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People get bent out of shape for some reason with reruns not realizing that designing and tooling an entire train (let alone individual car/components) costs significant time and money, which needs to be spread across several runs of cars. The COLA sold out in short time (same with the UP excursion train) so of course that was a logical progression of reruns. (besides, for as much as some people don't want to hear it and think otherwise, UP sells).
This is really cool. I came to this thread to keep up with poll opinions, and instead wound up with a behind the scenes tour of "KOBO works." Nice work. Thanks!I think that's the vocal minority. A lot more of us fully appreciate the business/investment side of things, and are just happy when there is sufficient market demand for Kato to move forward with any new name train project. As others have mentioned, the enthusiastic response to Kato's poll (over 4000 responses in less than a week) has to be an encouraging sign. For every passenger train customer responding to an on-line poll, there must be at least five or ten more who don't know about it or don't bother.
One of the things I have read and do think there is a valid point to on that poll was only one true eastern train which has skewed the results and sort of marginalized some of the other options. Now, we can argue apples to oranges that out of all of the named trains, the Broadway Limited was probably the most lackluster in terms of sales and western trains sell better. This has thrown some bias against wanting to pursue a 20th Century Limited, however, I'm not so convinced that the Broadway Limited moving slowly wasn't a victim of timing. It came out right around the time of the economic collapse in 2008 and quite honestly, I think people were more concerned whether or not they were going to have a job or be able to pay the rent/mortgage then buy a several hundred dollar named train.
I don't have a home layout (I'm a member of a local NTRAK club and frequent friend's layouts), so I can be classified as a model accumulator or collector. My main interests are Boston & Maine and Amtrak, and I also have a decent collection of European railroad models (I like those because I grew up in Europe). However, I also bought several Kato (and other manufacturer's) passenger sets, even though they represent railroads out of my modeling range. I own Kato SP Morning Daylight, California Zephyr, Olympian Hiawatha, both Japanese and European versions of Orient Express, and couple Shinkansen sets. I also own the FVM Hiawatha, and Con-Cor Aerotrain, Pioneer Zephyr, and UP M-10000. I acquired all those sets because to me they are models of either elegant or unusual trains.But I never really seriously considered buying the Kato PRR Broadway set. Why? Because it is a plain looking train. Just a drab brown color set of passenger cars. Not being a PRR fan, it just didn't do much for me.The reason I mentioned my own wants and needs is because I think there are many other model buyers who buy models just because they find them attractive and they also might have had the same opinion about the Broadway set that I did. I suspect that a good number of those train sets is sold to collectors or modelers who don't even model the railroad represented by the train set.
Maybe I should have clarified that with a 'some people.' You are absolutely correct there is a vocal minority.I agree the poll has had enthusiastic response with around 5200 votes and you're probably on the mark with a probable 1 to 10 ratio of people who don't know or don't bother.One of the things I have read and do think there is a valid point to on that poll was only one true eastern train which has skewed the results and sort of marginalized some of the other options. Now, we can argue apples to oranges that out of all of the named trains, the Broadway Limited was probably the most lackluster in terms of sales and western trains sell better. This has thrown some bias against wanting to pursue a 20th Century Limited, however, I'm not so convinced that the Broadway Limited moving slowly wasn't a victim of timing. It came out right around the time of the economic collapse in 2008 and quite honestly, I think people were more concerned whether or not they were going to have a job or be able to pay the rent/mortgage then buy a several hundred dollar named train. Anywhoo...this is just purely speculation on my part. Enjoy!Kelley.www.dufordmodelworks.com
Excellent point about the Broadway Limited Kelley. . . .Your facebook page is outstanding. It's like we have a celebrity here on Railwire! Keep up the outstanding work.
If you want "attractive," I hope you voted for the Loewy NCL, the most beautiful passenger scheme ever applied!That said, I like the conservative schemes like the Broadway limited, but find the Daylight scheme just a bit too "bright." That didn't stop me from buying one of each version.
I agree about the Morning Daylight being a bit bright, but it is still very attractive. The Loewy NCL is attractive, but the 2-tone gray with white pinstripes NYC 20CL just does something for me. Like a person wearing an elegant tuxido.
We have quite a few model railroad manufacturing "celebrities" actively participating here on TRW.
:|Walthers does it better almost. Walthers next train is a 1960's era City Of Los Angeles. Of course first off the bat it is of course HO. Their E-9 locomotives are much more highly detailed and have sound and a working rotary beacon.
And Walthers will also do this train in N scale? With a super-detailed E9 with working rotary beacon? Really?!
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Topic: Another Kato poll..... (Read 10687 times)
