The Features Of Kato Model Trains

For first world, extreme quality, mass production, there are few that may match the Japanese. Because of the high quality and excellent prices they offer, they have penetrated in several industries that require demanding procedurees, such as cars, computers, and of course, model railroading.

Kato Precision Railroad Models, excellent known as Kato Model Trains, are among the best Japanese manufactures of model trains. Although not also known as other names, like Lionel trains and Bachmann trains, Kato model trains are sold in Japan and the United States, where they compete in quality, level of detail, and price.

Kato Model Trains was founded by Hiroshi Kato in 1957, so as to satisfy the needs of the Japanese flea market , which was booming thanks to the industrial revolution that was bang up-to-date in Japan at the time and which was the result of the re-modernization of the country after World War II.

What set Kato Model Trains apart from the competition was the design and manufacture of local Japanese trains. Up to that time, model trains in Japan were representations of western trains. Kato Model Trains was the first company that manufactured trains that Japanese persons truly rode.

The company had such a great success that they grew to dominate the Japanese marketplace . In 1987, Kato Model Trains decided to penetrate the Exceedingly competitive and demanding flea market of the United States of America, opening its subsidiary, Kato Model Trains USA. Learning from their experience, Kato Model Trains USA decided to make its first entry to the American shop with an American train: the diesel-electric hybrid EMD GP38-2 locomotive created by General Motors Electro Motive Division.

That doesnt mean that Japanese models arent sold in the United States, its just that they are very common because most American modelers arent familiar with Japanese trains. Nevertheless, famous trains like the Shinkansen Japanese bullet train are in extreme demand.

Plus, Kato Model Trains is in charge of the design and distribution of the products in the United States, deciding which models have to be manufactured for that shop . In this way, the company may adjust its procedures to custom their production to the tastes of the American clients. Notwithstanding, all manufacturing and processing is handled in Japan.

One of the innovations that Kato Model Trains brought to the hobby is the UNITRACK system. This system allows integrating the track and the roadbed in a single piece, as well as a faster assembling process. This surelyis a lot of time and work saver for modelers, even though it might not be appealing to the purists who want to do each part themselves.

In Conclusion, some persons confuse Kato Model Trains with the name Sekisui Kinzoku. In reality, Sekisui Kinzoku is the companys name in Japan.