The Olympian Hiawatha has arrived...

[keeper]

The OH is back in stock at MBK's:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato-N-106-082-Olympian-Hiawatha-Set-p/kat-106082.htm

[u18b]

Is the stock circuit on the Skytop car OK with DCC?

Don't want to burn it out if not.

[peteski]

Is the stock circuit on the Skytop car OK with DCC?

Don't want to burn it out if not.

It is a simple rectifier, resistor and LED circuit. It should be safe in DC and DCC. If you examine the set's box, Kato usually has the voltage specs listed in the fine print.

[OldEastRR]

The OH is back in stock at MBK's:

http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Kato-N-106-082-Olympian-Hiawatha-Set-p/kat-106082.htm

It never went out of stock at BLW. If something is gone at MBK go right to BLW and you'll have a good chance of still getting that thing, at almost the same price (or lower).

PETESKI! Where's that OLy Hi review? 

[peteski]

It never went out of stock at BLW. If something is gone at MBK go right to BLW and you'll have a good chance of still getting that thing, at almost the same price (or lower).

PETESKI! Where's that OLy Hi review? 

I don't have mine yet!  Supposedly I'll get it on Monday. But I'm in the middle of bunch of project and also spend way too much time here . . .
 

[Point353]

Both MBK and Trainworld have extra discount promotions running this weekend.
At both dealers, the regularly discounted price for the 9-car train plus the A-B-A (DC) locos is about $370.
With the extra discount (and before your choice of shipping), MBK's price is $351.50 and Trainworld's price is $345.
For comparison, BLW's regularly discounted price is $390.

[peteski]

Looks like I missed a bargain (and I only bought the A-B set of locos).

[SkipGear]

Ran mine all day Sunday at our N-trak show. The only hitch I had was the observation randomly uncoupling a few times and my quickly installed decoders losing motor connection at the very end of the day. I'm still not a fan of friction contacts under a plastic clip for the motor in the Kato F's.

The table lamp lights are a bit bright but the overall effect was fine in a well lit room. Otherwise the train is beautiful. It's been my first major model railroad purchase in a while and it was fun to run. Besides adding decoders to the A/B set, I also painted the bottoms of the loco frames grimy black. There was just a little too much bright silver showing at the wrong angles.

[Ngineer]

KATO's had those units for a while

http://www.katousa.com/N/accessories.html

Been around since the Zephyr sets.

You're right. The FL12 Tail Light Control Decoder can be installed in a number of observation cars,
including the Broadway Limited, the CoLA, the Silver Streak Zephyr.

   Javier

[Nato]

     I received my KATO OH from FRT today. This post should probably be in one of the other existing OH Threads. First off let me say it is nicely decorated and it and the locomotives are a gem in many respects. Now for my biggest peeve or rivet counter fault with the passenger cars and KATO's passenger cars in general. We all know at least most of us do that real prototype cars with loading doors at one end are open on the end and have an inside bulkhead with a door usually with a window leading into the passenger compartment and the blind end of the car has a door usually with a window almost flush with the car end. Now just to name a couple of examples the Walthers cars (see other threads) are correctly detailed with this nice feature as are cars from IM Centralia and Rapido even has the folding gates modeled in the open position that are used across the car ends when the platform end is at the end of a train. Now getting down to KATO. Their previous passenger car offerings had the platform end open with no interior partition and the blind end with the end door or on cars like diners doors on both blind ends. If Rowa a zillion years ago could put window glass in the windows on end doors on their passenger cars ,then the best models out there, KATO should be able to do this ,but no they never have. Just for kicks if you look through the glass-less end windows on some KATO cars you can get a passengers eve view. The IM passengers cars have glass in their blind end doors, but the glass is left out on inner platform doors so the plastic/cello? tab you pull to activate the lighting battery can stick out. Now for the KATO Hiawatha cars. The coaches, sleepers have no doors on their blind ends. The dining car does, probably if you looked into the open blind end you would see straight into the dining room area. KATO to their credit did put the correct porthole window in this door even if it has no glass. The cars with no end doors at all especially on the blind end look really strange when parked alone on a siding. On a real car if you opened the end door on the blind end (which opens inward ) you would see some type of door framing around the opening. In the change the tail car lighting post the distinctive three windshield wipers for back up movements was mentioned. A sort of visible in some of the pictures in this post and on the KATO model, yes they did their homework the wipers are modeled molded onto the window glass and painted silver. anyone want to try painting the blades black with a number one brush?  Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

merged threads -gfh

[peteski]

I also for the life of me can't figure out why Kato often models the end doors "open".  In 1:1 trains those doors are closed when the cars are not coupled together, and even when the are in a consist and in motion, IIRC the doors are kept closed unless someone is walking between the cars.

Even if the end doors were kept open while in the consist on the 1:1 cars, why depict that in the model? When the cars are coupled, you can't see that since they diaphragms are blocking the view. The only time the doors are visible is when a car is not coupled to another car, and then the door should be closed.

Kato has been doing that for a very long time (IIRC, since the initial release of the American Prototype smoothside cars).

[OldEastRR]

I think the open doors feature is a holdover from the incandescent light kit days. Those bulbs got really hot even on plain DC layouts, and I noticed that the lighting element always is next to the open door on KATO cars. I'm guessing it was for some ventilation of the heat. Now of course they use LED kits so that heat is no longer a problem.  I see they have greatly reduced the mounting brackets size for the LED units on the Oly Hi cars compared to earlier passenger sets. Maybe this is a sign their design department may use the extra room to incorporate inner doors on future passenger cars.

[peteski]

I think the open doors feature is a holdover from the incandescent light kit days. Those bulbs got really hot even on plain DC layouts, and I noticed that the lighting element always is next to the open door on KATO cars. I'm guessing it was for some ventilation of the heat. Now of course they use LED kits so that heat is no longer a problem.  I see they have greatly reduced the mounting brackets size for the LED units on the Oly Hi cars compared to earlier passenger sets. Maybe this is a sign their design department may use the extra room to incorporate inner doors on future passenger cars.

But the end doors are modeled and have been modeled, on all their passenger cars since the initial release of the US-prototype passenger cars (the smoothside  cars), but only on on end.  The coach, sleeper and dome cars have the end door modeled closed one one end and open on the other.  Not sure if the ventilation theory applies here. None of the windows in the modeled end doors have "glass" in them. To me that is not a big deal (and easily fixed if someone cares to), but the open end doors are puzzling to me.

[wcfn100]

But the end doors are modeled and have been modeled, on all their passenger cars since the initial release of the US-prototype passenger cars (the smoothside  cars), but only on on end.

I don't have enough cars to check this, but I would guess the doors are open on the vestibule ends?


Jason

[peteski]

I don't have enough cars to check this, but I would guess the doors are open on the vestibule ends?


Jason

That is correct (on the smooth-side cars I mentioned earlier). So what does that indicate? What that a standard practice on passenger trains?