This may be a dumb question. But I received my BNSF "wedge" SD40-2's today and they have a GE builder's plate of the right side on the short hood down near the walkway. Why is there a GE builder's plate on an EMD loco? Thanks.
JDG, can you take a good closeup of this? It may be an EMD builder plate, just a variation of one. EMD had many styles of builder plates over the years.
Tried to upload a pic but it keeps telling me it's an invalid file. Maybe someone else out there can take a pic and post.
If I am not mistaken , some SD40 were reworked by GE at one point of their life , I remember seeing a picture of the prototype on Railpicture , if it is this is a nice touch from Kato !!! edit : it is not that they were rebuilt by GE but that GE have a contract with these units for maintenance or something like that . Here is BNSF 6806 , we can see the GE logo : Here is another one , the logo is between the flag and the BNSF letters : http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=237066&nseq=5 http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=222358&nseq=100
What's funny - and correct me if I am wrong - #6806 is shown on Locophotos as being a "Snoot" nose where as KATO did it as a standard nose unit.
well, they did it again... %*#@%& man, how difficult can it be to choose the right road number ? what will be the excuse ? let me guess: "well, back then when we did our research for this run BNSF #6806 was NOT a snoot !" (same story as with BNSF #6746 eh ? this engine was in H1 colors when they did their research, well #6746 is still in yellow/blue, see 05/02/2008 http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1173048 ) I don't know...
I guess they just assume that we'll buy it because it's made, regardless of the prototype. I think Kato and most of the other manufacturers under estimate the level of realism that we as consumers and modelers desire. I for one don't usually want to purchase a loco or a car in a version that was never a prototype. This of course includes the paint and roadnumber. There are very few exceptions to this like the Canada series from MT or other special collector series. I think it's a dis-service to modellers in general when a company just slaps a paintscheme on something and calls it "good enough". I'm probally in the minority on this one, so I'll keep my mounth shut.
Are you sure it's a Builders Plate? Without ever having seen the model or the real thing, are you sure it's not just the GE Locotrol decal?
It boils down to poor research and planning. This is an area I can say Atlas is the best in the industry. They research before painting a model, and have actually done some of the best paint jobs in N Scale. How a company like Kato, can make the effort to add something unique like the GE sticker, and then do an incorrect unit number makes no sense. But like has been said, they know it is still going to sell. In todays market though, with more and more manufacturers looking to get our money, the ones that continue to 'get it right' are going to end up on top. The ones that don't, or won't, well, we know what will happen to them. Don't get me wrong, I think Kato does a great job and has given us some of the best models in N Scale. But, overall, I believe my best modeling dollar would have to go to Atlas. They constantly give us more models and paint jobs that are correct and at a decent price. Athearn is another one that has been doing a respectable job, improving with each new model. Just my one cent....too broke to give two.
Well, 1 out of 2 aren't bad.... I'll admit that I didn't do the research before hand and got caught. Looks like I have some renumbering to do on 6806.... BNSF 6752 Brian
Kato is not the only one that puts the wrong road number on a locomotive model, Atlas does it to with CSX's SCL heritage GP40-2 and GP38-2 that have nose headlighs. At least with Kato you get a correct for SF and BN SD40-2.
The upsetting part isn't that they wrong road number was done on that body. The upsetting part is that the right body was available to do that road number.
I spoke with Dee at KATO today and he couldn't believe they put the wrong number on the model. Anyways, he was going to take the info to the correct person at KATO and he was not sure what if anything they were going to do about it at this stage. I did tell him if they decided to swap out shells for modelers, that I would take the wrong number ones and change them out for my fleet. Anyways, just passing on info.
Correct me if I'm wrong but the last I checked GM's EMD and GE are on in the same but for legal reasons are two "seperate" Companies GM Designes the Engines Drive Trains and GE makes all the Electricial components. But than again it's like 3:00am or somthing like that.
