense discussion about an unreleased model!  I suspect that Paul and Cory from Atlas gave up reading after about 5 pages of responses. I do recall a similar discussion on the Atlas forum about then-not-yet-released Bachmann 4-6-0 loco.  That was fun too!    But I should really spend less time  in online forums and do some more real modeling!   This is almost as bad as Facebook! 

[DKS]

I've never intended to sway anyone with any of my threads.  These are just observations. If you want to think they are perceived or made up that's fine.  But just for fun I'll give you these.

-The lower part of the windshield doesn't follow the curve of the hood it's much straighter which causes it to squint a bit as it reaches the sides.

-The corners of painted on grills are half the distance away from the marker lights and number boards than the prototype.

Did I just make those up?

edit:  Let's just call that last question rhetorical. 

Jason

Holy moly. Remind me to never make any products for your prototype of interest--I doubt I could live up to your expectations.

Just out of curiosity, are there any commercial products that satisfy you? Given that every N scale product made (with no exceptions that I know of) deviate from the prototype in some way, I think you must be stuck scratchbuilding everything...?