Any chance Kato is hinting at a larger diameter turntable?

[kmcsjr]

I love EVERYTHING about the Unitrack ease of use. Then I measured my steam engines.....

 

 

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[Das Steinkopf]

Given that the turntable can comfortably fit Japanese steam locomotives I can't see them rushing out to make another one.

[Kb4iuj]

If Kato makes anything they should consider those Auto-Max car carriers in N scale. Saw some in the Jackson, MS rail yard... Probably there for the Nissan plant nearby.

 

If Kato ever pondered relocating to another city they'd be wise relocate to New Orleans. As there sat a vacant warehouse fairly close to the train station about a mile or two away, of course in probably dumpy part of town. It's right next to the tracks. But a big huge fence and security cameras. And probably a big brand new air conditioning system from Japan. Well, who knows Air Conditioning Distributor on one side of the warehouse and model trains on the other. Hence, when the A/C goes out it get fixed fast as this location could serve as a R&D testing location.

 

As for that warehouse location, they could put a few webcams up on the roof to checkout all the Amtrak trains with Pullman business cars on the rear. Though, I doubt if they'd ever see the rear end of that Hiwatha Observation car... Unless, they did some sweet talking to a railroad museum. Although, I'll bet there's a few Southern Pacific observation cars / Illinois Central chocolate brown & orange out there.

 

I suspect they ship everything in by container ship. New Orleans probably has one of those. Container ship recieving facility - dockside.

 

Now, imagine a rail spur right up close to the building or one where the railcar comes inside the building.

Especially, if Kato owned their own Pullman. Of course, big sign on the building for everybody on Amtrak to see.

 

They could make a float for Marti Gras, too. (Great way to put their wives to work).

Edited May 10, 2017 by Kb4iuj

[kmcsjr]

I know Kato does most of their business in Japanese models, but they do sell a bunch, when they release US steam. Unitrack is, by far, the best track, for anyone that doesn't care about tie spacing, in US. Just hoping [emoji846]

 

 

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[cteno4]

Unfortunately kato USA is just a small fraction of kato japan in size so it's a much smaller market as far as kato is concerned. Since there are few RTR turntable solutions for the us market it probably would be a big seller, but the unitrak would be a drawback as many us modelers really don't respect unitrak (hear this all the times at train shows with the club layout) even with this case it could be done w.o it mostly. Also it's a pretty fiddly product to design and manufacture so lots of upfront costs and risks of potential support bugs. The Japanese turntable seems to be doing well, not heard any complaints on it functioning.

 

So I would not wait on it if you are hot for a turntable, but the options for a bigger one are going to be some work.

 

Jeff

[kmcsjr]

Jeff

I agree. Every option I've seen involves permanence. Aligning and securing track. The beauty of Unitrack, in it being easily reconfigured, is the only type of turntable I would consider. My layouts are too temporary. Oh well....

 

 

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[cteno4]

Yeah the only other ones more RTR were the euro ones and I'm not sure they are in production anymore. Those had setups similar to the kato one with clip on track leads. But they did have deeper wells that needed a hole... all and all the kato is a good deal for being auto and so easy to set up and use on the table top as well. Just it's built for the Japanese loco sizes, not the American monsters!

 

Jeff

[kmcsjr]

I HAVE HOPE!!!!!!!!!!

Today I saw this

http://www.katousa.com/N/Unitrack/UNITRAM.html

I'm sorry, but interest in US Style UniTram HAS to be lower than regular Unitrack and a reliable turntable. I'm sticking to hope!!!

[Kiha66]

Adding us road markings to unitram just requires changing the printing pads on an existing product though, probably a very cheep change to make.  A larger turntable would be an entirely new product, so would require entirely new molds and production machinery, a more difficult decision to justify to the bean-counters at kato.

[kmcsjr]

[emoji13] a boy can hope! I know it's a long shot.

 

 

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Edited May 11, 2017 by kmcsjr