Other Kato Stations
Kato has more than just the Overhead Transit Station (23-122) for use with their platforms. They also have the slightly smaller Overhead Station (23-200) and the very small Station Entrance (23-210), which is a station in its own right. Finally, for city modelers there is the Viaduct Station Set (23-125), and for Suburban/Rural modelers there are the Suburban Station (23-211), the Rural Station Set (23-220) and the slightly obsolete Double Track Plate Station House (23-126). All of these (except the Double Track Plate Station House) work with Kato’s original line of platforms, but can also be used with the new tile ones introduced with the Overhead Transit Station.
There’s a Model Station Photos album with larger versions of these photos.
The information on the Viaduct Station Set has moved to the Viaduct Station page.
In 2013, Kato USA added a North American Suburban Station model (31-650, US$79 list), based on a prototype in Chicago. It’s actually made by Faller, and is a nice model of a late-twentieth-century brick structure. It’s not at all relevant to Japanese modeling (it’s not even listed on their Japanese stock page), so I haven’t paid much attention to it, and don’t cover it here. But modelers looking for a good contemporary branch-line station should check it out. I expect it would fit some European layouts as well as North American ones.
Double Track Plate Station House
This is something of a relic. The Double Track Plate Station House (23-126), as the name suggests, was for use with Kato’s now-discontinued double-track plate system, which put Unitrack on a large plastic plate that allowed a lineside fence or similar detail to be attached to it. Because the station comes with the platforms built onto the plate, it isn’t really compatible with anything other than its own expansion set, the Suburban Platform Set for Double-Track Plate (23-127). The latter added two full 248mm platform lengths to the 248mm platform of the basic station, along with ends that add about another 248mm of platform total. It’s a very nice station, if you can find one, but it likely needs some kitbashing to work with their current track and platforms. The station building itself appears identical to the one in the Suburban Station below, except that this one has an orange roof and integrates the track plate and two platforms.
I don’t have the station itself, but I did pick up a set of the platforms once on a discount table, just to see what they were like. The plates use standard 248mm single-track screwed to a plastic structure that incorporates the platforms. Unlike the later platforms, there are no white S-Joiners linking the sections, it’s all held together by the track’s unijoiners.
Other sets for use with this include:
- Suburban Platform for Double Track Plate (23-128): a 248mm expansion platform pair (one for each side).
- Station Area Road Plates (23-411): part of the Diotown roadplate system (not compatible with the newer Unitram plates) and bus pulloff in front of a station, and can be used with either this Viaduct Station Set or the Double Track Plate Station House.
- Station Area Road Expansion Plates (23-412): This can be used to extend the two-lane roadway at either end of the 23-411 set an additional 248mm.
- Suburban Station Accessories (23-212): a small set of detail parts (ornate streetlamps, benches and signboards)
- Suburban Overhead Stairway (23-234): an older-looking gray and white walkway with stairs to cross between platforms over double-track.
Overhead Station
The green-roofed Overhead Station (23-200) models an urban/suburban station that’s located above ground-level tracks with a single island platform, similar to the Overhead Transit Station, but smaller and not designed to be expanded for more than two tracks.
Overhead Station - missing the ramp down to the platform
Station Entrance
The green roofed Station Entrance building (23-210) looks like it should be used in conjunction with the Overhead station (and it could be, if you wanted to model it as a separate entrance), but it’s really a very small station. It replicates those stations that serve a single ground-level track, or perhaps a pair of tracks, one of which ends at the station (e.g., a single-track line that as a stub siding at the station, or a terminal station on double track.
Station Entrance - clipped to platform section
Suburban Station
The Suburban Station (23-211) is a pre-built structure reflecting a fairly large (248mm x 168mm) station building with a covered side platform along the back. There is a side section that would work as a freight office for a JNR-era layout. However, it appears to use the same platforms as the Rural Station Set below, which are narrower than Kato’s now-standard side and island platforms, and 2mm lower, so using the station with newer platforms would be a bit problematic. The building itself is the same as the Double Track Plate Station House up above, except that this one has a green roof.
Rural Station Set
The Rural Station Set (23-220) models an older wooden building with a platform on the back. It could be used with a single track, or with double-track and another platform. From the appearance this models an earlier time, and probably looks more at home on a steam-era layout than one with modern trains. I’ve never owned one of these, but from online materials it looks like some assembly is required. It appears to include steps down from the platform to a walkway across the tracks, so it’s intended to model less-used rural lines rather than anything near a city.
(no picture of the station)
Other sets for use with this include:
- Rural Platform Kit (Japanese Type) (23-130): a set of platforms for the rural station. This is a snap-together kit you assemble (with a lot of parts), and it can optionally include stairs down for a mid-platform grade crossing of the tracks or ramps at the ends of the platform for an end grade crossing or entrance. It makes narrow platforms with a fence backing, held to each other with a single white S-Joiner.
- Rural Platform Extension Set (23-131): an extension for the platform kit (also a kit).
- Rural Platform Accessory Set (23-132): a bunch of details, including two mechanical semaphore signals (nonfunctional but movable since the arms snap on), lamp and telegraph poles and a number of signs.
- Rural Freight Platform Kit (23-221): a snap-together kit to make a small platform with open-sided wooden shelter.
- Rural Section House (23-222): a pair of small buildings in the same styles as the rural station.
- Overhead Bridge (23-224): an brown and white overhead stairway in the same style as the rural station, to cross between platforms over double-track.
- Wood Station Building Set (23-233): a set of eight small ready-to-plant buildings in the same style as the rural station (e.g., freight house, etc).
