Kato Class 800/0 5-car unit
◆ SCALE ‘N’ gauge ◆ MODEL Kato 10-1671 Class 800/0 800021 GWR livery ◆ PRICE (RRP) £209.95 DC only ◆ PERIOD Era 10 ◆ AVAILABILITY Kato stockists
The last British outline model released by Kato was the Class 373 Eurostar more than a quarter of a century ago, so it is no exaggeration to say that the release of their Class 800 Inter-city Express Train (IET) in GWR livery (and soon-to-come LNER ‘Azuma’ version) is a once-in-a-generation event.
Class 800 bi-mode trains comprise five cars and can be powered either by 25kv overhead lines or their own diesel engines. This is ideal for the West Country where, currently, lines west of Cardiff and south-west of Bristol Parkway, are still non-electrified. The trains comprise three Standard class vehicles (designated A, B, C), a Composite car (D) and a First class driving car (E) which features a kitchen area, with three plated-over windows on each side, making it easy to spot.
Built by Hitachi, they are an ideal subject for Kato as they will be confident of strong sales in the enormous and brand-loyal Japanese domestic market, where high-speed trains are very popular. Kato has a reputation for very finely moulded, well-engineered trains that are smooth-running, reliable and reasonably priced, and their Class 800 clearly follows this pattern.
The models are supplied in Kato’s standard dark green ‘book set’ packaging and, along with the five-car train, the pack includes an illustrated instruction sheet, some lengths of Kato Unitrack with a Japanese style bufferstop for display.
Lifting the cars out of the box, the finesse of the finish and quality of the mouldings is immediately apparent. All the detail is crisp and the plastic glazing – both on the aerodynamically curved windscreen and wide saloon windows – is exceptionally clear.
The models feature Kato’s own design of Scharfenberg coupler, with unsprung kinematic mounts, between vehicles and these can be easily snapped together on the track. The couplers are plastic and do not pass power between vehicles.
I was surprised to note that the ends of the cars are open, with no depiction of the gangway doors, but since this is not seen in normal running it is not significant.
The two driving cars, and two of the inner trailers, are unpowered; the motor is in car B, immediately behind the Standard class driving car. The cars are all very free-rolling and bogies with
power pick-ups and drop-in interior saloon lighting units can be purchased separately.
Using a simple DC controller the model was smooth and powerful, and while the instructions advise the use of curves no tighter than 282mm (11in) radius the model will just about cope with 228mm (9in) radius. The model was more than able to reach a scale top speed. There have been some reports of the motor becoming noisy with use but while the review sample had a very slight whine it was not intrusive and no more than other comparable models.
The directional LED lights come on at full brightness very soon after power is applied to the track. Two headlights, three white marker lights and two red tail lights are illuminated.
Like the prototype, the nose cone can be removed to allow two units to be coupled together and the accessory pack includes couplers in two lengths that simply clip to a bar behind the nose to facilitate multiple running. The driving cars have a small switch on the underside to allow the head/tail lights of units coupled together to be deactivated.
The wheels have a flange depth of
0.66mm – slightly larger than the
0.56mm recommended in the NMRA RP profile widely adopted in British ‘N’, however I was unable to test whether the model would run freely on finescale Code 40 track.
GWR green is a difficult colour to judge but, to my eye, the model’s finish is as accurate as any other I have seen. The diagonal ‘matt’ patches carrying the GWR lettering on the three inner trailers are especially effective, as are the white sections around the cab doors and handrails where the underlying pale grey paint shows through on the prototype.
Unit and individual vehicle numbers are clearly printed, as well as the small First Group Company lettering below the bodyside stripe.
On my model the yellow nose cone was a very slightly different shade to the yellow on
the main body beneath the windscreen, however this is seen on the prototype so it’s not unrealistic.
The windscreen wiper is moulded as part of the windscreen but has been very neatly picked out in black.
While the areas that have been painted are immaculate, Kato has chosen to limit the detail painting to parts it considers essential, such as the air conditioning unit boxes on the roof. The yellow handles on the underfloor equipment boxes, the silver cabinets either side of the couplers, door handles, cab handrails, front coupler actuator and end-of-car junction boxes have not been picked out in the yellow, silver and grey of the prototype, and most of the smaller panels are printed as blocks of solid colour with no lettering.
In addition, while Kato has moulded the cant rail-level CCTV cameras, they’re painted the same green as the bodysides so they do not stand out as they do on the prototype.
Also, while the bogies are very neatly moulded, they lack cab steps on the outermost pair. The junction box mouldings on the inner ends are a
All the detail is crisp and the plastic glazing is exceptionally clear