Kato n gauge track

[bodmin65]

Hi everyone, 

Just wondering if using this track can it be made to look like a model railway as against a toy train set? 

[Butler Henderson]

Quite easily - use some OO  cork underlay that has a chambered edge upside down butted up against the Kato track to remove the plastic base height issue.

[PaulRhB]

Touching in the couple of sleepers with a marker pen at the ends helps too. Ballast in between the tracks also fills up the high shoulder nicely and gentle weathering with an airbrush or rattle can from a distance all helps tone it down. Model Railroader have done a couple of project layouts with it and it looked good on those. The points are the hardest to blend in due to the manual slide switch and large metal frog. 

here we go

https://mrr.trains.com/how-to/get-started/2017/05/the-salt-lake-route-part-1-the-inspiration-for-a-small-layout

 

Edited February 20, 2020 by PaulRhB

[JohnDMJ]

Unitrack is an excellent system but is generally not designed for permanent layouts.

 

The main output from Kato remains in Japan (one reason why it is not worth their producing a catalogue in anything other than Japanese) and given their often small room sizes, Unitrack has been designed to be sufficiently robust to withstand assembling a layout when required and then dismantling it back to the box when done.

 

If you consider the whole 'system', you'll realise that it is all 'plug and play' with connectors on every cable (with different moulded housings so that point cables will not fit the track feeds, for example), the 'popper' connectors on the controller for the point switches and other devices.

 

That said, they have teamed up with another company to produce fixed modules to build bigger layouts. These still rely on the Unitrack coupling between modules.

[Night Train]

Have a look at the Tomix track as well. I prefer it as it has a much smaller trackbed and looks a bit more realistic.

[wasdavetheroad]

Brilliant stuff is Unitrack, I used to have an extensive layout but the trains were getting too small for my aging hands and eyes. If I was wealthy I would consider the HO scale version with code 83 rail.

[Butler Henderson]

On ‎21‎/‎02‎/‎2020 at 23:50, Night Train said:

Have a look at the Tomix track as well. I prefer it as it has a much smaller trackbed and looks a bit more realistic.

I tried a Tomix 3 way point on a layout otherwise Kato and it caused major problems in that one of the motors kept on failing but worked fine once removed from the layout It required a major track lifting exercise to release it and consequently that layout is now stored awaiting a decision on its future. The lack of a 3 way point is a major miss in the Kato range.

[GeoffAlan]

Great stuff and disguising the raised track bed is easier than ballasting peco track. The electric points swung me for my latest two layouts. In the past I've used Peco and Fleischmann and won't be going back to either.

Edited February 23, 2020 by GeoffAlan
spall chicken corrections. Peco came out as peck!

[bodmin65]

Planned a n gauge layout in peco, re-planned it out in kato unitrack looks similar with all elements there but slightly different. 

[Alex TM]

Hi everyone,

 

A couple of years ago I built a simple tail-chaser using this system, though it was never close to completed.  I used a track colour paint pen to help camouflage the height of the rails (sorry, but I can't remember who made it).  What attracted me to the system was that I could readily and speedily experiment with different track layouts (with running trains) before finalising the design.

 

Hope that's of help.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[Butler Henderson]

One layout that was 98% completed with Kato train was a LMR oval with a WR oval above; unfortunately the LMR storage sidings were largely hidden albeit visible through use of mirrors and of course whilst trains did not derail often on the visual parts the same could not be said of the hidden part so most operating sessions had far too much time spent trying to retrieve a derailed wagon - usually ending up with the wagon falling off the back  of the layout and being retrieved off the floor. The final straw was actually on the visual WR oval when a Farish Prairie derailed on what looked like a small drawing pin - turned out the Ixion Manor had managed to stop bridging an isolated joint and had acting as a short circuit route until the tender power connection exploded off it

[Kris]

Kato track is good for a test track or for the hidden areas of a layout, however to my eyes, it almost always looks "toy trainset*" like when used in scenic areas. I can only think of a couple of layouts that I have seen using it where I have thought that the end result looked convincing. 

 

* there is nothing wrong with things being toy transit like if that is what you want. It can give a lot of enjoyment and entertainment. 

[Butler Henderson]

36 minutes ago, Kris said:

Kato track is good for a test track or for the hidden areas of a layout, however to my eyes, it almost always looks "toy trainset*" like when used in scenic areas. I can only think of a couple of layouts that I have seen using it where I have thought that the end result looked convincing. 

Hiding the track height is the key with, as I posted earlier chambered edge cork and levelling off the surrounding scenery to suit. A way of disguising the overwide track centres at a station is to fit a line inbetween