Train Layout Video #14 - Unboxing Kato Olympian Hiawatha

[@w.k.hartman8904]

i have mine Milwaukee Road Olympian Hiawatha for Kato and i love it but i just have freight cars. but awesome set you got there.

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

Thanks, I love it also.

[@christopherhigbee]

That is one of the nicest sets from Kato. I had a hard time choosing between that and the Canadian national one. Thanks for sharing. 🤙

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

Thanks. I think my next one to work on is going to be the SP Morning Daylight, but I keep looking at the NYC 20th Century Limited too. I wish they would do a reissue on the PRR Broadway Limited, I would jump on that quickly.

[@stecki5362]

That is a beautiful train, even if i am 2 years late to the party here.

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

I agree, it is a beautiful train. But you are never too late for our party. We keep these up forever (or at least as long as KZbin lets us).

[@photosbyjf]

glad to hear Dibbles is still there I left SA in 2012. I was going thru my train stuff and recording all my rolling stock and found several jewel boxes from Dibbles

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

Cool. They are still there and are very helpful. I doubt I would be enjoying trains anywhere near as much as this without them.

[@WilliamsSecondfilmstudios]

Beautiful set! Must be expensive

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

It is beautiful. Expensive is a personal judgment question based on value. With all 3 engines set up for DCC and lights for the passenger cars, it could cost $1,000 or more, but you can lower that cost significantly if you use analog DC instead of DCC, leave the cars unlighted, or not use as many locomotives or the expansion set of cars. With a couple hundred hours of use out of it, the cost drops to only a few dollars per hour, so not expensive to me. Now, my wife on the other hand...

[@caldwell205]

Glad to see some new content. Things are looking great.

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

Thanks, we are trying to expand and will show more. Working on some first person views and some showing off the collection in groups, like all passenger trains or all excursion trains. Plus we keep looking at more trains. Southern Pacific Morning Daylight is probably next if I can find it complete.

[@stevehughes5403]

I bought this set with the 3 Locomotives a few months back. It won't fit on my layout at all, so I just run the 2 locomotives and four passenger cars for now. I got a little laugh when I saw your King Kong and Godzilla. My nephew gave me a Godzilla 20 years ago for a Christmas present, and it has been on my Train layout ever since ready to pounce on the passing train. Thanks for the video, and Merry Christmas.

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

This was one of the trains that inspired me to build me new layout. It did fit on the 4x8 layout, but it never looked as nice as I thought it could. On the new layout, I can run it and another long passenger train and they both look better. Next layout needs to have longer stations for them though. I am glad to hear you also have a Godzilla on your layout. My son had the King Kong and put it on our layout early. In one of the videos, I was joking and placed an Amtrak car in his arms and said something about this being why you need spare trains. I bought the Godzilla for him when we found some articles about a Japanese group that specialized in dioramas of Godzilla attacking Tokyo. I thought it sounded like some fun for the trains and they both have been on the layout ever since. We will keep them on it as long as we have the layout.

[@DuncanMeter]

Will this work on an 11.25” radius turn?

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

Yes, it works very well on our 11" curves. Our two loops are 11 and 13 inch curves and we have no problems.

[@DuncanMeter]

@@Rothstein_Model_Trains thank you!

[@IIIIIIlllllllIIILLL]

Is It Expensive

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

That is always a very good question to look at, but the answer is almost always subjective. The basic car set was more than most of the Kato car sets, but came with 9 cars so there was a reason for it. List price is 280 for the basic cars and 415 if you want the interior lights installed. The locomotives are priced the same as most Kato locomotives at around 190 for a two locomotive set, but it jumps to 350 for the DCC version and 530 for the DCC with sound version. You can find lower prices on-line, and my hobby shop gives a discount if you buy a complete set (cars, locomotives, track, and power supply) to help encourage beginners. Of course, buying used trains can also help you save money if you need to. That also helps expand your options, which is how I got the Alaska train set. Bought it used because it isn't made any more.

[@IIIIIIlllllllIIILLL]

​@@Rothstein_Model_Trains What road do you recommend for kato? I cant find road from kato it just show olympian hiawatha milwaka whatever that is?

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

Kato does things a little weirdly sometimes. Sometimes it does make a little sense though.For example, if you look on their page for locomotives, they sort them by make and model instead of road name. This makes sense when you realize each locomotive was used by multiple lines and each line used more than one style of locomotive over time. It just isn't helpful when you are looking for a specific road name. But if you go to their rolling stock page (katousa.com/n-north-american-rolling-stock/), it list the sets by train name. The first part of the train name is the road it ran on, so the NYC 20th Century Limited was on the NYC (New York Central) line. The Milwaukee Road Olympian Hiawatha was a train run on the Milwaukee Road line. The Milwaukee Road was the common name of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad. Personally, I am a big fan of the Pennsy (Pennsylvania Railroad or PRR) and of the Santa Fe (actually the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe or ATSF). Bias because I grew up in Philadelphia and saw a lot of PRR stuff, the then Penn Central after the merger and I went to college in Kansas (and was stationed there in the Army) where I spent a lot of time in both Topeka and Atchison. The Santa Fe Warbonnet F-7 is probably the most iconic locomotive from that era and even non-train people will think of it nostalgically. I am serious looking at the Broadway Limited if they ever rerun it, but considering the CB&Q Zephyr as my next train. I bought the C&NW 400 minute train as my first passenger train set because my wife remembers riding on a train that was painted green and yellow from St Louis to Chicago as a child and this is the only one I can find that would meet her memory. That helped get some buy in from her when I was starting the hobby. When you are just getting started in the hobby, there are two very common ways to do it. One is to decide what time frame and area you want to model and then start looking for what was used then and there to buy it. The other way to start is to buy any starter set that catches your eye, and buy the trains you like as you like them. This is my style, as you can see from the variety of trains I have bought. My only recommendation for the starter sets is to buy good quality ones, such as Kato. Some of the Bachmann sets are good, but I am not a fan of their track. The flip side of Kato is that they only have a couple sets that include everything you need to run (track and power supply). Most of their sets are train only. My son, who helps me with the modeling, grew up in a house a block from a Union Pacific servicing depot, so her really prefers the modern stuff from UP. I live in a town on the main east-west rail line between San Antonio and Houston, so after getting some UP stuff for him, I went with only buying the locomotives for lines I have seen in real life on this rail. It kind of puts me in the mix of modeling an area and era (Texas now) but also getting anything I like. My layout itself is a sort of representation of Texas and I tried to get it to have things from Texas (like oil wells and Dairy Queen) without getting any specific area in Texas.

[@IIIIIIlllllllIIILLL]

@@Rothstein_Model_Trains Thanks For The Information. btw thats is long