Kato's new pocket line steeple cab

[wcfn100]

I think maybe folks are taking this Japanese model a little too seriously 

They're just not reading the copy close enough.  It's only the paint scheme that's being described as "US Style".

Jason

[up1950s]

Well this turned into an old lady fart in an elevator . Sorry for the false hope .

[peteski]

Well this turned into an old lady fart in an elevator . Sorry for the false hope .

Must have been an old lady - it smelled like roses!   

[CRL]

Yes... that puff of old lady bath powder.  😁

[kiwi_al]

I guess I'm a little put out also. There were no long wheelbase 2 axle steeplcab motors on the Iowa Terminal or any other US electric interurbans. 2 axle motors were usually confined to industrial application and were quite small.

https://www.shapeways.com/product/6VE95B7TS/n-scale-baldwin-westinghouse-steeplecab?optionId=43861989&li=marketplace

I have several of these (above) Baldwin/Westinghouse motors,These are much closer to the actual Iowa Terminal motors. All I need to do is find a good substitute for the Ban Dai drive as they are not available. (Attachment Link)


These are the GE motors I have, they are proving to be VERY difficult to power.

Kato 1105, 1106 1107, Tomytec has a large range. These are like the Bandai for the B train shorty, currently the Kato and Tomytec appear to be in stock at http://www.1999.jp

[u18b]

I "Americanized" mine.  Added horn, smoke stack, A/C unit, and custom decals.  Also added a weight in the cab and DCC decoder.

[nkalanaga]

Interesting.  It actually looks better as a diesel/gas-mechanical than as an electric.  I could see one of yours puttering around a large factory, mine, grain elevator, or wherever one would use a Trackmobile today.

[Kentuckian]

This showed up in the mail today. It can pull at least seven MT hoppers and a caboose around my little layout in the stock version. I plan on using this as a battery powered electric locomotive around Kentucky Electric Steel.

Must resist the temptation to model an industrial micro layout!

[CBQ Fan]

I ordered mine today with a Pennsylvania caboose, both for grins and giggles for the price it will be fun!

[pjm20]

Must resist the temptation to model an industrial micro layout!

Nope: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=52502.0

[up1950s]

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/697495061013088592/

A proto quite close

[randgust]

You'll have to go back to the Wayback machine on the Atlas forum, but remember that I used the original Kato 11-103 chassis to do my Trackmobile 14 years ago.

The problem was that it was really stiff.  But by replacing the 42" wheels with the 27" wheels from a Kato 11-105, and cutting the bejeesus out of the mechanism, I made a very workable Trackmobile.   I never could get it to pick up reliably, so I had to pair it with a four-wheel scale test car as a pickup truck to make it usable.   It's usable.

Now if this thing addressed the two major flaws - needed better slow speed and do something to equalize the pickup, I don't know for the life of me why you are laughing at this.   I'm not.  Mine runs very well but it could be better, probably enough for me to get one of these and see if my body shell can be adapted to it.







Now, this was scratchbuilt.   I'm not doing a kit.  If somebody wants to try this in Shapeways, have at it.   Just do yourself a huge favor and design the shell to fit this drive rather than perfectly scale the shell and try to jam the drive in later.

[Chris333]

The new Kato chassis is completely different, but sorta looks exactly the same. If you take away all the plastic you get this:


The bottom plastic clip holds the 2 frame sides together. Take it off and the thing falls apart. The motor is coreless and tilted at an angle to fit gears around it.

This shows a few shots:
https://tramfabriek.nl/kato-take-a-part.html

The pickup strips pivot in the center and you can rock the chassis all over the place and still have all 4 wheels touch the rails.

[peteski]

Yes, another example of Kato's ingenuity.  One side has the wheels equalized (on a teeter), so all 4 wheels keep positive contact with even very uneven track. The corelelss motor is also a welcome feature.

[up1950s]

Chris does it run like a Deere ? Creepability ? Turnout stallin' ? Powered Burro Crane fodder ?