You Wanted an Official 844 Announcement?

[basementcalling]

I never knew that is what FEF stood for, thought it was just a UP class thing.

Four Eight Four.

Awesome news. Been wondering when Kato would get around to this after they did the Daylight Northern for SP.  A modern passenger train to pull behind it would be nice.

I guess this will tank the prices of the excellent Key brass FEF 4-8-4 that was around 10-12 years ago.

[mmagliaro]

Coreless motor and "innovations"...
I have no interest in a UP engine, but they definitely have my attention.  I can only hope for nice chassis
parts!
I will be really interested to see this coreless motor they use.  I wonder if they will go with a primo motor
like a Maxon or Faulhaber, and I'll be very curious to see how they gear it.

[nkalanaga]

learmoia:  I don't need one either, modeling the BN in central Montana.  But if they can get it to go around sharp curves, it should run that much better on wider curves, and even most "wide" curves in N scale are much sharper than anything the 844 was designed to operate on. 

For UP fans:  What was the sharpest curve the 844 was designed to operate on?  Not the sharpest it could squeeze around, such as turning on a wye, but the sharpest it was intended to pull a train on?  Anyone know?

[peteski]

Coreless motor and "innovations"...
I have no interest in a UP engine, but they definitely have my attention.  I can only hope for nice chassis
parts!
I will be really interested to see this coreless motor they use.  I wonder if they will go with a primo motor
like a Maxon or Faulhaber, and I'll be very curious to see how they gear it.

Maxon?  Neah!  I strongly suspect that they will use the motor from their H0 P42 powered trucks.  Perfect for N scale locos!

[delamaize]

Coreless motor and "innovations"...
I have no interest in a UP engine, but they definitely have my attention.  I can only hope for nice chassis
parts!
I will be really interested to see this coreless motor they use.  I wonder if they will go with a primo motor
like a Maxon or Faulhaber, and I'll be very curious to see how they gear it.

what max said. this will make A4/A5 bashes a lot easier.  I still want to build at least one more....

[robert3985]

I don't need "one" either.  I need about six FEF-3's and another couple of FEF-2's to compliment my brass FEF's.

I'm hoping Kato has the marketing smarts to offer this engine with different smokeboxes, stacks, pilots for an easy FEF-2 conversion as well as easily added/removed separate ash pans for either coal or oil.  I'd also hope for a tender that has parts for either being coal, modern oil or original oil.

The articulated centipede tender so this will run on small Unitrack curves will compromise the authenticity of the tender details.  Hopefully they'll engineer it so it can be easily pinned with no big gap showing when viewed directly from the side.

I'm pretty sure they'll offer a water bottle for the train too, and if they're smart, they'll offer these in several numbers with both black and two-tone gray paint.  Maybe they'll even offer the special cars that are in the UP excursion train consist too. 

This is good news for modern, post-1960 modelers who could easily justify running the excursion train on whatever U.S. road they're modeling, and for those of us who are modeling the UP in the transition era, these will fit perfectly with Athearn Big Boys and Challengers.

I reported on my conversation with the Kato rep at the 2012 World's Greatest Hobby Show in SLC, who told me and several others that this was happening.  The arrival date he stated was the first quarter of 2013, and being a year and a half to two years late isn't great, but I am definitely not complaining!

So HOORAY for an astute move by Kato which will sell both the new engine and accompanying special cars as well as exisiting U.P. cars already in their lineup.

[garethashenden]

well, they certainly have my curiosity.

did I miss when it arrives?

At the top of the poster "2014/2015"

[Flagler]

 

[John]

So, where on the KATOUSA website is this picture?

[sd45elect2000]

Weren't the D&H 4-8-4s and challengers near copies of the UP engines ?

Randy

[learmoia]

.... (NYC Niagara).... Wait a minute, This would be a perfect base for Steamturbine's Niagara Shell.    4-8-4 with matching (semi-correct) tender. 

WOO HOO!!!.. Buying!!!

Worst case.. You could convert it into a Grand Foobie!!..  ~Ian

[Mark5]

Revolutionary design innovations and coreless motor?!  I can't wait!

  Hopefully this means something better than than the GS4 mechanism. 

[Nato]

          "Woo- Woo- Kachoo!"   Nate Goodman (Nato).

[sundowner]

It looks like one of the online pushers has it on there website. Hopefully they didn't jump the shark and ruin it for everyone else.

http://www.nscaledivision.com/frames_page.htm

I want one to go we my 8444 ace.

[Flagler]

I guess the 2nd # engine will be 838