I lost (misplaced) my light kit somewhere, I need to tear apart the ManCave again to find them. I could have gotten the sound ones, but they didn't offer them right away. Plus the decoders were not available at all at the time. Thanks for watching.

And the description on the Digitrax decoder package states it is for F3 &F7 and similar engines. FP7's were only a glimmer in Kato's eye when they were produced, and the LED's were not designed to fit the FP7. Even Intermountain FP7's require different decoders that the F7's do because the chasis is a different length. Yo should be able to clip the LED leads and solder in an extension, or replace the 3mm LED with a wired 0604 or 0402 led. I used an ESU Lokpilot in one of my A units (a VERY easy install, and a Loksound in the B and 2nd A unit. For what it is worth, the Mars light is the top light, the headlight is the one in the door on these units. since there is no rear light, the yellow wire can be used to be the 2nd front light IF that is what you want to do. To complicate things a bit more, the tail light on the Skytop car is supposed to be a red Mars light while the train is moving forward, and a white Mars light when the train was doing backing moves such as was required to reach Seattle from the Milwaukee's Tacoma Depot. Need a function decoder, a clear light tube (not red as supplied with the model) and 1 white and 1 red LED (or a white/red LED)to make that work. A bit of work, but cool to see it work like the real thing! Puts the modeling in Model Railroading!

Thanks for the info, it looks like I will need to "modify" the light since neither decoder manufacturer makes a version for the longer FP7's. This may be why I didn't see any running at Trainfest in DCC.

That would be some great modeling mods to do with this. Maybe I will look at the ESU LokPilot decoder and attempt my first real decoder install, Lol. That is an area of the hobby I have been reluctant to try, I have the skill, just not the parts or practice to do it. Thanks for the info.

Putting a Lokpilot in the A unit was one of the easiest (hardwired) decoder installs I've ever done. I can send you a picture to show you how silly easy it is. Check out www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=43267.0 to see how Ron Beardon modified the observation car for the red & clear/white mars lights. It is pretty cool, and the "WOW factor" is awesome!

We had one of Kato's samples at the Chicagoland RPM meet 2 weeks prior to Trainfest, and it had the longer board in it, tho I am not sure who's board it is. I suspect the boards are available, but most shops have not ordered them or gotten them in yet. Online may be better source for brand spanking new stuff like that. Bill was running (one of) his sets at Trainfest with DCC, but did not ask him which decoder he used as I had ESU's already waiting for the locos to put them in.

Thanks for watching Milwaukee Area Railfan

Thanks Rick, I had not known that they had been in Omaha. I just knew that this train didn't pass through here on the route to Seattle. I will need to do more research into the railroad I guess. I went on the dinner train once, to bad it moved to Kansas.

The Rock Island Depot over in CB that still stands was also the Milwaukee Road's depot. there was also a yard and loco facility there. Last time I was there (94-95ish) there was a map of all rail lines in the Omaha/CB area in the depot by the model RR. Although Omaha is an important RR town today, it was even more important in the 50's-60's, with RI, Wabash, CNW, CGW, IC, UP, CB&Q, MP all having a presence there. The bike trails in the Papio and Belleview areas today were RR ROWs then. Even the Rock passed thru on it's way west to Denver. The MP belt line that parallelled Saddle creek up to North Omaha and back down past the airport still had traffick in the late 70's early 80's. I don't recall if the UP trainshed ever actually connected to the CB&Q one across the way, but that was once all passenger platforms. see this link www.chicagorailfan.com/stbcoma.html for a list of trains to/from Omaha and there arr/dep times over time. Might not have been the golden era for the RR as they were losing their shorts, but it had to be a great time to be a railfan!

Thanks for watching William Spears

Running low on cash to buy these for review. The Daylight set is not normally run on my layout so I wouldn't keep it. The challenger would fit with the UP theme I have and the Big Boy's, just need to decide if I want one or not. I will consider it though.

Thanks for letting me know, that is a KZfaq mess up there, it was working just fine earlier. I will take a look at it and see if I can reupload it.

I did, worked great.

Yep, I did. I have bought everything I reviewed except the Atlas S2 that James gave me.

My S 2 came back quickly and sounds fine now,,,

Yep, for some reason it didn't compile correctly for some reason. It worked when I edited it, not sure why it did that. Thanks for watching.

I ended up unsoldering the old light and swapping it onto the board so it would fit in. Ironically, at the N scale convention I won in a drawing the full set with sound and lights installed in the engines and cars.

I have not heard about them doing any other color scheme with these.

Thanks, it figures they put that on the front page and not in the list of decoders for KATO. Since I already bought the Digitrax ones, I am just going to swap the LED from the DC board to the decoder. Thanks for the info.

Kato 176-2301 and 106-0430. Available now at Modeltrainstuff.com