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I believe that Skoda also built steam locomotives “back in the day”.Charlie Vlk
So, Nate, you aren’t a jerk for ordering parts as long as you are not burying them in the back yard with hopes of cornering the market. That being said, Kato has probably the best organized parts operatiion of its kind with Bachman being as good or better (selling complete decorated bodies). Charlie Vlk
The small Pennsy layout that I have set up in the basement is all code 55, and I don't want them bumping along the main line....
Quite an assortment of front couplers on your units. I take it the lead locos all run with the Tru-Scale couplers forward, and the trailing loco has the large MTL-type couplers for hauling the varnish. I put TruScales on all my lead locos fronts.
I wasn't specifically mad at Nate, but I can see how my post seemed that way. I'm just disappointed at Kato for not stocking the new low-profile wheelests Nate is seeking. As a bit of a hoarder myself I hate to see anybody buying complete trucks, just to extract the wheels and discard the rest. I'm sure there is a fairly limited supply of those trucks, and it saddens me to suspect that some day someone will be looking for a complete truck that could have been available if Nate didn't buy bunch of them, just for the wheelsets. Nothing against you Nate.Kato! @nightmare0331 : We would love to see Kato offering the new (narrow tread. low flange) passenger wheelsets available as a separate item (similar to the old deep-flange ones, part #932040 that are currently available). Maybe you could convince the Kato mothership in Japan to make them available. Kato does sell a variety of wheelsets in Japan - why not one more item for USA?
I used to run Z scale 905's on the front of all my lead units (passenger units that I knew I would not be coupling anything to the front of), but I'm slowly converting most of them to True-Scale couplers. They look better and have the air hose on them (some of which I have to trim a little for clearance).The trailing units usually have a MT N scale coupler or a Unimate (Fox Valley Models) dummy coupler to hook up to their assigned passenger consists.I use Unimates (Fox Valley) almost exclusively between the motive power - nice close coupling on the Kato and Intermountain E and F units.
The MTL True-Scale couplers also work well between “permanently” MU’d power in closing the gaps.
The following is an academic question, since I haven't seen FVM wheels on anyone's shelf for a long time, but here goes....All this conversation about wheels to fit Kato leads me to ask whether the Fox Valley .563 axles would fit? (my recollection is that there were 36" wheels available IIRC), that were made to fit Rivarossi and some Con-cor production from "back in the day". Checking with my handy caliper (which is really cheap and not the last word on measurement), I'm getting close measurements between the 3 wheelsets (Riv., CC, and Kato), but all a couple thousandths light of .563.
Each of the Kato wheels has a metal half-axle. Those are connected together into a wheelset via a plastic axle tube. This results in each wheel/axle combination insulated frjm the other, so they can be used to pick up electricity via the metal axle bearing cups in the sideframes.Most of the aftermarket wheelsets have 1-piece metal axle with only one wheel insulated. Can't use those in Kato trucks for picking up electricity (for car illumination).
The trouble with Kato passenger car replacement wheels is looking for a non metal axels. Because the way the trucks are set up for lights ,metal axels create a short.
Agreed - I've used them in some applications as well (Life-Like FA's for example).
The MU'd Life-Like FAs especially look incredibly good with MTL True-Scale couplers between the units.
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Topic: Weekend Update 8/15/21 (Read 5571 times)
