KATO CN 7 car train set nice,but............

[Nato]

             I got to operate my KATO C&N train set along with an A-B F-7 diesel today on the Wasatch N Scale mini layout we had set up today. The complete 7 car car train looks great, even though some of the cars are foobs not really owned by the railroad. I sure wish KATO would offer a 3 car add on set coach, 2 sleepers maybe, to make this a 10 car train. The CN locomotives look wunderbar (wonderful) but....KATO could have used shorter length coupler's for closer connection between two units. Also out of the box the default Locksound horn sounds awful compaired to the default horn on their Locksound equipped Union Pacific E-9 locomotives. Unlike most models when they are turned on parked you have no idling diesel noise which increases with speed as it revs up. Silence is Golden until I started running and discovered button 8 on an N C E  wireless throttle turns on the diesel roar as American Flyer use to call it.I guess I should have read the Locksound "Quick Start Guide" that came with the locomotives. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[altohorn25]

Any easy fix to shorten the coupling distance on those F units is to take out the Kato couplers and install the old Unimates (now Fox Valley) couplers.  I've done that to the units in the photo below (I do this to all my Kato F units).  The pilot is a MT true scale coupler, but the rear of the A and both ends of the B have Unimates.

Only issue is if you want to do any switching with them, but I don't do that with my F units.

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[Jbub]

I'm jealous Nate. I got a picture from the club and saw the Train sitting in the yard. For everyone's info, Nato and I are in the same club. We had a much larger layout planned but due to me having to work (-12 feet) and two other members getting injured a few days before (- a 3 foot  corner section from one and a 6 foot + 2 foot return loop from the other) they were still able to pull it off. I was pretty bummed, I haven't been to a train show since NMRA Salt Lake last summer. And that was just briefly.

[thomasjmdavis]

Just a though Nato.... I don't know if the paint is a close match, but if you want some additional cars, you might try to find some of the Rapido "Panorama" cars made 10ish year ago (with a couple of additional releases).  The caveat is that they have body mounted couplers and mixing them with the Kato truck mounts (I am assuming the current production is equipped with these like my older Katos) can cause some operational issues, as I am sure you know.

The Rapido cars are all models on CN prototypes- coaches, "daynighters" (ie- rebuilt coaches), cafe-bar-lounge (which were also rebuilt coaches), 10-5 "Bay" sleepers, 4-8-4 "E series" sleepers, and a CN baggage car.  They also did some "stand in" Osgood Bradley coaches in CN colors.  Unlikely to find any in hobby shops, but they do show up on eBay and "yard sale" sites or on N Scale Supply's used equipment listings.

That said, if the Kato sets sell well, it would certainly not be unlike them to bring out a 2 or 4 car add on set, as they have done with some other sets in the past.

On the spacing of Kato F units- its been an issue since they first came out in the late 1980s.  The unimates mentioned by altohorn25 are the most common solution. 

[Nato]

                I used some MT conversions on my First Gen KATO F-3 / F-7 locomotives I do not know if this kit is even still available. When the Canadian prototype cars coach and sleeper came out I bi passed this paint scheme in favor of the traditional 1954 era green scheme and other foob US. paint jobs like Union Pacific and Milwaukee. I do not know if the Rapido color would match although the colors would surly be more authentic since Rapido is a Canadian company. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Point353]

I got to operate my KATO C&N train set along with an A-B F-7 diesel today on the Wasatch N Scale mini layout we had set up today. The complete 7 car car train looks great, even though some of the cars are foobs not really owned by the railroad. I sure wish KATO would offer a 3 car add on set coach, 2 sleepers maybe, to make this a 10 car train.

If Kato has no plans to produce an add-on set of cars for a given train, they should announce these passenger sets sufficiently far in advance so that they can take pre-orders for individual extra cars to be made at the same time as the rest of the production run.