Kato Custom Shop

[GDorsett]

Has anyone used Kato's in-house customs shop at all for either N or HO?

Do they do a good job?

How does shipping work, since I can't exactly deliver anything myself?

And do they work on a new locomotive that you purchase as part of it or do you mail in a locomotive to be worked on?

Edited July 10, 2018 by GDorsett

[gavino200]

Do you mean Kato Kobo Customs? It's not really a work-to-order setup. They don't just do jobs on request. Rather, they are limited runs of special, niche trains. US Kobo trains are listed at KatoUSA. I don't know where Kato announces their Japanese Kobos. I've owned a few. They are very good quality. They also generally resell well if you take care of them.

[GDorsett]

Specifically, I'm looking at this:

http://www.katomodels.com/custom/service/ho/ef510_500/

Of course, that is for an HO EF510, but I assume the process is similar for N scale. I would check but my crappy connection won't load any of the graphics...

[gavino200]

Now that's interesting. Most of the "customization" seem to involve just putting on the number plates and switching couplers for you. But the DCC conversion is reasonably priced and might be worth it. Japanese locos can sometimes be difficult to convert. 

 

I like this one. Not only will they put a decoder in your C-62 for you, but they'll add a fire-box LED. I'm tempted to buy one of these just to see how Kato does the wiring. (But I'm pretty sure I know how they do it, having puzzled over this model for quite a while). 

 

http://www.katomodels.com/custom/service/n/loco/steam/c62_tokaido/

 

Anyway, I wouldn't worry about quality. If you want it buy it.

Edited July 11, 2018 by gavino200

[GDorsett]

Yeah, I'm not worried about customizing it. Really just want the DCC/sound. I don't trust mt soldering abilities ro do it myself and I have no idea where to find the files to put sound into it...