Matt Makens posted:Atlas rebranded a lot of Kato Japan models up into the early to mid 2000’s I believe. Kato models are first rate and quite affordable for being manufactured in Japan. Eventually they moved production to China and basically copied the Kato drives. While the detail of the Chinese models is superior the quality of the drives is not. Atlas Chinese models are still more expensive than the Kato Japanese models
For N and HO, Atlas worked with Kato in Japan beginning in 1983 but switched to Chinese production based on Kato designs less than a decade later. It roughly coincided with Atlas’ move from American production of its N scale rolling stock line to Chinese production. I can’t recall the exact year, but it happened while I was working at Hub between 1988 and 1996. I’d say roughly 1992.
