Kato SD70M Flat Radiator SD70Ms coming Sept/Oct

[EspeeGoldenState]

Kato finally announced a rerun on Twitter this morning!
https://twitter.com/KatoUSAInc/status/1249728463474475009

http://katousa.com/N/SD70M/index.html

Two numbers for NS and UP. I'm also going to assume these are going under the newer chassis the SD70ACe and flared SD70M now share.

Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg for these things. If these sell well, hopefully the do more versions of both UP and NS, and others.

Thank you Kelley if you had a hand in this! @nightmare0331

Chris

[Englewood]

They forgot Southern Pacific!
I'll still buy two of the UP version.

[Steveruger45]

YES, WHERE ARE THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC ONES KATO?

[GaryHinshaw]

Super happy to see the vanilla UP units.  They'll look great on a 3rd class manifest, but they're going to need some serious weathering. 

Now if we can just convince Kato to use this cab on their flared radiator model...

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Wasn't the tooling for these damaged?

[samusi01]

They forgot Southern Pacific!

And the EMD lease units SP had; both the maroon and maroon/silver. Surprised they didn't do 4014 as one of the road numbers; with the upcoming 4-8-8-4 I should've imagined that it'd be a natural choice.

[milw12]

Are those UP bethgons in the promo pic new, or an old release? Definitely in for a UP flat radiator 

Lucas

[nightmare0331]

Kato finally announced a rerun on Twitter this morning!
https://twitter.com/KatoUSAInc/status/1249728463474475009

http://katousa.com/N/SD70M/index.html

Two numbers for NS and UP. I'm also going to assume these are going under the newer chassis the SD70ACe and flared SD70M now share.

Hopefully this is just the tip of the iceberg for these things. If these sell well, hopefully the do more versions of both UP and NS, and others.

Thank you Kelley if you had a hand in this! @nightmare0331

Chris

I believe there are more paint schemes in the works (or...at least there were...I'm a closet SP modeler so I was pushing for that one...I'll have to verify the next time I'm in the office...it's pretty sporadic due to the current situation)

The mechanism may actually be the original type (screw together halves...similar to the C44/AC4400/ES44AC and the same as the flat radiator and first wave of flared radiator SD70M's had)...that whole discussion came up about a month ago and it actually sort of surprised me.

Anywhoo...enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks Kelley.  I actually hope it is the original mechanism.

[ednadolski]

More molded-on grabirons, hoorah!   

Ed

[James Costello]

Well this is a pleasant Easter surprise...

[sundowner]

Finally

[EspeeGoldenState]

They forgot Southern Pacific!
I'll still buy two of the UP version.

I thought the same, though the handrails are wrong for the SP.

I just noticed as I looked at the page again for the item numbers that now the Kobo DCC versions are using Digitrax decoders and no longer using the TCS decoders. I wonder if that's going to be the decoder of choice going forward? It's really too bad ESU hasn't created a LokPilot drop-in board for Kato motors.

Chris

[ryan_wilkerson]

The Digitrax for DCC is interesting (vs TCS which I believe most Kato DCC-equipped locos have been using for the past few years).
Does that tell us anything about which mechanism these will have (original vs revised)?
I really like how smooth and consistent my flat radiator SD70Ms run (original mech). I've been waiting for Union Pacific and glad I didn't have one custom painted. It'll be interesting to see these and subsequent runs.

Gary, I agree, hopefully Kato will put the rounded-edge cab (there's probably a technical name for it) on the flared-radiator style like the UP 3779 through 3970. If they had to do some new tooling for this new release, hopefully it's compatible so we could do it ourselves. BTW, it sounds strange asking for a flared-radiator version considering the market need for flat radiators!
http://rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=4331882

In for more SP when they do them!

[ChristianJDavis1]

Does that tell us anything about which mechanism these will have (original vs revised)?

See:

The mechanism may actually be the original type (screw together halves...similar to the C44/AC4400/ES44AC and the same as the flat radiator and first wave of flared radiator SD70M's had)...that whole discussion came up about a month ago and it actually sort of surprised me.