Model Railroading > HO Scale KATO Amtrak Superliners!!!!

Kato has announced HO Scale Amtrak Superliners! No details have been given yet, but stay tuned to their website....

http://www.katousa.com


Hopefully some AMD-103's will follow!

Sean

And just what is wrong with the Athearn locomotives and the Walthers Superliners that we have right now? Or is this anything that Kato brings out is great and wonderful and everything else is junk. The several Athearns that I have all run great, I added the detail kit from Details West I think it is, I added the strobe lights and have put decoders in them and I did all this for under $100.00 a locomotive. I am not particularly impressed with the running quality's of the Kato's and when I have been able to compare the same model locomotive from one brand to the other the Athearn paint job was much better. Now on to the cars, while it is nice that Kato is doing these cars but since these cars have already been done it would have been nice if they would do something that has not been done such as the commuter cars that are based on the super liner cars.

Andre

yawnnnnnnn....

Keith Turley

i never said that Athearn's AMD-103's and Walther's Superliners are bad. I have several of both. Actually my entire Amtrak fleet is made up of Walther's Passenger Cars and Athearn Locomotives.

By posting the original info, I just meant that there is a new player in town.

Sean

Amtrk14 Wrote:
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> By posting the original info, I just meant that
> there is a new player in town.
>
> Sean

. . . . playing the same boring game.

--Reaper--

I sure hope they do an F-7 soon .....


TCS - constant reinvention of the wheel still reveals round is good

Agreed. How do they expect to improve upon the Walthers cars that much. Sure there is room for improvement, but not much at all.

Sean,

I guess what aggravates me the most is that there are a whole lot of things that have not been done in the hobby and why can't Kato do something different when we have very good models of the cars already. I apologize for my comment about everything that Kato does is great and every thing else is no good this came out my exasperation of "here we go again, another widget just like that widget". This is the same thing that Walthers has done with the F units, how many manufactures do we need making the same thing. BLI and Walthers have shown that if you do a particular train people will buy it so why can't Kato do something that has not been done. I would like a see one of the Milwaukee Hiawatha’s with a 4-6-4 and I think that a lot of other people would also and this is just one example of something new and different.

Andre

Kato would of been better off doing California Surfliner cars and Amtrak California Bi-Levels. Stick to commuter trains if they want. i have a handfull of the RTA Bi-Levels and the are alot better then the Walthers ones.

mgwsy1978 Wrote:
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> Kato would of been better off doing California
> Surfliner cars and Amtrak California Bi-Levels.
> Stick to commuter trains if they want. i have a
> handfull of the RTA Bi-Levels and the are alot
> better then the Walthers ones.

Yup.. but since Kato is into offering entire TRAINS (when it comes to passenger equipment), the F40s fit nicely with the Superliners. The Surfliners and Cali cars are best known to operate with F59PHIs or DASH8-32BWHs and P42s - none of which Kato have yet..

And yep.. so.. How about it Kato?? Surfliner/Cali Cars and F59PHIs? <grin>
Or.. Surfliner/Cali Cars with P40/42s, if that's the other half of the Superliner announcement..

Cheers,
Harry

Hell, it would be nice if KATO would just step back from the boards a little bit, and make something NEW.

This never ending cycle of models like F-units and SD40-2's (not just KATO) is just ridiculous. A sponge can only hold so much water, and my layout can only hold so many SD40-2's before it looks like an HO-scale version of LTEX.

--Reaper--

Well then how about better Amfleet 1 and 2 cars while we're at it. LOL

Take a look at the cover of the 2008 Walthers catalog:

http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/913-208

Kato's lack of logic when it comes to what people want and what will sell never ceases to amaze me.........Joe

Hmmm, this is going to be interesting!

Terry
Berkeley,CA.

kevink Wrote:
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> Take a look at the cover of the 2008 Walthers
> catalog:
>
> http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/913-208

Yeah but that's next year ....


TCS - how 'bout maybe some corrugated side commuter cars ?

Now that's what I'm talking about!!!

Donnell

mgwsy1978 Wrote:
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> Well then how about better Amfleet 1 and 2 cars
> while we're at it. LOL

sd80mac Wrote:
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> Now that's what I'm talking about!!!
>
> Donnell

When'd you sneak in here D-Man ?


TCS - splitter ordered from precision

Anybody stop to think why Kato is doing some of the wierd stuff in HO? Here is my theory:

I think it has something to do with that HO layout at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. The layout features the former BN line from Chicago to Seattle. That would explain the F40PH's in Amtrak and Chicago RTA paint, Bi-Level Commuter cars painted the same way, BN and CN SD40-2's with ditchlights, and now Amtrak superliners.

I think someone on the inside of the museum is connected with Kato or vice-versa. Now if we could just get them to model the ATSF from Chicago to Richmond, CA we might get some GP39-2's or a decent running GP60/GP60M/GP60B!!!

Kato really needs to hire one of "us" to manage their future HO scale projects. Some of the better visionaries in this hobby frequently post on Trainorders! The manufacturers should also read every word on this forum (and the other discussion forums) and they will never have a doubt about what we want. Trainorder's discussion forums should be a manufacturer's best reference. What more could a manufacturer ask for?

"WHAT'S GOOD FOR TRAINORDERS PARTICIPANTS IS GOOD FOR THE ENTIRE MODEL RAILROADING COMMUNITY."

...A bold statement but I believe it's true. We really have a great bunch on this forum, and they represent every diverse nuance in ideology!

Cheers! MARK