According to the Kato USA web site, all of the Superliners and MHC's have shipped and should be at the dealers shortly
Shipped but not sold out..... if you need any your dealer can order more..... if his distributor says they are sold out we have more in stock! Warning: Don't look at them if you don't want any....they are really nice!!! (opinion as a fellow N-Scaler, not a Kato employee!!) Charlie Kato USA R&D
Charlie, a special welcome to you from all the Trainboard members. I am eagerly awaiting my superliners that I ordered thruogh 4Nscale hobbies. Of course I will have to wait a little longer than most since mine need to travel a little further. Do these cars have the new Kato couplers I have seen mentioned on other posts?
Sure Charlie, NOW you warn us! My credit card burst into flames when I first saw them on the website!! Seriously, if they are even half as nice as the P42's I'll be happy I ignored the warning! 2slim
It's too late for most of us anyway, we've already seen and/or bought the P42's so we are contractually bound by the "gods of awesome N-scale trains" to buy the MHC's and Superliners!!!
Colonel, Doug and all.... Yes, the Superliners and MHCs have the new Kato Magnetic Coupler...... Sorry to hear about the credit card fire...hope it wasn't in your wallet in your back pocket when it happened!! Repeated the comment in the office and everybody got a chuckle! Charlie
Got all of the Amtrak stuff yesterday.Charlie you guys once again did a heck of a job on the cars and engines.Are you going to be offering the cars in Undec sets?They would look really good in a custom scheme.Also any other paint schemes planned for the loco's?
I got mine today (8 phase IV cars and 2 MTH cars......6 Roadrailers coming, soon I hope) and they are AWESOME! I don't think anyone has any reason to be disapointed in these cars. Seeing how those F59PHI shells are coming out I'm sure others have the same idea I do...... buy a set of the passenger cars, buy the F59PHI and a few weeks/months later emerge with an Amtrak Surfliner or San Juaqin train. Couldn't you just see an F59PHI pushing 4 or 5 Amtrak Surfliner cars down an Ntrak layout (doing 90 scale mph).
Just got my Superliners in the mail today! WOW these will be the standard in modern passenger cars from now on. Con-Cor should just give up. They may be more expensive but well worth the cost. Keep up the good work and Charlie if your listening... How about some Santa Fe Hi-level cars. Bryan
I hope Con-Cor does not give up. I only have four of their cars and will buy more when I have the money. I have no plans to buy the Katos as the Katos cost to much up front. I don't have the money for the Katos and can buy the Con-Cor's one car at a time if I need to. In sort if Con-Cor gives up I will be selling my Kato P42s and my small fleet of superliners on eBay. I like Con-Cor and the other manufactures that can everyone a chance to be in the hobby. Lets face it, without them there would be a lot less modelers.
Sorry if I sounded negative with my comment towards Con-Cor. I have owned many of their products. Price wise buying sets vs sets there is not much difference. I realize that with Con-Cor you get 5 instead of 4. The quality is worth the difference to me. There is a lot of difference. Kato needs to understand that they should be more buyer friendly with their products and offer longer runs. That, to me seems to be the problem. They always sell out and then modelers are left out. Bachman, Con-Cor, and a few others seem to have more runs and keep the product available. I am all for the Con-Cor's and Bachman's of the world I think they have realized that quality is important also (ie Spectrum series etc...) As N-scalers we should appreciate every item we can get our hands on for there was a time that all we could get was junk. Con-Cor please don't give up... just try a little harder and keep up the good work. Bryan
I ran my set of superliners today and they are excellent the only problem is 4 cars behind a P42 just doesnt seem long enough, what should I do buy a mhc car or another set of superliners??? what length do they run in prototype especially on the west coast?
My stuff is all here and looks and runs awesome! Those P42's are so quiet that all I can hear is the superliner wheels gliding on the track. Paul, 4 cars is kind'a short, but I think that happens on occasion...depending on ridership. I think a recent article in Trains showed a train with about 4 cars on one of the major routes in the west. But 7 or 8 cars is more common...which is why I got both sets and 2 P42's. But 2 locos with 8 superliners and 3 MHC's is not totally right either...that amount usually has 3 locos. I guess I'll have to live with it for now! As far as the Con-Cor superliners, I'm sure they will stay around. Remember, the average hobbyist (that does not shop online) will probably never see the Kato stuff at their LHS. Most will be sold out before ever reaching the average LHS, or will be gone in short order. Check the last few years of Walthers catalogs and see how many things we charish even appeared in any of them. Most things were released after the publishing of one catalog and sold out by the next publishing. Many LHS's base their inventories on this catalog. I think Con-Cor's decent offering will hang around on shelves and meet the need of the average hobbyists.
Paul, the lenght of the trains can vary greatly. "Back in the day" the Pioneer and Desert Wind would routinely run with four cars behind one engine while other trains would be pushed over fifteen cars. It all depends on the route and season. As for the use of MHC's, they weren't used widely until a few years ago when Amtrak started hauling freight to save their sorry (Censored). Before that time, I believe, only a few of the western trains had them on only a small segment of their routes (Minneapolis to Chicago comes to mind for some reason). A lot of their use was in the East where shorter distances meant that trains were more compeditive in the hauling of mail.
