Model Railroading > Kato GP35 question.

Is the latest release of the Kato GP35 any good? Is it as good as the original Kato GP35? I own two of the original release and they are wonderful locomotives. If the new release is as good as the original I may buy a couple more. Any opinions about the new one? Thanks.

The new GP35 is better than the old,cuz my BN and ATSF ones have painted handrails and the engine have NMRA decoder plug.
The bad thing for me (!) are the white LED´s, I don´t like em and change to bulbs.
Drive Parts are the same like the older GP35´s.

Hope this helps
regards UM

Yes, they are just as good as the originals. Buy them, you'll love them.

I just disassembled and stripped 2 SPs and they appear to be from the same tooling as the original run, except for the louver change on the battery boxes (which makes them phase 1c). The number boards are now opaque plastic panels like the SD40-2. They do NOT have the brass strip electrical pick-up system like the SD40-2s, which in my opinion was a giant step backward in quality.

The one I have runs good but I cant Stand the white LED's

I had five from the first run that I custom painted
Western Maryland.I bought two more from www.dougshobby.com
at a real good price, and striped the paint off.
They are now High short hood Southern units. They
run just fine with the older units. I was nice to have
the NMRA 8 pin plug in the newer units. The very bright
white L.E.D. had to go. I replaced them with bulbs
All the painted models are for western roads and the
undec's are hard to find. I don't think you will be
disapointed with the new run of GP35's

Bill

In my opinion, Kato's engines just keep getting better and better. They did make a few boo boos with the SD40-2's, but they have been corrected. I do think the need to raise the bar a few notches now that other Mfg's have matched or exceeded Kato's quality. Atlas is a prime example with their latest engine releases. They are fabulious.