N-scale Silver Streak Zephyr.

[OnTheRightTrack]

Originally Posted by Burlington Bob

I saw a flyer at a LHS for the E-5's and it looks pretty nice. However, it did seem to lack the luster of the polished stainless steel of the real E-5's. I do hope it runs better than my F-3's as they are kind of noisy and second rate compared to my Atlas GP-7 and SD-9 and my LifeLike GP-20. Anybody have the same or different experience? My Kato's look great, but look better than they run.

This has been completely different than my experience. I have dozens of both Kato and Atlas engines and about 99% of the time the Kato's are vastly superior in pulling power, voltage requirements and yes, noise. It appears you may have a lemon or two.

[TrinityJayOne]

An important update on the E5s for those of you on DCC! A Kato rep has come back to me stating that existing E unit decoders aren't 100% compatible with the E5 as the LED leads aren't long enough. They also said that the various decoder manufacturers have already been advised and are working on a new product compatible with these engines. I can't speak for the other manufacturers, but I contacted TCS and was told that their updated decoder (K0D8-E) is finished and ready for purchase already.

[Iron Horseman]

Originally Posted by TrinityJayOne

An important update on the E5s for those of you on DCC! A Kato rep has come back to me stating that existing E unit decoders aren't 100% compatible with the E5 as the LED leads aren't long enough.

Interesting, but makes perfect sense considering the longer and more sloped nose of the E5 over the bull-dog E8.

[TrinityJayOne]

Yep, that's why I had assumed the decoders would be different in the first place because the mechanism would have to be. They did say it's "based" on the existing E8/9 mech so it's probably just longer at the nose end. By the sounds of it though if you already have some old E unit decoders they could still be used if you don't mind extending the LED leads yourself somehow.

Kato just sent an email saying these are on track for an Oct 29 release, huzzah!