Kato VS Rest

[Scottew7]

I started model railroading last year in HO scale. I bought all kinds of egines and really liked athearn engines. Never had a high dollar egine those that sell for 300 dollars. But now I doing N scale and most of my egines are kato. I have some athean and atlas , but the kato's are by far the best running engines! Athearn run like crap. Atlas are pretty good. I just wish kato could tighten up on the details. I am modeling NS, and BNSF, and it bugs me that the NS SD70M's cab its painted wrong. They are just white above the cab not along the window to the hood. The steps are never painted like atlas and atherarn. But I guess I have to live with it because of the way they run. I want to get a Fox Valley Gevo BSNF but I'm a little scared. Just a my rant about things feel free to comment. COME ON NS modelers you have to feel the same way!

 

[bigB]

I can only comment on HO as I have no experience with N gauge.

Never had a Kato, but everyone who has says they are superb. I would agree with you on Atlas, but disagree with you on Athearn, unless its regarding their Blue Box locomotives. Theyre Genesis and new RTR lines are very good running/pulling and details. Never been a big fan of the Blue Box Athearn growl, but they do have good pulling power.

 

[iomalley]

Kato's paint and details have always been a tad garish, having done so to remain toyish and handleable. Their paint colours tend to be brighter than they should be. Superdetailers and customizers like them as a starting point as they run so well, but they tend to scour for undecs to use for projects. I've owned many Katos, but not one of them has retained their original paint scheme.

Athearn drives have improved over the years, especially the hex-drive stuff of late. Most of their issue is in the sloppy drive components and contact strips.

I would say that Atlas has 'mastered' their game, not to say they haven't dropped the ball from time to time, but their paint, details, running quality is tough to beat. I have a few Atlas pieces that are basically weathered out of the box and put to work...

 

[bigford]

mostly all kato N 3 walthers 2 atlas 1 bachmann

the katos are all smooth runners the walthers are a little loud
and the atlas are all around good

 

[Scottew7]

nice lot of engines bigford, love the NS

 

[Scottew7]

did you custom paint the kato's bigs? What is the one up front to the right?

 

[ChevelleSSguy]

I dissagree with Athearn BB locomotives. Sure they may be a little loud but they do run good and run for a very long time.

 

[bigford]

scott

i painted 4 of the c44-9w's 2 of the gp38's and the 80mac
the 70 will get it's eyebrow soon

oh ya i have all 6 fvm NS gevos on order along with the atlas 8-40cw's
black trains are just HOT!!!

 

[Scottew7]

where did you get the Dash9's? did you buy undecorated one.

 

[bigford]

kato sold NS dash 9 in 2000 or 20001
my newest NS unit

 

[diburning]

I dissagree with Athearn BB locomotives. Sure they may be a little loud but they do run good and run for a very long time.

I don't like how the handrails are attached though. It looks a lot different from the prototype.

 

[bigford]

a few thousand miles and a merger later