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Post by rockisland652 on Jul 31, 2012 10:58:25 GMT -8
Sneak peek into the National train Show this week... Kato has a new F40PH coming, detailed and painted for Chicago's Metra. The loco has significant tooling changes from the earlier run. These locomotives have been a fixture on all of Metra's lines in and around Chicagoland.  Also, they have a crop of Metra bilevel cars to go with it. They represent the rebuilds that populated the CNW lines, among others.  Not too shabby! Quite nice actually. Modern Chicago Modelers Rejoice!!!!!! Now...about those Budd cars...lol. |
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Post by Christian on Jul 31, 2012 11:47:42 GMT -8
Wow! Something new from Kato in HO! The trucks on the bilevel are particularly nice.
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 31, 2012 11:53:46 GMT -8
I was seriously hoping to see a Budd Bi levels when I opened this thread.  Those F40PH's look really nice though. |
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Post by drolsen on Jul 31, 2012 12:04:53 GMT -8
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Post by sd80macs on Jul 31, 2012 12:35:21 GMT -8
Very Nice. I wonder if they will do Amtrak with Ditch Lights
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Post by rockisland652 on Jul 31, 2012 12:56:14 GMT -8
Dunno about that. The things are everywhere around Chicago. Everywhere...  Everywhere...  ...and now the home version:  |
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Post by dhs12001 on Jul 31, 2012 15:33:00 GMT -8
I was hoping for the budd cars also. While the models look nice, they are a bit to new for my timeframe. I hope the trucks and detail parts will be available seperately.
Dave Street
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2012 16:01:27 GMT -8
Dunno about that. The things are everywhere around Chicago. Everywhere... Actually the photo is taken at the Chicago & Northwestern station, now Union Pacific West, Northwest and North lines. The stations official name is the Ogilvie Transportation Center. Its located at the corner of Canal and Madison Street in Chicago. This photo is taken in Joliet at the Joliet Union Station. The structure in the photo is the interlocking tower which is now on borrowed time. There is going to be a major rebuilding of the track arrangement in Joliet. Back to the picture. The train on the single track is on Metra's Rock Island District. During Rock Island ownership there used to be two tracks. Metra or RTA single tracked the line into Joliet to eliminate two diamonds. The train in the foreground is on Metra's Heritage Corridor. The track is former Alton/Gulf Mobile & Ohio/Illinois Central Gulf/ Chicago, Missouri & Western/Southern Pacific/Union Pacific.....dog gone! It looks like it has just made it final stop southbound at Joliet. Joliet is the terminus for both the Rock Island District and the Heritage Corridor. Amtrak also stops at Joliet with its Lincoln Service (Chicago-St.Louis), Texas Eagle and Southwest Chief. Our trip through Chicago is now finished. ;D |
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Post by onequiknova on Jul 31, 2012 16:34:59 GMT -8
This photo is taken in Joliet at the Joliet Union Station. The structure in the photo is the interlocking tower which is now on borrowed time. There is going to be a major rebuilding of the track arrangement in Joliet. Back to the picture. The train on the single track is on Metra's Rock Island District. During Rock Island ownership there used to be two tracks. Metra or RTA single tracked the line into Joliet to eliminate two diamonds. The train in the foreground is on Metra's Heritage Corridor. The track is former Alton/Gulf Mobile & Ohio/Illinois Central Gulf/ Chicago, Missouri & Western/Southern Pacific/Union Pacific.....dog gone! It looks like it has just made it final stop southbound at Joliet. Joliet is the terminus for both the Rock Island District and the Heritage Corridor. Amtrak also stops at Joliet with its Lincoln Service (Chicago-St.Louis), Texas Eagle and Southwest Chief. Our trip through Chicago is now finished. ;D Not to completely derail this topic, but a couple comments. The Rock Island had three tracks that crossed at Joliet. Two main line tracks and a siding that led to a small storage yard for commuter trains just west of the station. I've seen renderings of the new track alignment at Joliet that shows UD tower being restored and used for what looks like a passenger waiting room. I believe that was designed before the economy tanked. Have those plans changed? |
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Post by nw611 on Jul 31, 2012 23:08:59 GMT -8
When those A/C bulges on cab roofs were added to Metra FP40PHs ? Around 2002 or before? Thanks. Raffaele
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 4:13:38 GMT -8
I've seen renderings of the new track alignment at Joliet that shows UD tower being restored and used for what looks like a passenger waiting room. I believe that was designed before the economy tanked. Have those plans changed? According to the "current" plan of June 2012, the tower is gone and replaced by a waiting room for the Heritage Corridor and Rock Island District. This could change tomorrow too......  Here is a link to the current plans. It appears there is a revision to June's plan already.  www.blackhawknrhs.org/joliet4.htmI think the state has found out it doesn't have the necessary coin to pull it all off. But that is just my personal opinion. |
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Aug 1, 2012 6:44:58 GMT -8
Are the horns supposed to be orange?
And I like how Kato still has problems with the paint. Look around the "bug eyes" and the ditch light housings. Clearly, the red & white paint has trouble wrapping around these details. Heck, in the first shot, one can see blue paint atop the "bug eyes"! That's disappointing right there, especially compared to modern offerings from Atlas, Athearn, et al.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 7:12:58 GMT -8
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Post by riogrande on Aug 1, 2012 9:00:00 GMT -8
If I were a Chicago resident, I'd probably be very happy to see this announcement. As it is, I've been there a number of times in the 80's and 90's since my older sister lived there until a couple years ago. I recall seeing BN painted E8's doing pulling commuter trains back in the 1980's but the last time I was in Chicago, probably around 1996 or so, it was the Metra F40PH's.
It looks like from the photo, the horns are a different color and appear to be orange or tan, its hard to tell. The A/C units appear to also vary from white or light gray to orange. The diesels in the front have white/light gray units, in the back there is one orange and the other white?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 1, 2012 10:14:29 GMT -8
Word of warning about Metra F40PH-2's.....they all have little detailing differences. Its nice that Kato is adding air conditioners, but the twin units don't always point forward. The real 137 is an example of one facing forward and the second rearward. The grab next to the class lights in not on the Kato model. The grab above the plow is missing. Little stuff, but as usual Kato didn't go all the way.
I agree with Paul Cutler about the paint on the sample model. Hopefully Kato will address the sloppy stripping on the nose and detail paint the unit, like painting the HEP plug covers red.
I believe Kato "attempted" to cast Metra red-orange in delrin for the horn. Their effort failed. When new the horns do match the body. I've looked at enough Metra F40PH photos.
Kato's rendition of Metra red-orange is WAY TO ORANGE. I've painted a Metra locomotive and Metra's blue and red-orange fall all over the map. Kato needs to darken the orange with more red. The blue is TOO BRIGHT! It needs some toning down.
The prototype Metra #137 was rebuilt to F40PH-3 specifications in early 2011. The dash three F40's have some major changes compared to the dash 2's.
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Post by riogrande on Aug 1, 2012 12:40:45 GMT -8
As always, use photo's of the prototype to match for details.
It seesm KATO has never consistantly been good with painting - but my eye's have glazed over with most of the wide cab modern diesls they have done in the past 5-6 years.
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Post by atsfan on Aug 2, 2012 16:53:37 GMT -8
GREAT LOOKING ENGINE ;D
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Post by calzephyr on Aug 3, 2012 6:14:40 GMT -8
It is a good looking model and I am glad Kato is making some HO available again. The horns do stand out as needing paint, but they look to be black on the prototype in the picture. Larry |
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Post by rockisland652 on Aug 3, 2012 8:50:06 GMT -8
Everything on the roof of the F40's tends to get filthy in short order.
Those horns may very well be orange under all that soot. Look at the a/c units, they are similarly 'weathered'...
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Post by diburning on Aug 10, 2012 5:30:08 GMT -8
I believe Kato "attempted" to cast Metra red-orange in delrin for the horn. Their effort failed. When new the horns do match the body. I've looked at enough Metra F40PH photos. This is nothing new. The first run of NS SD80MACs had handrails that were more gray than black. The current run of of the NS SD80MAC has the same problem. When Atlas made those Pan Am GP40s, they had the same problem. The pre-production models had the trucks molded in the blue color. The hue of the trucks was slightly off from the body color as could be seen with the naked eye. When a photo of the loco was taken with the flash on, the flash caused the color difference to be more apparent in the photographs. I don't know if they fixed the hue or gave up and simply painted them, but the current production Atlas models do not have this problem. |
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Post by metraupwest on Oct 25, 2012 16:09:09 GMT -8
Has anybody ever tried to match the horns to the color of the roof? The orange just doesn't sem right to me!
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