Kato - New Releases

[medusa]

To bad I can't give you at least 5 likes for this, Suica....

 

Nevertheless I'm quite happy to see the new ICE will be done by Kato. That's extremely good news!

 

 

EDIT: mixed that up first with the Velaro (BR 407). Maybe can be kitbashed... :D

Edited January 24, 2017 by medusa

[Wonderbolt]

Forgive me if I am wrong here but isnt this arguably Katos second German product after the class 66 which was available in some German liveries? Where they popular with German N gauge modellers at all?

[Suica]

Forgive me if I am wrong here but isnt this arguably Katos second German product after the class 66 which was available in some German liveries? Where they popular with German N gauge modellers at all?

Actually there were quite a few more than that. It started with a Steam Loco in the 80s followed by various SVT137 which were apparently quite successful. Most recently Kato made several local EMUs.

I don't think that the Class 66 you mentioned has been all that popular though. As they are private rail locos they're pretty much niche products.

[railsquid]

It's not Kato's first German product by any means, just the first one with all-wheel pickups. Here are a couple I own...

 

kato-duewag-strassenbahn by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

br175-kato-shop by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[Wonderbolt]

Oh Nice, didn't know the German range was as large, the 66 livery choice did looks as if they would be more specialist intrest now if Kato would get onto the UK N market to...*thinks wishfully.

[HantuBlauLOL]

Unfortunately the German N community doesn't seem to be that overwhelmed because they:

 

a )  don't know the difference between Hobbytrain and Kato (Which are both distributed by Lemke)

b )  prefer unprototypical metal pantographs

c )  generally live in the past

 

d) love expensive trains

[brill27mcb]

What's the difference between an ICE3 and an ICE4?

 

Rich K.

[Kabutoni]

What's the difference between an ICE3 and an ICE4?

 

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_3

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_4_(Deutsche_Bahn)

 

Basically an uglier sibling of the !CE family, but likeable the more you look at it ^^

[serotta1972]

Oh yeah, good thing I saved my money and didn't get the Eurostar with new livery.

[IST]

Oh Nice, didn't know the German range was as large, the 66 livery choice did looks as if they would be more specialist intrest now if Kato would get onto the UK N market to...*thinks wishfully.

 

Kato's Class 66s are different in size compared to the British ones due to the 1:148 vs 1:160 ratio, so they have to redesign their model. Here is a 9 year old picture about it:

 

(Left is Kato, right is Graham Farish)

 

I think Dapol and Graham Farish offers enough Class 66 to the British market, so I'm not sure if it would worth Kato to go the the UK market.

[Wonderbolt]

Kato's Class 66s are different in size compared to the British ones due to the 1:148 vs 1:160 ratio, so they have to redesign their model. Here is a 9 year old picture about it:

 

(Left is Kato, right is Graham Farish)

 

I think Dapol and Graham Farish offers enough Class 66 to the British market, so I'm not sure if it would worth Kato to go the the UK market.

Yep the 66 is covered by Garish and Dapol. But I would love kato to try their had at some other UK 1:148 stuff (not happening I know lol).

 

You can buy sets that include Dapol locos and rolling stock with Kato Unitrack (M1 loop) but they areare commissioned by Gaugemaster.

[railsquid]

The British N gauge market isn't big enough to support another major player, and despite complaints over the last few years there's been pretty good coverage of the post-war era, with gaps being filled in by smaller operations so there's no obvious gap in the market which would make it worth Kato's investment. I do dream sometimes about them acquiring Dapol and bringing the internals up to a consistent standard...

[kvp]

Well... i do see some larger gaps, mainly souhern 3rd rail emu-s of the BR era. Essentially a bunch of similar length and similar shape emu-s that ran in the same era as the JNR in Japan and were kept until a few years ago with a bunch of new paints. (most were based around the standard BR trailer designs) The only real question is the size of the market for them as producing them would cost around the same as 1xx series japanese sets and most internal parts would be reusable from the japanese sets.

 

ps: Imho Tomytec would be more technically prepared to bring out such small series in the train collection category, but they are not really in the business of producing non Japanese trains

[railsquid]

The only real question is the size of the market

 

Quite... The problem with the UK is that apart from the N gauge market being maybe 10~20% of the total model railway market, Southern EMUs were limited to one region of the country and one part of the capital, unlike the JR 101/103s (and variants). From my point of view the major gap is DMUs of classes 115~119 (all very similar, albeit with umpteen minor detail variations), which (outside the SR were much more widespread), but I live in hope...

[medusa]

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_3

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_4_(Deutsche_Bahn)

 

Basically an uglier sibling of the !CE family, but likeable the more you look at it ^^

 

Yeah there is some truth in.... of all ICEs I still like the first ICE 3 most. It's brothers ICE T and Velaro miss some little detail I cannot describe by words.

It may have to do with the fact that the ICE 3 design was done by the same man who also designed the Shinkansen 500. Both have something special.

 

EDIT: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Neumeister (the German wiki entry has photos of the trains he designed)

Edited January 25, 2017 by medusa

[Wonderbolt]

The British N gauge market isn't big enough to support another major player, and despite complaints over the last few years there's been pretty good coverage of the post-war era, with gaps being filled in by smaller operations so there's no obvious gap in the market which would make it worth Kato's investment. I do dream sometimes about them acquiring Dapol and bringing the internals up to a consistent standard...

 

 

Well... i do see some larger gaps, mainly souhern 3rd rail emu-s of the BR era. Essentially a bunch of similar length and similar shape emu-s that ran in the same era as the JNR in Japan and were kept until a few years ago with a bunch of new paints. (most were based around the standard BR trailer designs) The only real question is the size of the market for them as producing them would cost around the same as 1xx series japanese sets and most internal parts would be reusable from the japanese sets.

 

ps: Imho Tomytec would be more technically prepared to bring out such small series in the train collection category, but they are not really in the business of producing non Japanese trains

 

Unfortunately like you say the UK N market (and OO to an extent) are to small to justify Katos mass production.

 

Even with big gaps like kvp says in EMUs.and DMUs but thats not just in N a lot of those gaps are in the more common OO aswell.

 

In an ideal work Kato entering the market bringing their lower prices, larger production runs and better reliability/QC would be the ideal culture shock for Farish/Dapol/DJ models to up their their game and lower prices, and attract more people to N or to the hobby full stop with cheaper prices... but thats not likely to happen and I don't blame Kato for not taking that risk (coupled by the fact Kato is not that well know or popular here). Them buying Dapol would be interesting or maybe Dapol licensing Kato tech for motors.

 

[scotspensioner]

I started my Kato set up partly because of the ever increasing prices of British oo gauge models.N gauge isn't much cheaper e g a Hornby A4 and a Dapol one.

However I have been surprised to find the prices of Kato material are very competitive given the lighting for example which doesn't feature in most cases

It's been a surprise to some of my non railway enthusiast friends and I've felt that a small display of a basic collection such as my own might help to push things along.

Bear in mind ,UK prices are higher than Japanese prices etc tax added ,transport costs distributions TV

Hope this is of interest

[Martijn Meerts]

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_3

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_4_(Deutsche_Bahn)

 

Basically an uglier sibling of the !CE family, but likeable the more you look at it ^^

 

 

I was considering getting the Kato ICE, until I saw the picture of the front ;)

 

Design wise, I prefer the original, never really liked the ICE 3 either.

[Densha]

I was thinking the ICE4 was the BR407 Velaro D, but then I realized that the BR407 is actually categorised under the ICE3 and that the ICE4 (previously called ICx) was this thing...

[westfalen]

I might finally get an ICE even though it is the ugly duckling of the family.  I've always fancied one but was put off by the German manufacturers outlandish pricing.

[kvp]

There might be some prototype issues with the model. There are two types of ice4 sets, short and long ones. They have different power and trailer car arrangements, which means the buffet car is a power car in one set, while the restaurant car is a trailer in the other. The problem seems minor, but the fact that the power cars have outer bearing bogies while the trailers are inner bearing means the difference is clearly visible. Somehow the builders managed to make all possible combinations, except that the baggage/service car has the pantograph(s) and the driving cars are always trailers. This means modellers have to get two different sets to have a short and a long set and it's not possible to build both by adding an extension to a basic set. (Not to mention having different running number classes for the different car types.)

 

ps: from an engineering standpoint, the prototype seems to be a mess, unlike the ice1 or the various tgv-s, so while orginally designed for mix and match operation, even the series 0 shinkansen was more modular...

Edited January 28, 2017 by kvp

[medusa]

I've always fancied one but was put off by the German manufacturers outlandish pricing.

 

I was in the same situation, rejected to pay huge Euros for even a 2nd hand ICE 3 starter set, without interior, without light. One day I bought a really bad condition Minitrix ICE 3 needing serious repairs. But it was cheap enough for me. Done the repairs (mostly shell work) just to find the additional cars have insane prices, too.

At the time the Fleischmann ICE T cars were cheap on Ebay. Bought some and made coupler adaptors. (ICE 3 and T cars are nearly the same design, just the door position differs).

 

I know the result will drive the common German model railroader into a heart attack for all the wrong rivet numbers. But it is fine for me and it didn't cost hundreds of Euros. I love my ICE 3 "Schrotti".

 

So, - if you want one, there will be a way. ;)

[railsquid]

I've got an old Fleischmann ICE power/trailer car set I found on British Ebay cheaply (GBP 30 or something, excellent condition inside a filthy gox) and two coaches I found in Japan, only problem is the power cars are original Bundesbahn livery while the coaches are later DBAG, but who cares :D

[IST]

I have just seen that the Kato's 50th anniversary book was released yesterday.

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10436890

[Suica]

Kato New Releases 06/17

source

 

Nothing for me this time but I'm still hoping for a 883 Blue Sonic re-release this year.