Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Wordless Wednesday #42

Way too modern for my 1950's railroad! However being Nickel Plate I couldn't help but to get one of Athearn's Norfolk Southern Heritage engines when a good deal presented itself a while back. I finally added a Soundtraxx MC2H104AT DCC decoder and upgraded to LED lights to run this with my son's present day equipment.

5 comments:

  1. That's a nice looking locomotive. AC4400CW? It's gotta be close to a foot long.

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  2. Yep it's an AC4400CW, the real thing is an ES44AC so this model is a "foobie" but its good enough for now. The Athearn CSX SD70MAC I have is even longer, why I have that one is another story...

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  3. I was going to call it a Dash-9, but I didn't think they were painting those in heritage schemes. Not up on my modern locomotives. I wonder why Athearn didn't just make it an ES44AC then, they had to know people would question that.

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  4. Athearn does list a Genesis level ES44AC in UP, BNSF and CP, but the first run has yet to show up. So using the looks "close enough" AC4400CW was just a money grab attempt on the NS Heritage frenzy at the time in my opinion.

    Intermountain makes a gorgeous ES44AC and did a run of the proper NS Heritage units including the NKP one. However at $220-250 for a DCC/Sound version it's not a high priority on my want list to find one. I need the funds set aside for more important things, like expanding my NCE Powercab or just stepping up a level to the Power Pro.

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  5. It's still a great looking model though.

    I like Intermountain, a couple years ago I bought a B&O FT A/B set with DCC/sound and they are very nice models. Can't wait to get those rolling, but first things first. I have to put my money into getting the basement finished before anything else. Good news is we will be moved into the new house by the end of next week! Work will begin immediately.

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