RE: [CBQ] Silver Streak Zephyr

[Erik Spoonmore <spoony81@att.net>]

As an N scale guy I'm thrilled with what Kato has offered us. After the news yesterday regarding the new Zephyr (mostly the E5) I can't wait to get my hands on this. Walthers on the other hand I feel ignores the N scale world in favor of HO. When I get the Walthers sales flyer in the mail it has maybe 2 pages of N scale products and never anything new. I thank the Atlas, Kato and Intermountains just to name a few for the N scale products they put out.

          Erik

--- On Tue, 8/7/12, Charlie Vlk <cvlk@comcast.net> wrote:

From: Charlie Vlk <cvlk@comcast.net>
Subject: RE: [CBQ] Silver Streak Zephyr
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 9:03 AM

 

Brian-

Having worked for Kato and seen the situation from all sides during my Model Railroad career (manufacturer, wholesale distributor, retail shop, and consumer) I can tell you it isn’t a lack of caring that drives their product mix.

Kato’s HO sales in North America have been a small fraction of what they sell in N for the last twenty years…..especially after the “Kaizaned” RS2 and SD40-2 mechanism redesign  disasters.   I would say that even Model Power outsells Kato, at least at the shops I am familiar with.   The market response to the HO SD80MAC, Business Car, Bilevel Commuter Coaches, F40PH, and SD40/SD38 has not encouraged them to step up their HO production.   N Scalers have voted with their money and won the race.

Charlie Vlk

 

Kato apparently no longer cares about HO, judging by their recent releases.

 

Brian P. Ehni

__._,_.___

Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe

__,_._,___