Re: [CBQ] Kato poll...

["William Hirt" <whirt@fastmail.com>]

I was a little surprised to see Kato polling about this. I spoke at length to someone from Kato about a possible HO scale E5 about 3-4 years ago at the spring meet. It was explained to me it was easier to do in N scale as they already had the mechanism. So the only development was the shell. He told me it was a little difficult sell to Kato Japan for the N scale version because they could only be released in one railroad. The N scale E5 project was gap filler because most of the U.S. allocated development money was allocated to a steam locomotive project at the time. They had already done the passenger cars, so it was not difficult to package it as a set.

He told me he estimated that to bring out a HO E5 they would need to develop both the mechanism and a shell. He then estimated that the retail would be $800. Pretty much a non-starter at that price point he thought compared to where the rest of the market is.

I would think if they do an E5 they would be thinking about doing other E unit shells to help spread the cost of developing the mechanism.

Bill Hirt

On 10/30/2020 6:02 PM, Mike Martin via groups.io wrote:

Unless Kato is able to replicate the stainless steel finish similar to what Walthers and Broadway Limited are capable of I don't know if I'd be interested in either the E5 or the Pioneer Zephyr set from them.  I don't think the demand would be there for a Pioneer Zephyr set either unless people are going to trade up from a Con-Cor set or Nickel Plate Products set.  The sets from Challenger are fairly available on the second hand market and often for only about $600 or so which is less than new.  If I were Kato or another manufacture I'd be looking at the Mark Twain Zephyr set with the idea that you might be able to make the Twin Cities Zephyr set out of the same power car tooling and possibly the passenger car tooling.

The cost of a Kato Pioneer Zephyr is also probably going to be close to the cost of a used Challenger Imports set.  I don't see it costing for less than $600.  If they could get the E5s priced at $600 for an A/B set they could have a winner on their hands.  Again, if they don't get the finish correct it's a non-starter for me.  

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