Kato Will Finally Release Santa Fe F7's in Cigar Band And Blue Bonnet...

[Albert in N]

Looks like my lone Kato cigar band F-7 (number 272) will finally have some company.  Santa Fe ran a lot of these in Oklahoma and Texas, plus ran them fast on freights.  Unless they were parked on a siding or depot, it was hard to photograph them clearly without blur.  I had to set my old 120 film cameras at 1/200th of a second or more when they ran on a mainline, or secondary mainline.  Their downfall was switching.  I watched them switch sidings and the engineers had to use their side mirrors and look back to see the brakeman's signals.  Also, climbing into the cabs made crews envious of those using GP-7s and other road switchers.  Still, the cigar band F units screamed Santa Fe at its best!  I still miss my old CiroFlex and Zeiss 120 cameras and the old Santa Fe.

[mplsjct]

where did they announce this?...curious...the freight units are single headlight, and the bluebonnets would be double headlight. odd release, if this is true, and would mean that they went ahead and retooled the single headlight-freight pilot-F7 body shell that they said was not useable.
it would be VERY welcome (in fact, it was the one release I kept asking Kato to revisit-the blue Freight scheme)
hope it's true...the posted list doesn't appear to be Kato generated...
~Bruce

How is this shell not useable? I'm positive I have one with the new DCC ready mechanism under it, and I know I purchased a Santa Fe shell because of the single headlight configuration.

[arbomambo]

The old shell is perfectly useable...and can fit over the new mechanisms by using the new side glass inserts...those shells, like the ones I have, are 19 years old...kato reps had stated that no NEW F7s with single headlights have been released ( until this new announcement) because of problems with that old mold....
Even the Kato announcement alludes to this.
Bruce

[Blackout]

I wish it had been ATSF cat whisker scheme.