New Kato Tease!!!!

[arbomambo]

SDP 40 F

the Kato tweet pretty much says it all....

SDP 40F

[Ngineer]

Btw, whats so horrible about the Athearn FP45/F45?

The paint job! At least on the GN Big Sky Blue model.

Way too thick. The white line is totally blurry, not sharp like on Kato or Atlas models.

But hey, the details are better: thin railings, the orange beacon, the McHenry can easily be exchanged for Accumates.

  Javier

[wcfn100]

I wonder what cars they will release to go with a SDP40F. I'd be interested in an early Empire Builder.


Jason

[sirenwerks]

I wonder what cars they will release to go with a SDP40F. I'd be interested in an early Empire Builder.

Why would they do an EB?  The GN never owned any SDP40Fs. F45s, yes; and SDP40s and SDP45s, but none of the F variants of the latter two.  SDP40s were for the Western Star and saw pooled passenger service on the NP coastal mainline.  The SDP45s and F45s (briefly) were used on the EB but were only available in that gawdawful blue.

[wcfn100]

Why would they do an EB?

Because Amtrak still calls it the EB. 

I would love to get a couple of these engines but I've nothing to go behind them.  I don't have the time to try and piece together a consist out of various four packs or out of production cars.

If Kato put together a decent mid-70s EB consist, I would be all over it.

Jason

[Sokramiketes]

I wonder what cars they will release to go with a SDP40F. I'd be interested in an early Empire Builder.


Jason

Wasn't the early (Amtrak) Builder mostly pulled by ex-SP and GN F units?  These seem likely for an Amtrak Chief, maybe Lonestar?

[wcfn100]

Wasn't the early (Amtrak) Builder mostly pulled by ex-SP and GN F units?  These seem likely for an Amtrak Chief, maybe Lonestar?

I don't know what more likely after the SDP40F started being used, but there are many shots of these pulling the Builder.



I'd also accept a North Coast Hiawatha. 




Jason

[jmlaboda]

I wonder what cars they will release to go with a SDP40F. I'd be interested in an early Empire Builder.

'bout any pre-HEP cars as well as some HEP cars with an HEP generator car.  Amtrak had several and it wouldn't be all that difficult to model one of these unique cars... just a bit of work getting everything together to build it.

[wcfn100]

'bout any pre-HEP cars as well as some HEP cars with an HEP generator car.  Amtrak had several and it wouldn't be all that difficult to model one of these unique cars... just a bit of work getting everything together to build it.

I know what I can do.  I'm wondering what Kato might do.  It would be unusual for them the release an all new passenger locomotive without some sort of passenger car sets to go with it, wouldn't it?

Jason

[Dave V]

Dammit, that's KAH-toe!!!   

[basementcalling]

I'm sure KAH-toE is smart enough to know passenger trains lose money in the USA.

[nkalanaga]

They could do a pretty good early Amtrak Empire Builder just with what they have now.  It really should have GN or NP Budd smoothside dome coaches, which they don't make, but I did occasionally see it with CB&Q domes.  So, they could use the California Zephyr domes, and several of the other CZ cars also appeared. 

Pullmans came from everywhere it seemed, with ex GN, NP, and UP most common.  The UP were usually Pacific series 10-6, but they could probably get away with others.   A pair of SCL cars appeared fairly regularly one summer, so they could stick almost anything they make in there.

Coaches were a real mixed bag, again mostly ex GN and NP, but CB&Q and ATSF weren't uncommon.  They don't have a good GN or NP original coach, but their UP 44-seat works for the GN's second hand 44 seat cars. 

Baggage cars are simple, and they could put GN or NP paint on that easily enough. 

There should be a baggage-dormitory car, but as far as I know NOBODY makes one of those ready to run.

The dining car is a problem, as that was usually GN, and they simply don't make a similar car.  The ex-UP car they make is closer to the NP, so that would work.  I did see, once, a UP diner, so that would be an option.

Observation cars were very rare, but a CB&Q dome-obs showed up occasionally, so would be legitimate.  There should be a GN or NP snack bar/lounge car, which they also don't make.  The big problem is the GN's Great Dome Lounge, which was nearly every train until the Superliners took over.

Of course, any of the GN/NP cars could be done in BN, and the SP&S streamlined dining car "Columbia" showed up on rare occasions.   And, by the time the SDP40Fs came along, Amtrak cars were common, so anything that can legitimately be painted for them can be used.

To do it right would take a new Budd dome coach, meaning new sides for the stainless steel version they make, a new dining car if they don't use the UP car they already have, and preferably a Great Dome Lounge car.  A winter version, especially with severe weather in the plains, could be as few as seven or eight cars, and might not have the dome lounge.  If they redid the late 60s ConCor-Kato passenger cars they'd have the perfect coach and dome, and either of those would sell well in multiple paint schemes.  They already have a good mail-baggage car suitable for the GN, so wouldn't need to redo that, but Amtrak didn't run those, or the GN's observation cars.

[thomasjmdavis]

The upside to an early Amtrak train is that Kato could mix and match every passenger car sitting in old inventory, and be relatively accurate.  Choose baggage cars, coaches and sleepers at random.

[sundowner]

Or they could just re-release the Amtrak phase I El Capitan, maybe with the stripe in the window area, it was odd to release the original run with the short live yellow bonnet F7.

[Kisatchie]

Too much Amtrak... Ahhhhhhhh!


Hmm... I can never have
too much termites...