Kato Gottardo RAM TEE

Gottardo Trans Europe Express!  This model proved quite tricky to acquire.  Kato originally released this about 12 years ago in Europe, and it was a flawed offering. Apparenly it was their rerelease of an earlier Hobbytrain mold, the original of which featured power pickup on multiple cars and a bad coupling mechanism.  for Kato's first release, they put the power pickup in the motor car and and used a brittle coupling mechanism.  This was prone both to uncoupling and cracking, rendering the trainset useless.  

Recognizing these defects Kato re-re-released this in 2009 with a new quieter motor with dual flywheels and an updated coupler mechanism.  If you find yourself shopping for one of these on eBay be very certain you get the new version. It's part number 11400 (11405 with factory interior lights), or 11401/11406 for the "grey mouse" livery used in the 1980s.

"Grey Mouse" Livery

There is an excellent blog post detailing the history of this EMU here, along with some photos of the model.  

As for my own impressions, I find the engine to be a little noisy, and like all Kato products it is setup from the factory to run very fast.  The cars couple together with a rotating diaphragm mechanism, giving a realistic appearance even on tight curves  It's rather fiddly, and I always find myself loath to uncouple or move it once it's setup in place.  That said, the cars still do not always latch together as firmly as I would like, so I shudder to think what the old mechanism was like.

The train itself is a very attractive unit, and 6 cars seems like the perfect length on my layout. I love the unique look of the TEE, and the retro-futuristic styling. 

DCC installation was a little unusual, as your only option is to buy a Kato DCC decoder.  This decoder is low cost and low frills, but it drops in easily enough via a special door under the engine carriage. Operation is reliable.  Curiously Kato chose to factory illuminate the table lamps in the dining car.  This led me to attempt to illuminate the rest of the train, not wanting only a single car lit.  I added Kato's LED interior light kits and have been quite unhappy with them, they just flicker endlessly.  Some day soon I'll remove them. The money would have been better spent on directional lighting for the front and end cars.  That aside, I'm quite happy with this train.

On my subjective scale, I give this a 7 out of 10.