Anyone seen there new announcement? New P42, every light on the engine included, minimum radius 14 in, truck mounted motors, solid weight body, speakers for sound, the whole 9yards. Yes, that's right, i did a triple take too. 14 in radius, truck mounted Folks, before we get the wrong impression from this, i'm not here to talk anout Kato, so much as what this model could mean. I've got some old engiens with truck mounted motors. They thend to be rather junky. Likewaise a lot of the lder Athearn DD models were double motored, and lord help the modeler who's engine fot out of sync. Bachmanns were too, I believe. But this is Kto, and yhere's potential here for everything that we as a modelling society has tried to get away from to work, and work well. A long while back, i'd read about aninfependent company trying to do scale traction motors: z scale motors that, when combined one per axle for 4 or six motors, could pull as well or better than a traditinal counterpart. It would seem, Kato has read that article as well. They're talking one motor per truck, but assuming then that means one each of their highly rated N scale mechanisms applied to an Ho truck, could this engine set the bar for the scale? The amount of room in an engine that could be freed up, ESPECIALLY in a carbody loco is astounding. The oft-touted love hate idea of recharable locomotieves suddenly becomes much more fasable... At least in Diesel. No doubt though, a similar concept could be retrofit to a steamer's geartrain, essentially requiring half the current space in the boiler. Were tht the case, decoders could quickly move out of cramped tenders and make room for the batteries again... Not to mention, Kato seems to believe that by eliminating the gearrods, a pair of motored trucks have much more room to swing. I doubt highly the rating of 14", but they coud get darned close if nothing is attached to the truck but wires and a pivot screw. So, whT are thoughts? I know there's a fine line here about talking about announcements here, but this is more than just another engine announcement. Kato's come so far out of left field they're almost back in rit field. I have no doubt it'll sell, there's a hungry, limited but hungry, market for Amtrak P42s that Walthers keeps teasing along with their releases of Athearn engines. Lights and sounds where Athearn never thought to install them, plus Kato's sterling reputation in its limited Ho and vast N scale releases? They'll sell, even if these engines pull as wrll as the Tyco truck motors. That predate them.but what may this end up meaning for the hobby? http://www.katousa.com/HO/P42/index.html
As a former HO scaler who converted to N six years ago after being frustrated about the whole radius issue in HO, I find this kind of funny to boast the whole 14" radius turning feature of the loco. Certainly the loco can make the curve, but not anything it's pulling! In all honesty though, this is an interesting offering from Kato. Looks like they're trying for a game-changer here.
How true - it is ironic. I'm swearing at my 22" curves as my passenger fleet goes around them with "that look." 14"??? But thinking about the direction Kato is going with this, it seems like a logical progression. The powered trucks of old sucked because they could barely pull a decent size train and often shakily at that. As for running two motors in the same unit - I guess I see your point about problems if out of sync, but I commonly run powered pairs of locos in DC with no issues, even have an old Bachmann switcher that has two powered trucks. Will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere else.
Well, these'll make it at least... But your absolutley right... Jerry, forgot about the little switchers having them. I have one or two old ones that are lame right now, but that may be more realted to age than anything else. Was going more by gripes I'd heard of a LOT of old Athearn and Bach dd40s/35s
I never had any experience with those models, so I can't comment - but won't dispute it either. And I know that although I commonly MU locos on my DC setup, it's not always possible, even with a pair of 'identical' units. What will tell the tale is of this new design will filter down to the lower price ranges. I like the potential of it, with the weight of the motors over the trucks, and the added weight - they should be strong pullers.
I've still got a circle of 12" radius Atlas Snap Track around here somewhere. Then, there's the PennLine mini-diseasemal. http://www.hoseeker.org/pennline/pennlinehistory/early1.html http://www.hoseeker.org/pennline/pennlinehistory/silver.jpg What's the radius of a silver dollar? My Varney F units have truck mounted motors. Some with a driveshaft to the other truck. Work fine. I recall 15" was the "standard", then we went to 18", and I moved along to something else. Now I read you have to have 24" or more. Amazing. Kato has come back to what works, I guess. Problem with later truck mounted motors was they used the cheapest POS units they could find, and folks like Bachmann and Tyco went with those silly pancake motors, with spur gears. Dave
That is some incredible stuff. A silver dollar....amazing. I've often wondered 'what were they thinking?' when it comes to those pancake motors. I remember my first HO layout came with an AHM C-liner, pancake motor driven. Since I only had 4-5 cars to pull, I was happy as a clam. Fast forward to 4 years ago, I found an AHM set still in the box at a flea market. The RS-2 did run...but dang....was THAT what I had so much fun with as a kid? I found a Rivarossi E8 at a train show for cheap last week - it had a truck mounted motor that ran like a jewel (for its age) but sat there and spun its wheels with 5 passenger cars hooked to it. What did this thing pull back in the day?? I put a Athearn 'super weight' on the chassis just to see the result, and it was marginally better - but not much.
I'd adopt a wait-and-see position - it's Kato, so it might just work better than previous attempts to do such a thing. I like the idea of scale "traction motors". All they have to do now is make miniature diesel prime movers. Think about it - no more sound decoder!:teeth:
The mention of truck-mounted motors reminded me of one company's plan to offer "true" HO traction motors. That company is Railflyer Model Prototypes. Their website is www.railflyermodel.com Dieter "I knew something sounded familiar!" Zakas
Interesting website. NWSL offers powered trucks as well as 'traction motors'. Looks like we could build our own Katos.
The RFM approach is an individual motor on each axle, with them controlled by a circuit board. The company's philosophy is that modelers can build a highly realistic model. Dieter Zakas
To be honest, after I received my Kato HO P42, I'm quite fond of it. The Locomotive is a "typical" Kato, quiet and very smooth also a strong puller. I also was afraid of the truck mounted motor problems that I had as kid with Life Like and Bachmann diesels but A single motorized handled 13 freight cars by itself. The truck mounted motors look more like a Z scale motor that has a similar drive that would be found in most modern models in HO, N, and Z. It has more details than the Athearn AMD-103. It includes a GPS dome separate side steps that are flexible unlike Athearn's which tend to break when removing the shell, also it has a lot of under body details, not to mention the side rear grills are separate plastic pieces that are SEE through... It has two Speaker holes in the frame, two 28 mm I believe can be used. However they are NOT DCC ready and CANNOT be ran on DCC under any circumstances (yes even on "00" ) don't try it either. Soundtraxx does have a pdf to make it DCC + Sound http://www.soundtraxx.com/documents/appnotes/kato_p42.pdf Kato also just released a How to on making it DCC + Sound using the original light board. http://katousa.com/HO/P42/maint/DCC-install.html The Kato P42 also is missing warning labels on the roof, which is probably not a huge concern if you can find the decals (if you do, kindly put a link as I couldn't find any) things like Windshield wipers and mirrors are missing also but I'm sure some one has detail parts that can be bought. I Bought #68 and have no problems with it yet I do plan on posting a review on YT when my layout gets cleaned up. I also plan on installing DCC by following Kato's instructions, cause lets face it i'm on a budget and $328 for a Sound equipped version is crazy.... might as well buy a USA Trains GP40.... lol If there are any Questions about one if you are considering one just ask, I love this Locomotive.
Cool, I'm waiting for the TSUnami version, save me some headache. Price is kinda high, but what's the street price on the DC version plus a 100bucks for a sound decoder? Odd, given Kato's fascination with tiny springy detail parts and making our lives a living HELL, I'm surprised the windshield wipers and mirrors are not seperately user applied details like they are on their 45s/70s/80s/90s Here's a question, I want to tie mine to four nbachmann Amfleets, a Walthers Viewliner and a Heri Baggage. The Athearn engiens will move it as long as there's not a grade, but the Bahmann Amfleets are notable for notturnoing their wheels, a;though they work better than the pre-2013 release of Walthers Amfleets (I cannot speak to the quality of their new Metroliner sets, but the old Walthers I had ran like sleds due to that stupid in-line truck, even the newer Walthes one with diaghrams) The Kato engine may be able to pull thirteen freight cars with axle pont trucks, but what about those Bachmann and Walthers trucks that are actually siting on the axle? EDIT: Second question: I spy with my little eye an 8pin socket on top of that circuit board, or am I seeing things? So why in the Blessed Name of Armstrong is Soundtraxx telling us we have to spend 3 FRIKKIN hours soldering in a new decoder when the stupid thing has an NMRA STANDARDIZED plug on it, and a nine-pin plug in the shrink wrap that I can peel back and shove a 9-to-8 converter into in ten minutes? They did this with the Athearn P42s as well, and I called them out on it. Actually got mentioned (and by that, I mean politely told to go play with my crayons in the corner) in one of Soundtraxx's newsletters because I called them out on it.
Having seen one at the LHS and already owning a DC only RTR 42 by Athearn and a new DCC ready RTR by Athearn (well, "Walthers by Athearn"), I wasn't to impressed. The new Athearn shell in my opinion looks better and the new gear assembly is really smooth. Almost too good after seeing the real life veterans Amtrak has rolling around my area. For myself, I can't justify the price difference between the 2.
Ok first off when i said 13 freight cars i didnt mean the entire locomotive.... just the motorized truck pulled 13 freight cars... lol secondly the Kato P42 has no problems pulling 4 older bachmann amfleets ( and we all know how those roll... or sit on a 2% grade with its non existent brakes... ) oh and did mention thats with a horizon fleet cafe car? Yep it sure can... oh wait and a dummy Athearn P42? Its not as strong as a MTH SD70ACe but it gets the job done. Thirdly that IS NOT your typical 8 pin plug.... that is just a place to solder wires for lighting and lastly IMHO the kato's shell is far more superior than the Athearns shell... ( think about it that shell has gone through NO production changes... since it came out ) this truly is a typical kato, quiet and smooth. I'm not trying to bash Athearn, I love their engines... just not the excuse for a P42 they have.... I've gone through them... split gears, fried motor (which is odd) and very unreliable until a decoder is put in them... but Kato is crazy for a $300 price tag. from what i was told by a kato rep though the reason why its $300 is due to the fact it has two motors in it.... therefore like the athearn DD40 it needs two decoders... now if your like me you learn that you can wire the motors in series and only need one decoder. ( i did this with a bachmann o scale p42 to get it to run smoothly on a 80watt controller )
The only big difference I noticed between the new Athearn RTR and the Kato was the side grills. Out side of that they're fairly comparable outside of the price.
They Did not change, I have one from every production run (not the walthers Ph V) but other schemes.... the ONLY thing that changed was the fan grill and some etched metal mirrors. I will be posting pictures of the differences between the two later.
