Kato - New Releases

[bill937ca]

Doug Coster says the Hiroshima 1000 will have:

 

"Each end is a motor and powered bogie, which means no complicated driveshafts through the articulated bodies. Running will also be more reliable and also it can have full interior detail, since it is low floor."

 

Which sounds good.

[cteno4]

Sounds like Kato portram bogies again. Get a spare bogie right away, they sold out very fast last time.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

1 minute ago, cteno4 said:

Sounds like Kato portram bogies again. Get a spare bogie right away, they sold out very fast last time.

 

jeff

 

Dumb question. But how do you do that? I'd need the assy part number to order one. But if I wait until I get mine to read the part number off the sheet, they're already sold out. Any solution?

 

[roadstar_na6]

39 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

[...]

HobbySearch usually has the Assy Parts under the same search term.

Edited July 4, 2020 by roadstar_na6

[gavino200]

11 minutes ago, roadstar_na6 said:

HobbySearch usually has the Assy Parts under the same search term.

 

I just tried that. No joy.

[cteno4]

Yeah chicken and the egg! After maybe a month when I got a portram whe it first came out I tired to get a spare motor bogie and they were already sold out! At the time I wanted one as when I got mine I realized they would be superb to power little mow equipment, but later realized trying to repair the innards one was not easy at all like a regular motor chassis!

 

jeff

[James-SNMB]

Between the Thalys, the possibility of a TGV Sud Est, and now this new tram, looks like next year's budget is already spent! Next I'm sure Kato USA will do another run of the Maxi I cars just to really push things over the top...

 

I've been hopeful for some new Kato trams for sometime. They have the Unitram track system, but it's been a few years since they had any trams available. I would have guessed another run of Portrams/Centrams, but this will do. I'm also hoping for interior lighting, but I'm not sure the kit listed on the HobbySearch description (11-211/11-212) makes sense. Seems like it might be too long to fit and allow articulation, no?

 

I kind of wish the Piccola/Piccolo models were available individually, so I could just pick up one plus the LEX. But I think I prefer the LEX anyway... I'll have to make a decision and get a pre-order in soon.

Edited July 5, 2020 by James-SNMB

[James-SNMB]

On 7/4/2020 at 7:27 PM, James-SNMB said:

Between the Thalys, the possibility of a TGV Sud Est, and now this new tram, looks like next year's budget is already spent! Next I'm sure Kato USA will do another run of the Maxi I cars just to really push things over the top...

 

Aaaaand right on queue:

http://www.katousa.com/news/newsletter/NEWSWIRE-July2020-Announcements.html

[Ochanomizu]

On 7/4/2020 at 8:07 PM, bill937ca said:

Doug Coster says the Hiroshima 1000 will have:

 

"Each end is a motor and powered bogie, which means no complicated driveshafts through the articulated bodies. Running will also be more reliable and also it can have full interior detail, since it is low floor."

 

Which sounds good.

 

Hi Bill,

 

I thought Doug left model railways.  No?

[cteno4]

12 hours ago, Ochanomizu said:

I thought Doug left model railways.  No?

 

No, he just moved to Hong Kong. Still into trains AFAIK. One of our club members is Australian and keeps in touch with Doug. I think he’s active on fb.

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

On 7/15/2020 at 12:53 AM, Ochanomizu said:

 

Hi Bill,

 

I thought Doug left model railways.  No?

Doug is still active and has his own Facebook group.

[Das Steinkopf]

On 15 July 2020 at 2:53 PM, Ochanomizu said:

 

Hi Bill,

 

I thought Doug left model railways.  No?

 

Doug is still active even though he has moved to Hong Kong, he has been toying with building a new layout partly inspired by the Gorre & Daphetid's original track plane but of a Japanese flavour, it will be called the D&R Railway, he wants to have a junction station and will be running 3 to 4 car trains on it with electrics on the lower circuit and diesels on the upper circuit. 

[Ochanomizu]

Hello

 

I bought about $3k of stuff off him before he left Australia.  Probably worth $5k.

[Cat]

On 7/17/2020 at 9:55 AM, Das Steinkopf said:

 

Doug is still active even though he has moved to Hong Kong, he has been toying with building a new layout partly inspired by the Gorre & Daphetid's original track plane but of a Japanese flavour, it will be called the D&R Railway, he wants to have a junction station and will be running 3 to 4 car trains on it with electrics on the lower circuit and diesels on the upper circuit. 

Now that you mention it, the Kurobe Gorge Railway would translate very nicely onto the original G&D track layout!

[cteno4]

On 7/21/2020 at 1:00 AM, Ochanomizu said:

I bought about $3k of stuff off him before he left Australia.  Probably worth $5k.

doug sent me his collection list to see if there was stuff I wanted. I chose a few, but his response was are you crazy those are the ones I want to keep! 😜 it was quite a collection. 
 

jeff

[Ochanomizu]

Ahhh,

 

See?  I was at his house the day he was throwing stuff into a commercial rubbish skip (dumpster) ... and packing up what he wanted to keep.  Trouble is, he couldn't pack everything he wanted to keep ..........

[cteno4]

Yeah trying to exercise control! I let doug do it for me! Probably subconscious I asked about the stuff he wouldn’t sell so I would not be tempted! Yeah right! I just wnt for the jewels I saw! You were the smart one, I should have waited and not been greedy!

 

jeff

[marknewton]

I also paid Doug a visit shortly before he left for HK. He very generously gave me all of his Japanese prototype books and magazines to pass on to the tramway museum reference library. I left his place with the car and box trailer full of plastic storage tubs stuffed with publications. His book and mag collection was just as impressive as his models.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

[Das Steinkopf]

2 hours ago, marknewton said:

I also paid Doug a visit shortly before he left for HK. He very generously gave me all of his Japanese prototype books and magazines to pass on to the tramway museum reference library. I left his place with the car and box trailer full of plastic storage tubs stuffed with publications. His book and mag collection was just as impressive as his models.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

I got back from Japan a few days before he left and went round to see him as he lived in the same suburb as me, he was still frantically trying to find a home for some of the remaining stuff and Mr Ed was going to pick up a swag of buildings he had left, sadly quite a number of Greenmax train kits went into the bin with the vast bulk being Odakyu stock due to running out of time and having no space left to take them with him.

[marknewton]

We joked about me changing scales so I could take some trains off his hands. Maybe I should have.
 

At least you didn't have to travel far to visit Doug. For me it was a cut lunch and compass job coming over from Waterfall. I've worked trains on the branch many times, but I'd never driven over that way before. And the trip back with however many kilos of books and mags on board was equally interesting. The poor old car was just about scraping on the road with the weight.

 

Im very grateful for his generosity in donating his books, but I was sorry to see him go. He's a very interesting character, and good company.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

Edited July 24, 2020 by marknewton

[cteno4]

you could have had an instant conversion with that collection Mark!
 

Good to hear many were able to help with the cleanout and good homes were found for items. Sad some stuff ended up in the hopper but moving usually ends up being that mad dash. I thought i remembered him got a storage locker there to keep some long term, but maybe packed to the gills by then. Not fun downsizing a collection and all of life like that. Glad to hear Mr Ed is still around.

 

yeah doug was one of the main characters there in the early days of Japanese model trains going international. His layouts were the inspiration to many! We had fun working on how to set up a Tomytec vehicle swap data base so we could exchange extra vehicles and then we had the Doh! Moment when we realized the postage to mail them around the world would just not work... but We sound like we are eulogizing him and he’s still kicking! Need to drop him a line.

 

jeff

[Das Steinkopf]

23 hours ago, marknewton said:

We joked about me changing scales so I could take some trains off his hands. Maybe I should have.

He certainly was the persuasive type, I first met Doug and Mr Ed back in 2006 at AMRA when I was running the LEGO Train layout and Setagaya was next to us. We both admired each others work but he would always joke with me about changing scales, wind the clock forward to 2015 and my first trip to Japan he got me to take the bait like a trout going upstream with a fishing fly.

 

 (Doug) You should really buy that Keihan Keishin 800 Series as a memento of your trip, (me) yeah it’s pretty cheap given the $1AUD was ¥97 at the time, (wife) says yeah it’s okay you buy it because it’s small and looks cool, (me) well there’s only two trains I can get. Wind the clock to current day I have a 90 litre storage container which holds about 2/3rds of my stock.

Edited July 25, 2020 by Das Steinkopf

[cteno4]

The “you know you want it” trap!

 

jeff

[Kamome]

 

[Pauljag900]

That tram s a bit nice🥰🥰👍😀