New Kato Poll

[GhengisKong]

There's lots of stuff in the works.   

At any given point Kato is working a couple of years out on production planning although things tend to change quite a bit.

For the North American market, the 20th Century Limited is certainly coming, but not until 2020 due to the amount of tooling resources available.

There are a bunch of smaller projects in the works also (new, rerun, modified, etc) including one I helped get pushed through that I'm pretty proud of that should have a teaser announcement at NSC I *think*.  (granted, I already expect a few *harrumph* my wallet is safe comments when that gets announced.     )

Aside from that, once I get my new shop up and running after a move, you'll probably see quite a few more Kobo sound offerings in N scale (currently, about half of the available product line is offered with Loksound...I'd like to get that up to ... most of it).

Ah well...back to my corner of the internet.

Enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

Is that project being announced finally going to be the Rocket with TA???

[Missaberoad]

Is that project being announced finally going to be the Rocket with TA???

I would be so happy with that...

[Ngineer]

For the North American market, the 20th Century Limited is certainly coming,

In that case, my wallet is safe for sure.

Not so much if Kato does the North Coast Limited. What do I have to do for them to make it?

   Javier

[peteski]

Not so much if Kato does the North Coast Limited. What do I have to do for them to make it?

Be patient and wait for a very, very long time.   

I had to wait for probably about 10 years for the Rapido Turbo Train.
Even longer for the Kato 20th Century Ltd. (and it is still not the late '30s train with the Dreyfus Hudson, but the later train pulled by Diesels.  But at least, it is close.

I'm still waiting (for I don't even know how many years) for a Boston & Maine Flying Yankee.  Con-Cor came close with their Burlington Zephyr - close but no cigar.  Randy Gordon-Gilmore at ProtoTrains started making the FY, but that project has not progressed much.  Looks like ProtoTrains website is gone, so this is another dead end. 

[Point353]

I'm still waiting (for I don't even know how many years) for a Boston & Maine Flying Yankee.  Con-Cor came close with their Burlington Zephyr - close but no cigar.

Hypothetically, if Con-Cor offered their Pioneer Zephyr model painted up as the Flying Yankee - but with no other changes - would you buy one?

Some years ago, at a train show, I asked Jim Conway if they were going to offer the Pioneer Zephyr painted in a Flying Yankee version and he said they would not.
He mentioned that, while Con-Cor would have done that in years past, the current market had changed so that such a stand-in type model was no longer considered acceptable. 
He also indicated that demand was unlikely to be sufficient to justify producing a prototypically correct model of the Flying Yankee.   

[peteski]

Hypothetically, if Con-Cor offered their Pioneer Zephyr model painted up as the Flying Yankee - but with no other changes - would you buy one?

I would not - I already have a Con-Cor PZ and FY decal set to do this myself.  But I would still like to see the actual FZ made.

Last time I exchanged ideas with Randy at ProtoTrains was in 2012. That's when 3D printing was getting more popular, and he was doing some 3D designs already.  The idea I presented to Randy was to utilize the existing Con-Cor PZ and just design FY shells to fit the mechanism.  That to me would be a viable option.  I even send my Con-Cor PZ to Randy so he could check if that was a feasible idea  He did, but he at that time felt that 3D printing technology was not up to render the shell fluting well enough.  I haven't checked back with him for several years and while I think the 3D printing is now up to the task, Randy's website is gone.

[Ngineer]

Even longer for the Kato 20th Century Ltd. (and it is still not the late '30s train with the Dreyfus Hudson, but the later train pulled by Diesels.  But at least, it is close.

Why is Kato going to offer the NYC 20th Century Ltd.?

AFAIK the PRR Broadway Limited didn't sell well. Why do they assume the 20th Century Ltd. is going to sell better? Market research? Or is NYC a more popular railroad than PRR?

   Javier

[mike_lawyer]

I would be happy to just have the Kato Mikado re-run, or for more Kato steam.

[peteski]

Why is Kato going to offer the NYC 20th Century Ltd.?

AFAIK the PRR Broadway Limited didn't sell well. Why do they assume the 20th Century Ltd. is going to sell better? Market research? Or is NYC a more popular railroad than PRR?

   Javier

IMO, it is a much prettier train.  But I think there were some other reasons that the Broadway Ltd. didn't sell well.  I for one was never interested in it (but I own other "pretty" Kato sets, such as the Morning Daylight.

[Point353]

Why is Kato going to offer the NYC 20th Century Ltd.?

Because they can only re-release the UP, ATSF and CZ passenger trains so many times.

[Mark5]

Personally, aside from hoping for a NP NCL, I would like to see a re-run of the Broadway Limited (I passed on it and now they are unobtanium)

Mark

[High Hood]

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m pretty excited for the Penn Central cars (and hopefully E7) that could come from 20th Century Limited tooling.

[thomasjmdavis]

I think the collector market in Japan (as well as the US) has a lot to do with selection of name trains.  Rather like some Micro-trains cars, I suspect many Kato train sets end up staying in their boxes, or displayed behind glass, rather than run on N scale rails. 

So, the answer to the question "Why a 20th C rather than an NCL" may lie more with the number of collectors who have expressed an interest than with the number of NYC v NP modelers, or the numbers of sets of either that modelers would order.

Although, that still does not explain the lack of a 1937 Budd Super Chief with E1s- cause I gotta think they would sell those by the container-load.

[wcfn100]

In a nut shell, it comes down to name recognition and a unique locomotive that doesn't require a ton of tooling.

This is why on the TA poll, they had the Texas Rocket and also why they haven't made it because the TA has too unique of a drive.

They are willing to tool the passenger cars, but then it comes down to getting the tooling time.

Jason

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Precisely. Kato sells America to Japan.