So I can’t give a definitive answer but here is what I can tell you about mine. First off both of my kato have dcc installed so I didn’t remove the decoder. The results may be different with a light board. Secondly, my lifelike shells do not have the porthole glazing. My Katos are from a couple of runs back and the lifelike are both Erie.
I ran into a couple of problems fitting the shell. The led from the decoder seems to be in the way of the shell. It does stick out quite a bit from the decoder. Some decoders may not be as long in the led department but it did keep me from doing a direct swap. The other thing I did notice is that the shell felt loose on the chassis. I can’t speak for how they fit lengthwise but it looked like it would be a fit. Mine don’t have the porthole glazing but I’m not sure that it would be a snug fit with them installed. My gut tells me that it would be too tight but I could be wrong. Also as I suspected the fuel tank molding on the lifelike shell would have to be cut off in favor of the kato.
