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More September news from Train Trax UK - bumper email

There’s rather a lot of new KATO around at the moment.
We’ve got the latest announcements from Japan, a substantial delivery from KatoUSA, two new trams, and plenty more that has appeared on the shelves since TINGS.

This is therefore another slightly longer email. There is a thought - and a question - at the bottom if you make it that far.

Newly announced by KATO

Perhaps the most intriguing new announcement is KATO’s move further into OO9 narrow gauge, with models of the Sekisui Main Line “OSCAR” and “RACHEL” locomotives, plus a little diorama kit.

Small trains, tight curves and KATO track sounds like a fairly sensible combination to us. We’re looking forward to seeing these.Also newly announced for January are:
923-3000 Series Dr Yellow, including a special 7-car set
Chizu Express HOT7000 “Super Hakuto”
119 Series 5000 Iida Line
Keikyu 2100 Series

The Dr Yellow release is particularly timely, with the real T5 train scheduled to retire in January 2027.
You can see all the latest pre-orders here:traintrax.co.uk/preorders-reserve-them-here-c-51-html

As usual, there’s no payment needed when you reserve. We invoice when the model arrives with us.

America has arrived
We’ve also had a big KatoUSA delivery, so the North American shelves are looking considerably healthier.
There’s far too much to sensibly list everything, but highlights include:
F40PH and Superliner Amtrak stock
Greenbrier tank car 8-car sets
Chicago Metra train packs and Gallery coaches
a good selection of ES44ACsSD70ACu, SD70MAC and SD40-2 locomotives
several American starter and train sets

There are DC, DCC and DCC Sound options amongst the new stock, depending on the model.

KatoUSA have also snuck out some new numbers (arriving March-ish) for those lovely Greenbrier tankers which arrived recently. Pre-orders open for building really long trains.If American N gauge (particularly Amtrak!) is your thing, it is definitely worth having a rummage through the website at the moment:

Ding ding

Two particularly nice tram models have arrived too.
The 14-806-A My Tram Classic - Red Stripe is a simple little traditional-looking tram which could work nicely on all sorts of compact layouts.
And then there’s the rather more distinctive 14-071-1 Hiroshima Electric Railway Type 200 “Hannover” Tram.

The real tram originally came from Hannover in Germany before moving to Hiroshima, so it’s one of those slightly unexpected prototypes which makes railway modelling rather interesting.Both are in stock now.

And plenty more from Japan
It isn’t all American stock and trams.
Recent Japanese arrivals include the N700-6000 Series “Kodama” Shinkansen, KiHa 201 “Niseko Liner”, 731 Series “Ishikari Liner”, E657 Revival Colour Orange, more locomotives and rolling stock, plus another useful batch of Unitrack.
The Just Arrived section is now getting rather large:traintrax.co.uk/just-arrived-c-27-html
Probably easier to browse that than have me turn this email into a stock spreadsheet.

One thought after TINGS

Thanks again to everyone who came to see us at TINGS.

After a fairly slow summer, I went into the show feeling that we rather needed a good weekend. Fortunately, we got one.

But the useful bit wasn’t just the sales. Shows give me a couple of days actually talking to people about what they’re building, what they struggle with and what they’d like us to do better.

One thing I keep coming back to is accessibility.

I want Train Trax to make it easier for people to get into model railways and easier to try something new once they are here.

That means clearer information, less assumed knowledge, useful videos and guides, practical layout ideas - and perhaps a few more things we haven’t thought of yet.

There’s an enormous amount to enjoy in this hobby. Sometimes we make getting started with it look rather harder than it needs to be.

So, a question for those of you who did read all the way down:

What could we explain, make or do that would make KATO or model railways easier for you?

Hit reply and tell me. Sensible suggestions may actually get made.

Ian
on behalf of the Train Trax team

www.traintrax.co.uk

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