I just finished writing KATO USA about our complaints regarding the silly Orange & Yellow lighting they are equipping their locomotives with. Hopefully there will be a response although they state they are too busy to respond. I strongly suggest everyone else here write as well. Let them know this is unacceptable and we want them to do it correctly. Lets stand togther. fatalxsunrider43
I agree it's a problem (just not worth quitting N scale over- for me personally). I remember hearing sometime back that Kato was going to correct this-- but more iterations of the SD70ACe have come and gone and from what I know,----- no change yet. Did you send an email?
You betcha I did e-mail. It is so easy to send Kato a quick e-mail. Again, I really suggest for everyone concerned about this issue to drop them a note. There is no impact if just I contact them, but...if they get e-mails from 20 of us, then hey...that makes them take notice. Come on you guys, get those fingers tapping, we CAN overcome this issue if we just put a bit of effort into it...ay ? If youre not willing to e-mail, then do not complain and try to enjoy your Orange/Yellow headlights. fatalxsunrider43
Ya gotta remember that Kato, as well as most other mfr's., are at the Springfield show, so don't expect to hear from them right away.
The smoked yellow pipes are on the ACES only. Now that they have apparently are announcing another release; I would like to know if they are going to change this on this loco. I've emailed them and will let you know when they respond. Brian
I just sent an email to Kato. No more orange lights and hopefully they will offer a clear light pipe for all the locomotives as a retrofit peice. I could use a dozen to fix their experiment gone wrong.
Kato will be at the WGH show in Atlanta in a few weeks. I will be there with my flaming torch and pitchfork to complain about their orange headlights. To make my point, the flame on my torch will be green. Jamie
This is where you guys in the US have the advantage, you can actually talk to the Kato people, well their US reps at least, in person. Get in there and let them know what modelers want.
Well I did something a little different. When I ngot the rude jerking around about the ATSF SD45's, I CC Kato Customer Service to every e-mail I sent to vendors saying cancel all of the Kato preorders and replace them with XXX out of thier current inventory so that the vendor would not lose any income because of Kato's bad behavior. I figured this way, they could see where the funds were be diverted to and how much they were about to lose in sales from me. Based on the numbers of things I had on order, it did get their attention, but only to tell me another sad tale of woe. I didn't believe it then and until Kato does soemthing to correct the screwups, they will not see any more of my cash. In short, I showed them how I voted with my wallet! Maybe some others should try this tack to. Email is usually ignored for the most part at Kato if it come from thier site. I was told that by Dee a long time ago. But it does get looked at if it comes in directly to Customer Service from outside the web page. For what it is worth.....
I sent an email to Kato yesterday about this and already received a response as follows; "Only the SD70ACe and revised SD70M should have tinted light bars, and we have specifically requested of our factory not to make this modification in the future. As for replacement parts, that is more difficult, as we were stocked with parts by the factory on the original product run, which means all of the available parts are tinted." This is a step in the right direction but Kato should also discard their stock of orange light pipes from their parts stock and replace them with clear ones as well.
Bravo !!! You guys are great, you really get in there and stand behind a cause, we are a great group of N scalers that work together for the good of the hobby. Anyone who has not written, should do so. Shark !!!! I have slowed down my Kato purchases, my next possible purchase is the C30-7 ATSF, I wonder what color the lights will be in those, hopefully Gold/White. Anyhooo, I appreciate you guys e-mail Kato and acting as a co-ordinated group. Oh yeah, I will call Matt today and let you know what he says about FVM lights. fatalxsunrider43
I just tried to call Matt at FVM and the answering machine said "memory full"... are they at a show or something ?....normally they answer. I'll try later today and tomorrow. fatalxsunrider43
Talk of orange headlights and the SD45 with it's orange tinted Kodachrome scheme has made me wonder if someone at Kato who OK's models for production has a touch of color blindness.:tb-biggrin: Hope they get someone else to sign off on the red and yellow KSC SD70Ace.:tb-wink:
I bet we could come up with a list of all sorts of stuff we want them to fix on items that have already been produced, we'll probably have to fix those ourselves . , ay ? Let's work on the headlight issue and try to get them to stop using Orange on any future items. If we can arrange to get a "fix it" part from Kato, then we are even that much more ahead of the game. fatalxsunrider43
Hi! Recieved my first SD70ACe today. I was really looking forward to this model of my favorite prototype. The first impression was excellent, but then I put it on the tracks. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh, this lighting is absolutely terrible! The cab light is OK, but the ditch lights look like radioactive lemons! If I saw this thread earlier, I never ordered this loco. I have two older C44-9Ws from Kato with perfect lighting color, so I didn't expect any problem here with the SD70ACe. Well, the loco is already packed for the return to my dealer. I think I will order an AC44CW or ES44AC as a replacement. I did not find anywhere that they have the same problem as the SD70ACes, or do they? And of course I wrote an email to Kato telling them that a just cancelled my preorders for 6 SD70ACe of the June production run. I'd be happy to buy them, but only if they change the lighting. Hopefully they will do it until the June 2011 run. Regards, jpd
Sorry to be such an Amatuer but can some one take a pic of the offending item ? Or a Vid so I can understand what the Error of Kato's ways is ?
If I end up stuck in Atlanta next weekend, I will go to WGH. If not, I will try to get to their setup when they come to Edison NJ. The answer someone got about the factory, sadly sounds plausible. I've been bitten by factory changes in my industry too often. I have a few Japanese commuter type sets and they have yellowish and orangish directional lighting. Since I have no idea on "prototypical", that may be where the color comes from. I think they make a lot more Japanese stuff. They still need to get it right and letting them know we are buying "right" from other manufacturers is a great idea!
Hi, Jamie posted a picture here: TrainBoard.com - View Single Post - Kato CSX SD70ACe - status? In person, it looks even worse IMHO... Regards, jpd
