James' N Scale Train Layout Project

Ah, Kato UniTrack. There’s so much to say about Kato, and I will say a lot about this company and its products in upcoming posts. But I’ll start with my introduction to Kato UniTrack. UniTrack competes with Bachmann EZ Track for the integrated-roadbed market targeting beginners and casual hobbyists like myself. The similarity of structure and purpose invites many direct comparisons between the two brands… and UniTrack always seems to win.

I went to katousa.com and saw their UniTrack listings were comprehensive and clear. There were so many choices and the UniTrack products were designed to be in either temporary or permanent layouts. This company really knows what it’s doing! I got so excited checking out all the options. Even though the website lists full retail prices, you can’t order products through them, so go through online hobby shops and other vendors. There’s another cool Kato Website that goes into great detail about Kato Unitrack and how it works with other Kato products. This level of structure and detail really impressed me!

Kato has a wide selection of starter Unitrack sets, as well as starter sets with UniTrack, a DC controller and a locomotive. The sets seem cool but there are only DC starter sets, no DCC. It seems to me Kato is missing the boat a little by not getting more behind DCC. Anyway, I decided to just focus on the Unitrack Track Sets which have an amazing, upgradable structure.

You start with Master packs, M1 or M2. M2 is the M1’s basic oval plus pieces to make a siding. All the images below are from the Kato N Scale Starter Guide, which is an excellent resource and shows you ALL the Track Sets and what pieces they contain.

After you choose a Master pack, you can upgrade track with a dozen different Variation V packs to add more sidings, a switching yard, an elevated viaduct supported by piers and a bunch of other stuff. It is such a cool and structured way to purchase your track!

So I chose the M2 and the V2, which is the single-track viaduct set (there’s a whole selection of double-track track sets, too, and I don’t believe ANY other company offers this kind of track options! But double-track was out of my league at this point, so I’m leaving it alone for now.)

I was beyond impressed and excited to try out UniTrack for myself!