How has Kato never done The City of New Orleans?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The song came on today and it made me realize that it's almost perfect for them.

I wonder why it hasn't happened.

[u18b]

Not pretty enough?

N info....

http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/IC-city.htm

[davefoxx]

Not pretty enough?

I think it's sharp!  That scheme is also good for IC trains bound for Florida, i.e., the City of Miami.

DFF

[cjm413]

Kato probably considers it to be close enough to their E8's and generic 6 and 4 car passenger car sets in IC paint:

https://www.katousa.com/N/Smoothside/index.html

Stand-in consist here that could use some of the Kato cars instead of the listed stand-ins:

http://www.trainweb.org/fredatsf/IC-city.htm

[Dave V]

Seems like a natural!  They love doing iconic passenger trains.

Then there's the Hooterville Cannonball...

[cjm413]

I think it's sharp!  That scheme is also good for IC trains bound for Florida, i.e., the City of Miami.

DFF

FYI

https://lowellsmith.net/product-category/railsmith/illinois-centrals-city-of-miami/

[Mark5]

I wonder why it hasn't happened.

Ed: http://ttamt.blogspot.com/2008/02/katos-iconic-models.html 

This is probably one of the "undone" trains that I would be interested in (leaving Lowell Smith's piece by piece effort aside).

The ones I would like to see Kato do are:
1) Northern Pacific - North Coast Limited
2) Southern Railway - Crescent (not Crescent Limited)
3) Illinois Central - City of New Orleans

I would love to see them do the N&W Powhatan Arrow, but I'm pretty sure that isn't on their radar.

There are numerous cool trains that Kato could do, but probably won't.

Mark

[delamaize]

Ed, Start to build one, That will guarentee that Kato will do the train, and release it right about the time you finish it.

Ed: http://ttamt.blogspot.com/2008/02/katos-iconic-models.html 

This is probably one of the "undone" trains that I would be interested in (leaving Lowell Smith's piece by piece effort aside).

The ones I would like to see Kato do are:
1) Northern Pacific - North Coast Limited
2) Southern Railway - Crescent (not Crescent Limited)
3) Illinois Central - City of New Orleans

I would love to see them do the N&W Powhatan Arrow, but I'm pretty sure that isn't on their radar.

There are numerous cool trains that Kato could do, but probably won't.

Mark

I'd be willing to bet the NCL will happen sometime soon, Considering I am 2 cars short of having my consist done. I'm missing the dorm/baggage, and I have a stand in for the water baggage at the moment.....

[Point353]

The song came on today and it made me realize that it's almost perfect for them.

I wonder why it hasn't happened.

The story I've heard is that Kato Japan likes trains with "signature" cars, such as the various observation cars in the CZ, COLA, BL and 20th Century Ltd. sets; or
the full-length dome and observation cars in the Hiawatha and CN sets; or the articulated cars in the SP sets.
They also have a soft spot for anything Santa Fe.

Aside from its popularity due to the song, did the City of New Orleans have any particularly distinctive cars in its consist?

[CRL]

Kato probably can’t sing worth a damn.

[wcfn100]

My recent conversations with Kato reps have said  - unique locomotive, some sort of name recognition and how much overall new tooling.

This was basically the formula to how the Texas Rocket made the poll.

Jason

[thomasjmdavis]

The story I've heard is that Kato Japan likes trains with "signature" cars, such as the various observation cars in the CZ, COLA, BL and 20th Century Ltd. sets; or
the full-length dome and observation cars in the Hiawatha and CN sets; or the articulated cars in the SP sets.
They also have a soft spot for anything Santa Fe.

Aside from its popularity due to the song, did the City of New Orleans have any particularly distinctive cars in its consist?

Well, the ideal train then is the Wabash Blue Bird in the mid 50s- 4 out of 7 cars in the train (2 Budd dome coaches, PS dome-parlor-lounge, and Budd parlor-lounge-dome-obs) are signature dome cars. And the other 3 are arguably signature non-dome cars- a coach from the original City of Kansas City consist, and one-off baggage-lounge and diner-lounge.  And the Budd dome coaches are identical (as far as I can tell) to the CBQ cars they already make, except for having the skirting removed and shaped around the trucks.

Which I probably would never buy, because I have a 75% complete kitbash version that resembles (no claim to accuracy), in a fashion, all of those cars, sitting in a box here somewhere waiting on a re-paint of the repaint of the repaint......

[Point353]

Well, the ideal train then is the Wabash Blue Bird in the mid 50s- 4 out of 7 cars in the train (2 Budd dome coaches, PS dome-parlor-lounge, and Budd parlor-lounge-dome-obs) are signature dome cars. And the other 3 are arguably signature non-dome cars- a coach from the original City of Kansas City consist, and one-off baggage-lounge and diner-lounge.  And the Budd dome coaches are identical (as far as I can tell) to the CBQ cars they already make, except for having the skirting removed and shaped around the trucks.

Now that they have an E7 loco tooled up, do you suppose that Kato would release a stand-in version of the Blue Bird with various CZ cars painted for the Wabash?

[Sharky_McSharknose]

My recent conversations with Kato reps have said  - unique locomotive, some sort of name recognition and how much overall new tooling.

I've heard the same thing from Kato reps. One rep also mentioned that in general, models of "north to south lines" like the Illinois Central don't sell very well.

[Point353]

My recent conversations with Kato reps have said  - unique locomotive, some sort of name recognition and how much overall new tooling.
This was basically the formula to how the Texas Rocket made the poll.

How many of the of the other name trains (excepting the SP Daylight and the UP business train with steam engines, and the Silver Streak Zephyr) have had any sort of unique locos?