Just added these

Managed to pick up this used set off eBay which arrived today, so just broken the record for longest train as this one has 11 cars (not including a loco) and is based on the California Zenith (aka Silver Streak).  So I can push into service the loco I have from the 6 car Silver Streak I already own, although technically this service should be a double header loco formation - but until I can source a second loco it will have to be just one

Looks like I need to get a lot more lighting kits as well in the near future!

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I love that rear coach for the California Zephyr

Me too it is very similar but slightly more stylish (art deco?!?) than the one that comes with the Silver Streak 6 car set, still an observation car with tail lights as standard though but I'm not sure it has the illuminated destination board the Silver Streak version does.  Over the weekend if I can find time I'll get the two out together to compare them

Details of the Silver Streak set includes nice shot of the observation car

Kato USA California Zephyr Version

I have to say I didn't go looking for this set as I already have the 6 car version, but it came up at a very good price on eBay (just over £100 as opposed to the UK price of ~£300 or more = USA rrp $280) so it seemed rude not to try for it.  Now of course I need a pair of E5A's and if I can find one a matching E5B

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Wish Plarail made a rear coach like that

I'm sure if they did it would be a massive seller, especially if they figured some way to add some lighting to it.  Out of interest are there any PlaRail models that have lighting as standard?  If not I'm surprised that Tomy haven't tried adding some to certain models after all they have the battery power there to run a couple of LED's as they are invariably low power anyway.

Maybe this might be a mod someone on here might like to try, after all an LED/Resistor/bits of wire/button cell battery socket would be cheap enough and easy enough to fit to a car I would have thought

[Super]

There are some Plarails with lights but very few maybe even fewer than I think. They also have generated powered lights powered by traction tires that work some lights. And, yes its easy now a days to add leds to Plarail, if they ever made a trailing coach like these, that would be the first mod I would do. Are those Coach windows glazed?

The coach windows on the Kato models?  Yes, all glazed and with surface detail to illustrate frames etc... when they are present on the real thing.  They don't miss anything with their models, they are simply stunning

I didn't know this set comes with a track and a buffer, does it fit the length of the whole train from the set or only a few cars?

It comes with 8 x 240mm lengths of track so that should be easily enough for all the cars, although I suspect most display cabinets would need to have them as two rows of track with the cars on them.  This seems to be a new thing to supply the track to display trains on as my Hitachi 800 LNER Azuma came with track suitable for displaying it also.  Of course as its normal Kato unitrack there's nothing to stop you using the track on your layout either

Just got a great package today, a batch of 3 trains, one Kato (no surprise there) and also two Tomix.  These all came from a single eBay seller and I managed to win them at great prices - let's just say all 3 sets, used but like new, for around the price of a single OO gauge loco - bargain!

First up is one of the Tomix sets, this is just a set of coaches (7 in total) which do require a loco to pull it, but as I have a rather nice D51 that will be perfect for the job that's no problem.  Another nice observation type car in the middle of the train as well which is nice.









The second one is another Tomix, this time another class 485 express, but in a rather fetching livery.  This one also has the lit head code on the end cars as well as the usual directional lights similar to what you get on a Kato offering.









Finally the Kato set, this one is an 8 car suburban class 117 type, as usual high quality and detail that you come to expect from Kato.