Thinning the Herd

By this Spring, I had amassed 80 N scale locomotives. Of that number, 54 were modern units that could fit my prototype layout (the remainder were four present day units from the UK and 22 were "heritage" units, that is, older models that would not fit a 2014 prototype).

I decided to cull this fleet a bit for two reasons: I needed the money, and I was not happy with some of the models.

I came into this effort a big fan of KATO for their quality and reliability. Those aspects come at a price, of course. But I have also invested pretty heavily in Fox Valley Models. FVM seems to do a better job of detailing its locomotives than KATO. The ES44s each company offers is a good case in point. The KATO BNSF ES44ACs have a BNSF orange paint job that is too bright and too toy-like. It just looks fake. I had two more realistic looking FVM ES44ACs so the KATO models went on the chopping block.

So did my KATO Canadian Pacific units: an AC4400CW and ES44AC. I had two FVM CP ES44ACs to take over, but I would lose out on the only CP AC4400CW offered in N scale.

Finally, I put up for sale a KATO Norfolk Southern SD70M. It was another model not offered by anyone else. So why deal it?

I do not run DCC and one major con of that decision is not being able to program locomotives to match speeds. If I run multiple units, they have to have the same engine speed. This is not a problem if I run two FVM ES44ACs or two KATO SD70ACes. "Mixing and matching" different manufacturers was a bit easier in HO but not so in N. KATO engine drives, like Athearn in HO, are hot rods. FVM and Atlas tend to run more at prototypical speeds.

While it's fun to take a speedster and run it full blast around your layout, one should know that in model railroading, speed is not a good thing. Speed ends up in derailments. Slowly but surely are the watchwords of this hobby. Sure, you can go to Fullerton and watch BNSF intermodals zoom by at 70+ mph. But most freights you'll ever see are far slower than that.

My early rush to buy anything that caught my fancy has resulted in some orphan locomotives. For example, my KATO KCS SD70ACe looks nice, but I have no other KATO KCS unit. I could run it in a mixed consist. But it won't run with my FVM KCSM ES44AC. Solution? I am  putting the KATO unit up for sale and replacing it with a FVM KCS ES44AC!

I'd like to divest my fleet of KATO totally but I cannot. First, they are the only manufacturer to put out P42DCs and MP36s in N Scale. Those units must stay on my layout with its focus on passenger railroading.

KATO also beat FVM with its SD70ACes. I have at least seven: BNSF and UP and NS "heritage" units. If FVM ever do release their planned SD70ACes, I will have to think hard about swapping them out for the KATOs. Then I could run one big happy FVM family, at least for most of my mainline power.

As for my most recent Ebay sale, it didn't recoup quite what I hoped. The KATO units I sold were still widely available so bidders were looking for cut rate deals. I made around 55-60 on each unit, meaning I lost about 30-50 dollars on each. But rationalizing the fleet will allow for more variety in mixed consists and it's another lesson learned on this journey.