IIRC the KATO HO and N ACF Covered Hopper colors were researched with the assistance of Ed Hawkins. Craig Holmberg was doing the HO R&D at the time, just before and after I joined Kato, I believe the prototype drawings used were an ACF car. Not to say the interpretation of the colors by the factory was perfect..... there wasn't very much in the way of a sample / approval process and it is a wonder that things turned out as well as they did.

I do recall Craig having battles with the factory regarding their "pran" to tool the car as a three-car kit, making it impossible to offer singles. I cannot recall any accuracy issues but that doesn't mean there were none. It is a shame that the cars (because of the price point and HO 3-pack kit / N 2-pack and Kato's inability to supply smaller production lots with more roadnames and roadnumbers) turned out to be dogs in the marketplace. The N Scale version sold poorly and had bum couplers to add insult to injury...so never made it to the planned second production of "peek-a-boo" version with the cutouts to the slide sheets. Hopefully Inter-Mountain will see fit to offer their cars in N soon.

Charlie Vlk

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