As I said in my original post. I learned the hard way on how to handle and install the parts. First of all I put a white cotton sheet over my work table so I could easily find any parts that might get away from me. I then used an exacto knife to cut the parts away from the sprue and used a set of surgical tweezers to pick them up with and place them in the holes. The worst parts were those that go down the sides of the shell that the hand rail wire snaps into. The bell is no fun either... The whistle and pop offs however were probably the easiest parts to install.
Yes!
I did have a few of those Mikes when I was doing N scale. Even in HO the Kato details are fussy to install. SLIPPERY engineering plastic takes on a whole new meaning!
You really need to get a good grip onto the part with the right tweezers or forceps. The hole and the mating pin are made to very close tolerances and the part "seats" itself when you get it right.
Kato supplies a few spare parts on the sprue— alas, it is never the part that just went flying into the great beyond
Regards, Ed
I just finished a train running session out in my shop with one of my favorite locos on the head end - the Kato Mikado that nearly drove me nuts when I had to install the tiny little detail parts... If it weren't for the engine being such a fine runner I might have tossed it out the window. Since then I've purchased a second one which went a whole lot smoother because of what I learned from the first one.
Has anyone else out there experienced this loco and its detail parts?.