Kato only produced one run of the SD70M flat radiator version in SP and CSX, I'm not talking about the SD70M phII with flared radiators and squared nose they did in UP & NS. Why haven't they made any reruns or runs in other roads? UP has hundreds of these in the standard lettering with wings and lightning stripe without flag and three with flags as well as #2001 & #2002 Salt Lake Olympic units. Other roads and paint schemes could be offered as well such as EMD lease units, CN, CSX YN2, NS, NYS&W. I've sent many suggestions to Kato but they have yet to run these. I know Athearn made them in many more roads but they never did the UP without the flag in N as they've done in HO and the Athearn model just isn't as good as the Kato. Anybody interested in Kato making these send them a suggest a model on their website.
I love 'em James! I took some pics of these when they were on the UP. Suggestion email fired off to Kato.
I've requested those to be run too. I won't hold my breath for them, but I bet we do see another run within ~2 years. (Just a WAG on my part.) I would buy a handful of vanilla UP units. I've also requested that they do a run of flared units with the cab from the straight units. This is a far more common configuration, at least for UP. I'm less hopeful about that though... However, with some slight mods, it's pretty straightforward to swap cabs from the models. Alas, finding straight radiator shells in stock anywhere is very difficult, so it's mostly academic. -gfh P.S. Great to see those units again James. I forgot how nicely they turned out!
Fortunately, I have enough undecs and parts to do one of the M cabs with flared radiators and two regular flat radiator versions. Can't really model the late 90s / early 00s UP without them. I was going to do some Espee AC44s first, but this thread now has me second guessing that...for now. Nah, I need some SP coal train power ;-) Thanks Gary! I think I had forgotten them too - I need to get out and run them more....
Ahh, my favorite locomotive! Not sure if it looks best in Scarlet & Grey or Red & Silver....but I must say that your leasers look pretty darn sweet James! I was fortunate enough to score a few SP's and undecs. I figured I had pretty much guaranteed that they would release a Santa Fe SD75M version when I painted this one up several years ago, but it's been all quiet on the Kato front:
And not to hijack this thread, but here's some motivation for you James, I've got a couple more undecs that I need to get rolling on also....This is another one that I'm really surprised Kato hasn't done
These are one of my fave loco's to run on my layout. I have two Kato YN3 CSX and one YN2 CSX. I also have the Athearn version of these locos I admit I have a lot of the Athearn locos I have some YN3 CSX without the white cab roof and two YN3's with the white cab roof and two YN2's with the white cab roof. I have to say contrary to negative talk about the Athearn's mine run smooth and quiet and the only thing I don't like about the Athearn's is that they don't have working ditch lights.
Since the first release did not sell very (some are still available) I suspect that Kato has been reluctant to re-issue them. We even had about 6 of the SP renumbered professionally in an effort to hopefully sell some to people that might want more than two. The AC4400's in SP would likely sell very well but convincing Kato to do SP is very difficult. When we have discussed it they said they do not produce the SP light package. Even when it has been pointed out the light package does not apply to the AC's it appeared to fall on deaf ears.
I'd easily buy a dozen SP AC4400's! This is one loco I keep emailing them to produce. I wish Kato would do more SD70's, both flared radiator and non-flared. I'd be in for some UP, too. I only have one flared radiator UP.
Hope your emails go better then mine, I asked to see if they'd do like Atlas and sell their Volvo/Mack tractors in pairs, separate from the trailer/container and basically was told no way, no how.
Unless I am missing something, they're all 'MACs, not Ms. Even the SD70M page, only has the flared NS version, which is on the second run (?) http://www.katousa.com/Zcart/index....78_128&zenid=540ac76d73155cebf9748c6dde4449f4
I've located a couple of Kato SD70M's to repaint into UP but now can't find the decals. Micro-Scale set 60-1103 is what I need and it's out of stock, possibly discontinued and I can't find a shop that has them either.
I've sense acquired a second hand Kato SD70M from a TB member and found a hard to find set of microscale UP SD70M decals for the original lettered units so the project begins as who knows if or when Kato will make them. The shell is now stripped of paint and will soon be detailed, painted and decaled. I'll post some progress photos as I go. Thanks to all who helped me find the loco and decals.
Heres one for sale. http://www.trainboard.com/trainstore/n-scale-purchase-it-now/p4227-csx-sd70m-non-flare234694-tro.html
