Kato GS-4 - What were they thinking?


MikeOwnby

MikeOwnby

Active Member
I was all set to buy one of the new Daylight GS-4's in N scale, but then found out that Kato really made a pretty (in my opinion) bone-headed mistake in the way they designed the thing. Turns out, you can only put one of their motor-function-only decoders in it, and there's no way to control the lights whatsoever. If there's power to the track, the light is on. In addition, the only "drop in" decoder is their own, which doesn't have the functions and features I'm used to from Digitrax. They made a beautiful model that I'd normally love to have, then engineered it so that it would be a DCC dud. I just. Do. Not. Understand.

Surely the GS-4 isn't so different from the FEF that they couldn't have engineered it the same way, with a decoder in the locomotive. Or even just done what everyone else does and put a few wires between loco and tender so that the decoder actually does what a decoder should do. I wonder (cynic that I am) if it wasn't designed this way specifically to force people to buy those Kato decoders. Maybe they had a surplus laying around?

Sure woulda been nice to hook my Daylight passenger cars to some steam once in a while, but I guess the diesels will have to do until somebody designs a GS-4 that's fully functional.
 
As much as I like their models and their smooth as silk drives, Kato has never been what you would call a pioneer when it comes to integrating DCC with their locomotives. I strongly doubt they are attempting to force anyone to buy their decoders. More likely they wish the whole issue would just go away. Remember the issue with the first run, where the loco would short and blow the decoder? This latest problem is likely the result of a bare bones minimum modification to the tooling to keep costs down. Save up a few extra bucks and get a brass GS if you really want one. They're worth the extra money.
 
Espeefan said:
As much as I like their models and their smooth as silk drives, Kato has never been what you would call a pioneer when it comes to integrating DCC with their locomotives. I strongly doubt they are attempting to force anyone to buy their decoders. More likely they wish the whole issue would just go away. Remember the issue with the first run, where the loco would short and blow the decoder? This latest problem is likely the result of a bare bones minimum modification to the tooling to keep costs down. Save up a few extra bucks and get a brass GS if you really want one. They're worth the extra money.
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You're probably right. You would think they would make more of an effort with the DCC, but oh well. And no, I'm not just dying to have one, but that's kinda the whole point. I've already got a Daylight passenger set pulled by an E7, and it would have been cool to change it out with the GS-4 now and then. I guess for people that REALLY want it, they would probably go ahead and get it and just put up with the lights being stuck on and so forth. For the more casual buyer like myself, the shortcomings prevent a sale. Not sure what percentage that would work out to overall, or whether the absence of "casually interested" sales will really affect the bottom line on this thing.

It's especially frustrating, I guess, because Kato have made some models that are just absolutely brilliant when it comes to DCC and especially the lighting in N-scale. Then you turn around and have this (and a few other things like it), and I've honestly sat there scratching my head and wondering if Kato is actually one company or not. Very inconsistent level of quality and/or ingenuity at least where DCC/lighting is concerned, though I agree with you that their motors and drives do run just about as well as anything you'll ever see in N-scale.
 
Kato seem to farm out their DCC equipped locos to a company called Kobo Shops, whoever they are.
 
tootnkumin said:
Kato seem to farm out their DCC equipped locos to a company called Kobo Shops, whoever they are.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's just a thing where this company does the DCC installs & charges a premium for it, with Kato's blessing, and calling it a "Kobo Shops Exclusive". There's nothing "exclusive" about it; it's just a company doing DCC installs with readily available decoders and marketing themselves in conjunction with Kato. It's always more expensive than just installing a decoder yourself or whatever. If Kato were smart, they'd start *really* integrating DCC at a reasonable price like other manufacturers do, instead of this Kobo thing. If you notice, the markup for a DCC unit from Kato/Kobo is significantly greater than any other "DCC installed" loco from any other manufacturer. At least in N-scale. If not for my preference for Digitrax, I'd buy most other manufacturers' DCC locos, because the price is more or less a wash and you save yourself the trouble. But I do prefer Digitrax and thus usually buy the DC version and convert it myself. I pay about the same as a DCC-equipped model and have to do the labor myself, but I also get to install my preferred brand.

Kato aka Kobo, though, tend to charge you not just for the decoder but also for installing it, and you generally save a bit of money by installing your own, no matter what DCC brand you choose.
 
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