Kato are doing a Santa Fe 2900 Class Northern using the GS4 mechanism! Only joking.:tb-wink: It's the end of the week where I am, we should hear something soon if it's more than just a rumor.
mad: Nice looking locomotive there, I have 3773 and a couple more and these will probably be all we get for a while. The sad thing is, as I was told by the local train shop, Kato is out of the steam locomotive market for the foreseeable future. So with all of the positive response from the GS-4, I am not sure why they did not follow through on the ATSF Northerns they had talked about once. So we will have to be happy with the brass locomotives for now and the next few years...... As for the rumor about going with the El Capitan, there is only a few things that would make sense. They are the full dome coach and possibly a switching locomotive. The rest of the motive power is out there with the FT. F3, F7 and E7, E8, PA units. Maybe the big surprise will be an Alco S2 smile:
RatonMan, This would be my guess as well and it makes perfect sense. I'm disappointed to hear that Kato is out of the Steam locomotive business...at least for now. Although not perfect... the Kato GS4 4-8-4 mechanism is a much needed improvement over the Bmann, 4-8-4 stoves. We need something better then what's been delivered and some of us old farts have waited long enough. To long in some cases. Hurrumph! The trouble with the Bmann's 4-8-4's is they are over sized and non-pullers and there's little to nothing you can do to improve them. Wait and see!
You see if you are on the Great Northern then you can call it a "Great Dome". The same would be true of the Northern Pacific, you could call it a Northern Dome. Most Santa Fe types / "rails" referred to it as a full dome. Rail fans and model rails soon adapted their own descriptive wording and the futility of verbage to describe something prototypical took on a new garbage dumb meaning. So, in all fairness to your descriptive wording...you are most likely correct. I said with some sarcasm, twinkle in my eye and allowing a chuckle to leak out. wink:
Rick: Richmond Controls has a wiper kit for the tender of the Bachmann 4-8-4. By adding this kit to the tender trucks greatly improves the performance of this steamer.
I actually did the wiper set made by Richmond Controls to the new version of the Bachmann 4-8-4 Northern and it did greatly improve the performance of the loco. (The more electrical pickup on a steam loco the better!). I think I did that conversion in about 15 minutes. It's a pretty easy conversion and it includes the wipers for the tender & two sets of wires with a male & female mini jacks on each so you can connect & disconnect if you ever need to separate the tender from the loco. The newer Northern has a split metal frame which increases the traction force of the loco. I was pulling 9 Rivarrosi heavy weight passengers cars with the northern with no problems. (I built up a C&NW private excursion train.) I can't say for certain how many freight cars the new northern can pull as I never did try it. One thing I did different from the instructions from Richmond Controls was that I didn't slightly pull out the motor brush covers that holds the brushes in place and wrap the wire in the gap and press the brush covers back in. I solder the wires directly onto the metal brush covers. I didn't want to possible cause problems with the brushes by making a gap by place wire between the motor housing and the brush cap. And soldering to the metal brush caps gives a better positive electrical contact.
I don't know about that comment about Kato being out of the steam bussiness for a while? Then run the Mikado's from time to time and just made the GS4. And theirs a lot of different versions that can be done with a GS4 mechanism.
Kato might be only out of the US steam business but not the Japanese, they've recently retooled the C62 4-6-4, the 2009 catalog lists two versions of 2-8-0, a 2-6-4T, a 4-6-2, a 2-8-2 and the 4-6-4, not to mention a HO 2-8-2 on the proposed list. They've got the experience to do more US steam if they wanted to or thought it would be profitable, but I'll settle for something easy like a zebra stripe NW2.
That's not the kind of rumor we want to hear! I like the Alco S2 part of your comment... but... lets hope the first part is not the case. If it is... then expect several years of re-runs of the (1) California Zephyr set 4; (2) Super Chief set 2; (3) Broadway Limited set 2; (4) Empire Builder set 3; Morning Daylight set 2 ... and so on for the next 3 to 4 years. With the exception of the California Zephyr #4... I'd save a lot of money by not buying more passenger sets though.
I really wish it wasn't so as well. But my local shop has always had the straight scoop from Kato. This does not mean they will not make additional 2-8-2's or possibly a few more GS-4's since the tooling is all in place. It means that they are not making anymore steam tooling so anything other than what they have out now, will not happen for several years. Like you say, perhaps we will see more passenger sets, and that isn't such a bad thing if you like passenger sets. I always wondered why they didn't do passenger sets in pairs so you could have a eastbound and a westbound.... So my hopes are pinned on the idea of the full dome cars, but it will probably be a switcher.
The Richmond Controls wiper kit makes all the difference in the world regarding the performance of that steamer.
Rick, I can see the twinkle in your eyes, but for those not in the know: The NP never had any full-lenght domes.. :tb-wink: Cheers Dirk
I think the item is going to be another run of the Super Chief: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?t=111520
Well this fine with me, you need that have a couple of complete trains. With a pair of the Super Chiefs, maybe it will be time for a second set of the SP Daylight trains.
It is a second Super Chief, N Scale Supply and Wig Wag both have the latest Kato releases up. Some will be excited by this, but I'm a little disappointed as the initial rumor mentioned a "new release" and I was hoping for something we didn't already have. I'm not saying you can't have too many Super Chiefs, I bought two of the first release and renumbered/renamed one set, but that zebra stripe NW2 or full length dome would have been nice. No one will be able to complain about a shortage of warbonnet F7's though.
How about another run of the Zephyr plus some WP F units? There was only the one release. Try buying one of those sets, even on thieve-baylaugh:. If anyone knows of one going, let me know! Phil
