Kato Buisness Cars

[Anonymous]

I was wondering if any of you know what line of cars, ( Athearn RTR, Concor...etc) would the Kato Budd cars match with the best. Since Kato dosnt make any standard cars. BTW-im moddeling HO. Thanks-Ben

[GN-Rick]

My first inclination would be to try the Walthers stainless steel cars.
They were pretty well done. However, since the Kato car is a business
car-(I have the CB&Q one)-you could really get away with running it
behind any streamlined passenger consist. I model the Great Northern
Railway and being that the GN was a 49% owner of the CB&Q, it would
not be unreasonable to see a Burlington business car running behind
the Empire Builder-probably with at least one GN business car as well.
This is just one possible example, other railroads would also host off-
line business cars-after all, railroad executives often travelled to conferences
in many different cities. That's my [2c].

[Anonymous]

The Kato HO Business Car is the best passenger car on the market! It runs beautifully and the detail is exceptional (though most of the details you have to apply yourself, but that's part of the fun, right?). I run mine on the end of a string of heavyweight passenger cars and it still looks good. Also, since real business cars were put on the end of passenger and freight trains, you can get away with running them on anything!

[CP5415]

I usually run mine at the end of my Walthers CPR Budd Cars.
Not much of a colour variation between the two manufacturers & the end lights look amazing.

Gordon

[METRO]

I've got a CP one that I tack on the end of my CP streamlined consist. The train is all Walthers cars, the only difference that there really is visually is different colored trucks.

And I totally agree with 4884, the Kato car is amazing hands down. It's also probably the most free-rolling car on my layout. My girlfriend actually got it for me as a birthday present about a year ago.

~METRO

[Anonymous]

oh my lord, I was just thinking the same thing...Exceopt that I use Santa Fe! I Am thinking of the walthers myself for a few coach cars. But I was wondering if the lighting kits are easy to do. Any experience?

[Anonymous]

The Walthers lighting kits are an absolute doddle to fit. The hardest part is unclipping the roof moulding without damaging it - it's a very good fit! After that you just have to clip the lighting unit in - there are metal power contacts factory-installed at one end that are designed to press against contacts on the light bar. One tip I found useful: put a little conductive grease (I used Vaseline) in the axle bearings, this will improve pickup and reduce the rolling resistance of the car. Hope this helps!

[Anonymous]

Is there any way to put lighting inside the Athearn RTR cars? I have ATSF. Thanks-Ben Also-does anybody know if there is a good website that has photos of BNSF executive trains (not the paint scheme executive) or buisness or company trains? Thanks

[Anonymous]

You can do this, but you'll have to organise your own pickup system. Older releases had wheelsets with one uninsulated metal wheel and one plastic one, the idea being that you would have the metal wheels on opposite sides of the car and then use either a thin brass/nickel silver "wiper" (or a wire wrapped slightly loosely around the axle) to add a pickup. I'd guess that you might be able to kitba***he Walthers kits into these cars so long as you can find some way of adding pickups. Hope this helps!