Kato - New Releases

[railsquid]

If you are in close proximity to one (or a whole group) wallowing in shallow-ish water, especially if there are young E6 calves around, it pays to be careful.

[mashimaro1977]

The Kato 10-474 Super view odoriko are awesome. Plan to get the (Kato 10-821) Narita N'ex E259 serial for my JR East railway collection! Follow members, feel free to give me some information, photos or advice.

[katoftw]

Here is some recent chat about the E259:- http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/9231-e259-narita-express-purchase/

[mashimaro1977]

Thank katoftw. Can give me a link on super view odoriko chat?

[mashimaro1977]

I noticed that the "Glacier Express" had 3 different kinds of design. That will be very costly to collect all 3 different design!

[Kabutoni]

The model train world is getting interesting now with Kato exploring new realms: http://www.katomodels.com/product/poster/files/2015_1.pdf

 

- Tōkyō Metro 10000 Series for the Yūrakuchō and Fukutoshin lines;

- Tōkyō Metro 02 Series with 'Sine Wave' pattern;

- Tōkyū 5050-4000 Series for the Tōyoko line;

- Tōkyō Metro 16000 Series for the Chiyōda line (re-release);

- D51 498 and 12 Series passenger cars;

- JR West 287 Series 4 and 3 car 'Kōnotori'.

 

YES! Kato is going for Tōkyū as its next target! I can't wait what versions of the 5000 Series will be explored! Meguro line, Den'entoshi line, Minato Mirai, Hikarie-gō... Hmmm~ :3

[railsquid]

Cool. And they're all available as 4-car basic sets too (3 for the Marunouchi of course).

[katoftw]

The D51 498 will fly out the door.  MAny have been waiting for something to pull there Orient Express cars along.

[Kabutoni]

Kato has opened up a page concerning the Tōkyū 5050-4000 Series with a bit more details: http://www.katomodels.com/n/tokyu5050/

[JR 500系]

Tokyu 5050 series! Nice price for them too! The Green Max Hikarie one costs a lot more....

 

Guess Kato couldn't stand Tomix's Konotori (rice cooker face) flying off the shelves erh?  

[linkey]

I've pre-ordered 2 D51 498 and pre-ordered the Series 12 JR East version 6-car set to go with one of the D51's while the other will go with the other D51 and the Orient Express.

What has also surprised me that the amount of KATO items that I have got listed as pre-orders have all been delayed the biggest delay is the Koki106 and the Koki200 both were supposed to be re-released in July and then they changed the date to late September now it is due in Early November.

I wonder what is happening with KATO at the moment? 

Edited October 8, 2014 by linkey

[Guest keio6000]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but I just noticed new kato product 東急電鉄5050

 

http://www.katomodels.com/n/tokyu5050/

 

an interesting but perhaps decent choice, as nobody is really satisfied with greenmax pre-built :)

 

i'll personally probably wait for a 5000-series den-en-toshi line example.  i think this should be a nice release in general and reasonably successful. There are surprisingly many liveries they can make from this single mould!

 

 

good job, kato!

[katoftw]

What has also surprised me that the amount of KATO items that I have got listed as pre-orders have all been delayed the biggest delay is the Koki106 and the Koki200 both were supposed to be re-released in July and then they changed the date to late September now it is due in Early November.

 

I wonder what is happening with KATO at the moment? 

The original re release for the 104s, 106s and 200s was actually March '14.  They have just been pushing it further back and back.

 

The 104s came out a few months ago.  I already sold mine on ebay. Still have the 106s to come, which will go straight onto ebay also.  Picked up 22 Tomix kokis since October last year when the KAto stuff first went on pre-order.

 

What is happening at Kato at the momen is the same thing that been happening for the past 2 years.  They have expanded their range but not the factory production.  Guessing factory it too small now.  They need a upgrade.

Edited October 10, 2014 by katoftw

[EF65 1100]

Just in case anybody missed it (I assume that would be nobody, since almost every modeller who models recent JR trains would have been waiting for this for years), if you look at Kato's release schedule and their latest release poster (for February), there's just a small, small piece of happiness: 20-230, 20-231, slated for a November release. Looks like Kato has fixed whatever the cause of the cancelation last year!

 

[The Next Station Is...]

I thought the double track turnouts were gone for good. Let's hope this is just the start of a modern-style turnout range!

 

Also, I'm 100% a fan of the 5050 series, not 50/50 at all :)

[katoftw]

Yes very happy.  Nothing worse than looking at a modern layout with concrete tied double tracks and then slapping in the old wooden tie single tracks.  Especially on Shinkansen lines.

[Fenway Park]

Oh good my wallet can have a rest in 2015 but good news for Ou line fans with the ED78 and EF71

[railsquid]

What I would like to see is a double-slip, it would make for more compact layouts. Tomix seem to have offered one but discontinued it.

[miyakoji]

That EF71/KIHA181 set looks great.  I didn't know that KIHA181s were used in northern Japan.  Were there cold weather variants or are these the same that marched on into the 2000s with JR West (assuming wikipedia is correct, even JR Shikoku had retired theirs by 1993!)

[Sascha]

Kato is releasing a sound box. 

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

Edited November 9, 2014 by Sascha

[katoftw]

Yeah it has been coming for a while.  I think it got stopped at one stage, but clearly coming back now.  I like where Kato are heading.  They seem to be releasing alot of stuff that they have had on the backburner for a while.  Should make customers happy.

 

Their recent release of double track concrete tie crossovers for example prevented me from making a full switch to Tomix tracks for larger range of concrete tie track pieces.

[brill27mcb]

All the pictures of Kato's announced double track concrete tie crossovers seem to show wood sleepers on the turnouts themselves.

 

Amtrak actually had this situation on the Northeast Corridor for a number of years before turnouts with concrete sleepers finally took their place.

 

Rich K.

[Kabutoni]

All the pictures of Kato's announced double track concrete tie crossovers seem to show wood sleepers on the turnouts themselves.

 

These brown ties are actually FFU: http://www.sekisuichemical.com/ffu/synthetic_sleepers.html as discussed before in this thread, even more advanced than concrete.

Edited November 11, 2014 by Toni Babelony

[katoftw]

Yup to add to what toni posted.  Kato also described them as synthetic sleepers.  Which is why they are not chocolate brown like Katos wooden sleepers, but a dark mustard colour instead.

 

Also judging by Kato's release schedule, I'm doubtful these will be release in November.  It's sitting at the bottom of November with no date attached.  So it's more gonna be likely a Dec or later item.

Edited November 11, 2014 by katoftw

[kvp]

Synthetic sleepers are smooth on the surface, like concrete. So it's just a matter of paint color to change between all concrete and composite.