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shell, the prime mover is a five-pole skew-wound motor plus two flywheels and lighting circuitry (off in reverse). The locomotive draws an insignificant amount of amps starting or hauling a three-car train. (The locomotive we test- ed was part of set No. 106-8701, locomo- tive and three cars.) By itself it started and ran smooth at 1.5 volts, and with a train, 1.75 volts. It looked good rolling along at about six volts—much more than that was “fast.” The minimum ra- dius alone or coupled in a train was 11 inches. The engine weighs 4.3 ounces and can pull a prototype length train. The Metra units have a “Gyralite” in


the nose, along with ditch lights, etc., and Kato duplicates this. The LED lights have a nice level, but their color is a bit on the yellow-green side. Installing a DCC decoder should not be a monster task, and a six-function one is available from Train Control Systems. It can be successfully argued that


the modern age of commuter railroad rolling stock began on the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy in May of 1950 when they received the first of their Budd-built, center-door gallery cars. The next big step came a decade later on the Chicago & North Western with the introduction of an engineer’s cab in one end of a gallery car to remotely al- low “push-pull” train control. Today this is common, as are gallery cars, which have a partial upper-level floor on each side of the car accessed by stairways next to the partitions at the platform. While double deck and multi- level car designs are popular in some cities, Metra still prefers gallery cars. The 148-seat CB&Q cars not only set


the architecture for gallery cars, their 85′−0″ length over couplers, 15′-8″


overall height, and 59′-6″ truck centers dimensions spilled over to orders by other railroads placed with Budd and Pullman-Standard. The Kato models match the avail-


able dimensions of the cars Metra pur- chased from Nippon-Sharyo in 2002- 2005, and they stand up well to close comparisons with photos. These cars are really nice! It is no surprise, of course, given what compa- ny is making them. The overall body work, the fluting, window frames, air conditioning fans and underbody de- tails with basic piping are done very well, and the window and door window recesses look right. The molded-on grabs look like stand-alone parts, too! The coaches weigh 1.2 ounces, and


the cab cars (since they have direction- al lighting), 1.3 ounces. The trucks have metal wheelsets with Kato’s ex- cellent contour and flange, and power pick ups, rolling so well that they will move on what looks to be a dead-flat surface. Truck-mounted Kato couplers are installed, and the cab car has a body-mount coupler on the control end. The cab cars have a switch under-


neath to allow the headlights to be turned off for mid-train use, and Kato offers an optional interior lighting kit and two different decoders so you can see the interior details on the cars even better. Note that the headlights, ditch lights and Gyralite on the cab car have an excellent, realistic color. Set 106-8701, a locomotive and three


car set, retails for $185.00. For single car and locomotive prices, and the Vir- ginia Railway Express MP36PH-3C and Nippon-Sharyo cars (just re- leased), see the Kato, U.S.A., website: wwwkatousa.com. —BILL SCHAUMBURG


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