Kato RhB crocodile wins Model of the Year 2026 at Intermodellbau Dortmund

Kato’s N-gauge Ge6/6-I RhB Crocodile left Intermodellbau Dortmund with more than a trophy cabinet line. It won Das Goldene Gleis, the Model of the Year 2026 readers’ choice prize, after a public vote that drew 150 nominated products across 21 categories from the readers of major German model-railway magazines.

That matters because this was not a niche internal award or a judge’s pick. It was a broad, magazine-backed vote announced at one of the biggest exhibition stages in the hobby, and the result sends a clear signal: a Swiss narrow-gauge prototype can command the same kind of attention usually reserved for headline locomotives from larger markets. Gaugemaster said the reaction was immediate, with stock in Japan already sold out and only limited availability left in Europe.

The winning model points back to a prototype with serious history. The RhB Ge 6/6 I was introduced in 1921 for the electrification of the Albula line, when the Rhätische Bahn needed heavy-duty traction for its mountain railway network in Graubünden. Six locomotives were delivered in the first batch that year, and the class eventually totalled 15 machines built between 1921 and 1929. Only locomotives 414 and 415 remain in operational heritage service today, which helps explain why the type has become so visible in preservation circles and so appealing in model form.

Kato EU has leaned into that appeal, presenting the locomotive as a century-old icon still in active memory on the RhB and now appearing in N scale. The award at Dortmund turns that heritage into market validation. For collectors, it confirms that Kato’s RhB tooling is not just a specialist curiosity. For dealers, it marks the Crocodile as one of the season’s marquee N-scale releases.

The same newsletter also looked ahead to Kato’s next narrow-gauge move. Kato said it has prepared 10 ready-to-use OO9 and HOn layout plans to help modelers make the most of the narrow-gauge electric turnouts announced in February, which are scheduled for release in August 2026. The plans are aimed at small to medium spaces, exactly the sort of footprint where narrow-gauge layouts have to work hard to deliver believable operation and scenery.

That is the broader pattern here. Kato is not just selling a locomotive that won a readers’ prize in Dortmund. It is building an ecosystem around narrow gauge, from the RhB Crocodile’s exhibition prestige to ready-made OO9 and HOn planning support, while its 00-9 partnership with PECO based on Ffestiniog Railway stock keeps the European side of the range firmly in play.