Kato's HO scale SD40 Still good for today's railroad modeller? A legend of the rails

[@93greenstrat]

I remember when the Kato SD40 was first released (all the way back in 1990-skmething) it was noteworthy for a couple of reasons. One being that it was the first production plastic model to with an MSRP in excess of $100. Another was for being the only option for a relatively affordable, decent quality (excellent quality actually) SD40. Yes; there was the AHM/Mehani/IHC/Model Power SD40, but that was a toy and would need a lot of work just to make it look good. You could try kitbashing an Athearn or GSB (remember them?) SD40-2, but that' would have been quite the project. Of course if you had the means, you could just buy brass. Going back even further, there was an article in RMC, I believe, on how to kitbash one from an Athearn SDP 40, but the main issue was the hood width as this model was a 60's era model with the wide bodies. The Kato model was not perfect, but they were ahead of Athearn blue box models. This also was an era where models were not manufactured with road specific details.

[@Reaper1770]

I think my biggest grievance with kato is just how expensive they are still. Like for such an old model, its still quite expensive. I think thats my biggest problem with them in general, for some bizarre reason. On ebay kato is priced the same as Athearn genesis. If they were closer in pricing to Athearn RTR, i'd be pretty happy with them. For some reason in nearly 3 decades we haven't really had a defintive SD40 unlike lets say a SD45. I'll still have to try out a proper brass model since these days, its not a bad way to get a good model for a cheaper price if you're willing to put in the work.

[@Reaper1770]

Thinking about it i'd love to see scaletrains make an SD40 or a nice athearn genesis sd40

[@eslade419]

You do know that Kato produced HO scale straight SD40's were produced roughly 15 years ago or so when railroad specific details and factory applied grab irons weren't the thing they have become. Kato doesn't even list the SD40 on the website anymore just the SD40-2 mid.

[@Reaper1770]

Oh i know. I know these aren't brand new kit's and these are quite old. Usually i'm comparing them to things such as the earlier proto 2000 sd45s from the same time period which for some reason hasn't really had the second hand mark up in prices. Where i live kato is pretty expensive on ebay, asking almost 240 to 280 aud and for some strange reason priced almost similar to athearn genesis locos. In australia for an extra 20 to 30 bucks you could get a genesis SD40M-2. The kato locos are very good but do fall behind in alot of ways to the proto 2000 as an overall package today. The proto 2000s i have such as the sd7 and the sd45 do have better detail and factory applied grab irons and ladders. Prehaps i was a bit too harsh in the video but overall its like a thing that really bugs me about the CP rail SD40

[@Reaper1770]

Hey thank you for the feedback though. I do appreciate it. Though it had made me realise that there isn't alot of SD40s on the market for such a popular model