Kato spares, help needed

[Lawrence]

Hi guys, really struggling with this and hope you can help, purchased but with a couple of bits missing and I cant find them on line

 

201 Series 6 car Chou line set - end car (the 201-40) has the above cab headlight panel missing and also the grey deflector from below the cab.  Very few of the numbers in the paperwork come up with anything in the HW search.  Can anyone help please, pretty please

[David]

Most Kato spare parts are not advertised (probably not stocked anyway) by HW and HS - but if you email them they are willing to see if they can get them for you (I think this involves them just calling Kato directly, much as you'd call Atlas for replacement parts).

[Lawrence]

Have had a look at their website but the only email link wont allow me to include a reply email address, does anyone have a contact email address for Kato please

[CaptOblivious]

Not for Kato Japan, no, but you can call Kato USA directly at the number on this page:

http://www.katousa.com/about-kato.html

or Kato Japan via this form:

http://www.katomodels.com/info/mail_e.shtml

(You should probably simply include contact information in the form body)

 

But really, the first thing you should do is to email the fine folks at Hobby Search:

http://1999.co.jp/eng/rail

or Hobby World

http://www.hwjapan.com/

or Rainbow Ten:

http://www.rainbowten.co.jp/english/index.html

 

They all have excellent customer service. Hobby Search was able in the past to special order a couple of Kato parts for me: You just have to ask!

[Lawrence]

Thanks Capt

[Lawrence]

HW and HS cant help me apparently, they both say to contact Kato.  I am having real trouble achieving this and the 2 links previously supplied by the Capt wont let me put any of my info (like email addy) anywhere in the form, is it because I am UK based?

 

Help

[CaptOblivious]

Ah, if you are in the UK…of course you are, I knew that, have you tried contacting MG Sharp, the UK Kato distributor?

[cteno4]

you could put your email address in the body of the email message to kato i guess. not sure how willing kato is to send out parts outside japan.

 

katoUSA is usually useless in this. they have from time to time ordered parts from kato japan for some of the japanese trains katousa has imported and at other times they even refuse to do this for trains they have sold/distributed and just say you have to contact kato japan which doesnt like to deal with anyone outside japan (they will say contact katousa if you are in the us sometimes) so you get caught in a catch 22 loop.

 

i think hw and hs dont like ordering too many of the odd parts like this as its a lot of work for them for a $3 part which they get 50 cents. so it would only be good for them if they wanted to be nice to a good customer, but then its hard for them to judge who should get that service...

 

i have heard that many small LHS in japan carry a good inventory of parts as well as order small stuff like this for their customers more than the big places like HS and HW.

 

also might try popendetta http://www.popondetta.jp/. site is in japanese, but translates well with google and once you set an account up with them they will do some email conversation, but its limited. they have several stores so they may carry more parts. i have never tried to order parts from them though.

 

best of luck and please report back with any success or failures, always good to keep up on what works and doesnt work as it seems to change with time.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[inobu]

Try this shop.

http://tokyo-rail.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=261&language=en

 

I seem to have connection issues (slow) with this site but it works. I have ordered

a substantial amount. What I could not get from Plaza Japan I got from him. His is pretty conscience in his service. Drop him a line and see if he can order the parts from Kato.

 

The prices may be higher but I think it is more so a factor of getting the part now.

 

Inobu

[CaptOblivious]

Try this shop.

http://tokyo-rail.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=261&language=en

 

I seem to have connection issues (slow) with this site but it works. I have ordered

a substantial amount. What I could not get from Plaza Japan I got from him. His is pretty conscience in his service. Drop him a line and see if he can order the parts from Kato.

 

The prices may be higher but I think it is more so a factor of getting the part now.

 

Inobu

 

 

 

Also, I believe the owner is a member here, quite active at one point too.