Did you use a Mark4 short hood on this one pictured above? For modern GE power, you will have to rely on what is on the market and modifying it to your taste if you want the prototypical look. Kato's 9-44CW and ES44AC are good starting points but will need to be modified. The biggest thing on the two for me is the nose mounted headlight. This is a simple fix that can be done in 5-10 minutes. The next thing needing to be corrected on both of these is the end handrailing which with a GMM sanction pack and some Tichy bronze wire, can be easily taken care of. The D9-40CW's (using a 9-44CW as a base) have some variations of an APU box and some differences of the side handrail on the Conductor side of the locomotive behind where the A/C unit is located. Every other thing with the 9-44 is pretty much correct. I swap out the horns to a BLMA since Kato uses a 3 chime on their models. I have yet to tackle the GEVO as there are some differences other than just the hand railing and headlight. You could use Kato's GEVO to make NS ES44AC's and ES40DC's. The main difference on the hood that I see is the silver dynamic grilles behind the Conductor. ES44AC's have 3 and ES40DC's have 2, with the middle one plated over. You would have to change this arrangement around and depending on which number ES44AC you model, the new ones have the front door on the Engineer's side of the nose vs the Conductors. I think some of the lower number 8000's had glass in the front door and the newer ones do not. As far as the other option for modern GE power is Atlas' D8-40CW which are ex-Conrail D8's and are pretty much correct right out of the box. Other's made in NS paint are SD70M, SD80MAC, SD60, SD60M, MP1DC, GP38 high hood, GP60. I would rather re-paint and detail then getting something out of the box and have several SD40-2's, GP40-2, and some D9-40CW's that I've modded and repainted. I hope to tackle a ES44AC and some more D9-40CW's soon
It seems like you have done some nice work one your NS models! Since Kato and FVM will be providing modern AC power I won't have to worry about a lack of modern NS AC power.
There is a lack of eastern models among the big manufacturers. Kato is famous for it and Intermountain and FVM seem to follow along. Thankfully Atlas is still making eastern roads available. I know the western guys are thinking they are in pig heaven with all the western stuff but consider the other side of the coin and how it affects everyone. I have commented in other threads about Pennsy guys telling me they were leaving N scale for HO because there was no Pennsy steam available. I have considered it myself. How about those N scalers who favor other eastern roads? What if they drop out of N scale for the same reason, that being their favorite roads were not being made in N scale but were available in HO? Then it is not just a matter of "Pennsy doesn't sell" or "Eastern Roads don't sell" but rather sales in general will suffer and sooner or later the idea will become that "N scale doesn't sell." Everybody is in agreement that the N scale market is a lot smallerthan HO. We need to keep everyone we have just to have a future. Eliminating the eastern road bias would go a long way towards that and who knows, may be the catalyst for attracting more people to N scale.
Which C44-9W do you start out with for your Dash 9's? Is it the SP, UP, or BNSF version, or maybe the old NS version?
Gee, Pensnsy GG-1, wow that was a Western Road? NS SD80, SD70M and now SD70ACe, another Western Road I guess. As for steam, no one is really making much ot that for any road. The fact is they, the manufacturers, make what they know will sell Inkaneer. If you are this unhappy, by all means go to HO and leave us alone.
I used Kato 9-44CW undecorated models, part number 176-3610 as a starting point. The only shell mod I did was move the headlight other than installing the normal BLMA and GMM parts I use. These engines have the wrong end hand railing and are missing a rear anti climber but I overlooked that. They have the narrow style handrail and NS uses the wide. This model also has the porch mounted ditch lights vs pilot mounted ones
ns capt'n you can fix the end railings to the wide by taking the parts from the csx 4400 that is what i did.
I'd really be interested in seeing some actual statistics to back up this (what I consider to be entirely mythical) "eastern bias" claim. What are the facts underlying this assertion? I must ask because I collect eastern road locomotives, and while my collection is by no means comprehensive, it is fairly substantial. The collection currently comprises over 450 unique eastern-road locomotives, of which approximately 190 are Atlas and 150 are Kato. How did Kato become "famous" for not offering eastern roads, when I have PRR, NYC, EL, ERIE, D&H, B&O, C&O, LV, DL&W, and many others from them, with many more still not in my collection? These don't sound like trivial numbers to me, and I'm sure not ready to drop out of the scale because of a shortage in eastern roads.
Manufacturers do what the market demands. N scale has lost undecorated models, kits, lot's of decals, some paints, and most detail parts. I've been told and it's been repeated hundreds of times that these just aren't things that the general N scale market is asking for. There's no reason to believe that east coast RR are any different in this vein. Jason
Again, let's see some facts to support this. All I've seen so far are vague observations. How about just starting with the number of releases by region. Estimates ought to be good enough to establish whether or not the east is being snubbed.
I suspect the grass always looks greener on the other side, but if there is a bias in steam, it's toward USRA designs which with few exceptions were NOT favored by western roads. Let's see, over the years we've had USRA 0-6-0's, 0-8-0's, multiple light and heavy Pacifics, multiple light and heavy Mikados, light and heavy Mountains, light and heavy 2-10-2's, a2-6-6-2 and a 2-8-8-2 if I'm not missing anything. The only truly "western steam" I recall are the two UP articulateds, an SP cab forward and a GS, a GN S2 northern, and one lousy ATSF 4-8-4. Some may think of the Hiawatha 4-4-2 as a western engine, but it was a flatland speeder and didn't go west of Milwaukee.... we have mountains in the West.... Other steam we've had include a NYC Hudson, a Pennsy K4 and a 0-6-0 (granted, not great models) a N&W J, Y6b, Y3, NKP Berkshire, Clinchfield Challenger, Western Maryland 2-8-0, a B&O docksider, an IHB 0-8-0 and a bunch of somewhat generic 4-4-0's, 2-6-0's 2-8-0's and 4-6-0's which can be equally at home across the country by several manufacturers. I'm sure I've forgotten some, but it looks to me like the manufacturers are all over the place.... Still waiting for some decent ATSF steam.... Regards, Otto
I don't know or care if there is a bias. My point is that the reasons being claimed for the alleged bias are the same as the reasons given when asking about the lack of undecorated models or kits; there's not enough demand A.K.A it's not worth our time. If it's true of the latter, then it can also be true of the former. Jason
