The Kato Pocket Line Steeple Cab

The Kato Pocket Line N scale steeple cab electric loco is an intriguing model and probably about the least expensive powered unit in any scale. A web search shows a price range between $35-$45.

Unlike some other cheapo locos in that price range, this has a state of the art coreless motor, and it runs very well. However, Kato warns that running it on DCC without a decoder will damage the motor, so outise of a first test to see how it does on DCC, I've run mine on straight DC. It will run on DCC, but it gives out a loud screech, which doesn't sound good. Given the coreless motor, it runs very well on straight DC. There is a YouTube video on DCC conversion using Z scale decoders like the Digitrax D126.

I'm not satisfied with the pre-molded plastic colors. The easiest solution would be to paint it all black, and some of the closer prototypes in the US were this way:

Even painitng the pantograph black would be an improvement.