...along with the water tenders and the tool boxcar. And one of the track inspection cars with the huge rear-facing windows would totally make my day!
If they were to do an excursion train would be nice if the did the Selma ex-WP, exx-UP business car. I'd sacrifice 1 car in the set so I could have a WP #1 Feather River. I had one reserved when Overland announced the Business cars years ago.
Athearn just announced another run of the challenger due in September with the 3985 excursion engine as one of the rd numbers. Now I really hope kato makes the 844 and train too!
I wish Overland would have done all those open platform observation business cars they announced. Those would've sold out in no time, reservations or not.
One of the new releases will be the modern version of the 3985. To go with the rumored Kato excursion train? To me this lends credence to the Kato rumors. I've got the 3985 from the original release. I'm not sure how much difference there is with the modern version, except maybe a coal vs oil tender? I'll have to go dig it out.
Supposedly Kato is doing a new strategy of announcing models and having them released within 3 months or less of announcement. Tooling obviously having been worked on for a good while before the announcement.
The Kato rep at the SLC WGH Show told me that Kato's new policy was to announce and have new models at the dealers in 30 days or less. No more long, advance notices. Cheers! Bob Gilmore
I seriously doubt Athearn is releasing the loco to go with the Kato train, being I doubt Kato and Athearn are working together on this. However the timing of the rumored Kato FEF and Heritage train and the Athearn Challenger do seem like they are working together.
I talked to an Athearn employee and he vehemently confirmed that his company would NOT come out with a UP 844 FEF, citing exorbitant production costs. Kato might be a possibility, considering have released a series of Amtrak P42s in the 40th anniversary scheme, as well as other Amtrak equipment, to commemorate Amtrak's 40th...This year is UP's Sesquicentennial, so I'm QUITE sure they will release SOMETHING as a nod to the UP's 150th anniversary milestone.
http://www.katousa.com/news/News-MARCH12.html This confirms what you were told. Now they only have to confirm the FEF!
They didn't lie about the new model release policy, so that gives me hope they're not BS'ing about the FEF-3 and excursion train! December/January and the first quarter of next year are going to be very nice indeed! Cheers! Bob Gilmore
As posted earlier in the thread.... Why would anyone want and FEF-1 (besides me)??? -N scale FEF-1 castings on a modified GS4 mech and tender frame.
Thanks Otto. I look forward to the day when we can post pics of the ATSF 2-10-2. I need to get back to work on that frame!!!!!
