Hi, I'm very new to model railroading and was thinking of buying the KATO N scale Sante Fe starter set. The other day when I was in my local shop, they had a KATO N scale New York Central locomotive with another car in the box which I liked better than the Santa Fe. I came home and started googling Kato New York Central, but can't find very much info on KATO's New York Central line. KATO doesn't have anything on their website either. Does anyone know if they still make it or if they make cars that go along with the locomotive? Thanks for any info.
Kato seems to manufacturer equipment for western roads such as BNSF, UP, SP and others. The exception being the Pennsylvania RR. All I have that is by Kato is a pair of Conrail GP38-2's I picked up almost 30 years ago and a pair of RDC's for the NYC.
The NYC set that you saw, did it come with track? If it was only two items in the box it sounds more like the RDC's (self-propelled passenger cars) that they did a few years back. I remember them doing Sets some years back with F-units and a few freight cars, but don't remember NYC being one of the roads they did. Try searching "Kato NYC Budd RDC", maybe thats what you saw, they were sold in two packs.
Kato has done E8's and their smooth side passenger sets (one 6 car set and one 4 car set) in NYC but they were many years back.. 10+ years if I am thinking right. The loco's show up at trainshows and Ebay every once in a while but it is rare. I have only seen the car sets on E-bay and when they do show up, the sell for more than their original selling price. If I remember, some of the cars in the set are right for the NYC. I know the observation is a NYC prototype because the NYC sold those cars to the B&O and I have a set because of that car. Your train doesn't have to be made up of Kato stuff exclusively. Intermountain, Walthers, and I believe Rapido have all had recent releases of NYC passenger equipment not to mention Concor and the old Rivarossi heavyweights that are out there.
Kato has done E-8 and PA locomotives in New York Central, plus passenger sets in six and four car versions. The passenger sets would have been done at least 13 years ago, probably more. They have also done RDCs (Rail Diesel Cars). This is all under their own brand. Kato manufactured much more for other brands most notably Con-Cor. There are rumors and/or wishes out there that Kato would do the 20th Century Limited for the NYC the way that they have done the rival Broadway Limited for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Time will tell. Tony (Skipgear): looks like we were both replying at about the same time...
As much as I love Kato's locos, they seem to be quite convinced that the only railroads worth modeling are the western ones. Im amazed the new SD70M and SD80MAC runs are for NS, but Im sure that wont last. Sigh.
The NYCS equipment that Kato has sold, of which I am aware: F-3 A-B-A set. These are the freight F-3s. NYCS did have two sets of passenger F-3s, but no one has ever done them. PA-1 A-B-A set E-8s A-A set (NYCS had no E-8Bs) RS-2 two different road numbers. The numbers are for passenger units, but you must add the s/g details. The grey paint job caused a raging controversy on the ya-HOO! NYC list for a while. USRA heavy mikado-Only the P&LE/P-Mickey had these on the NYCS. They rarely operated on other parts of the NYCS. Six car and four car smoothside passenger sets. As others have mentioned, the E-8s and passenger car sets are difficult to find. When they do show up on FeePay, they fetch a price far above the original list. I sold mine some time back and could not believe what I got for them. I may have omitted an item or two.
Thanks for the responses Hi guys, Thanks for your quick responses to my question. The two pack I saw the other day had a locomotive and a passenger car I believe. They wanted $99 for it. Does that sound like a decent deal considering you can't find these too easily? I'll try to get back up there this week to confirm what model it is. Since I can't find passenger cars from Kato, what manufacturer would you guys recommend that does make them? mrlxhelper suggested several, are there some that are better than others? Thanks again for any info.
With no comment on whether worth it or not, here's a current eBay auction on a Kato PA1/PB1 plus 6 smooth side cars for NYC
I will, highway robbery...... You can get a brand new, mint pair of NYC PA locomotives from a internet retailer for $130. They are not on the trainboard vendor list so I do not think I can name the company. But if you PM me, I can share that info with you. Also if you wait, you can generally pick the passenger sets up for about $100 for the 6 car set. and $50 for the 4 car set.
C'mon, its got "FREE SHIPPING"!!! I did?...If you want a simple something "passenger", Kato RDC's would fit that bill. Come to think of it, there's not a broad selection of manufactures doing a wide variety of good quality passenger stuff. For streamlined cars, Kato has the bases covered (may not be prototype, road specific), Centralia Car Shops has some nice stuff and Walthers new cars are nice too. Between CCS and walthers you might be able to put together a nice train, gotta find the engines though.
