Kato HO H5 Shinkansen 'Hayabusa' DCC Sound Test Run

The first DCC sound equipped HO scale H5 on YouTube! Layout: Scarborough Model Railroad, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada Notes: 1. Kato’s HO (1/87) scale H5 ‘Hayabusa’ was released on March 26, 2026. A similar E5 trainset was offered in HO scale in 2013. This marks the first release of any HO scale Japanese standard gauge equipment by Kato in over 12 years, as far as I am aware. HO scale Japanese models are incredibly rare and/or expensive due to the lack of demand, as N scale is the dominant scale in Japan and the rest of Asia. 2. The model is sold as a 4-car basic set + 2-car expansion set + 4-car expansion set for a complete 10-car train. 3. The cab cars (cars 1 and 10) are equipped with ZIMO MX605SL decoders (drop in). 4. The motor cars (cars 3 and 7) are equipped with ESU 58429 decoders (hardwire). Siemens placeholder sound files are shown. My intention is to create proper sound files for each motor car in the future. 5. Each motor car is equipped with two coreless motors, one mounted on each truck. If you wish to do a DCC hardwire install, one of the motors must be wired in reverse. The non-pantograph end of the motor car is considered the front end. 6. The motor car’s mechanism has a coasting function so that the 4 motors on each complete train don’t fight each other. It is recommended that you disable any back EMF functionality on your decoders. 7. The model is capable of running at prototype operation speeds up to 320 scale km/h. A tilting mechanism helps stabilize the train at high speeds.