Atlas O Premier C44-9W Locomotive, details

These models will not have the gullwing cab.

@Paul Graf posted:

These models will not have the gullwing cab.

Thanks for confirming.
I will take a look at the other road names, for this run.

I see these BNSF C44-9W, regularly and the second thing I notice, after the faded Warbonnet paint, is the gull-wing, shape on the roof of the cabs. This detail is hard to miss, at it right at front and top of the locomotive.

I don’t think I have ever seen a BNSF C44-9W locomotive, in any paint scheme, without the gull-wing cab.

These are just my opinion,

Naveen Rajan

@Paul Graf posted:

These models will not have the gullwing cab.

At least we know.

NO GULLWING CAB on ATSF and BNSF 9w's.Then why would you  do them?

@nikko posted:

NO GULLWING CAB on ATSF and BNSF 9w's.Then why would you  do them?

I would imagine that a company buys a product already released, and re-releases it, they'd offer as many versions as they could to recoup their investment. There's only so many buyers left for it.

It's nice to draw attention to something to see if it can be made. These are toys and every model RR has its level of authenticity.

I have bought cars that have the same road number and just spread them out in the train. I'm not sure if anyone ever noticed that. I don't really mind it.

For someone wondering what these differences are, here are some photos that I took in the last decade, showing the gull-wing cab on C44-9W with the next generation, Evolution locomotive, without the gull-wing cab.

This gull-wing cab is a unique detail on Santa Fe and later BNSF, C44-9W and possibly the BNSF AC4400CW.

Starting from the Evolution Series, the cab roofline looked similar across all ES44AC & ES44DC, locomotives. even on BNSF.

When I first saw them, in person, I found out through a Google search that ATSF ordered them, this way to get the corners of the roof to clear some loader, possibly for coal, for both Dash-8 & Dash-9, with the wider nose, North American Safety cab.

BNSF inherited all these Santa Fe models and despite patching the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme, with their logo or completely, repainting the locomotive into the contemporary BNSF colors, the C44-9W still retain these gull-wing cabs despite being in service close to 3 decades.

These are just my opinion.

Naveen Rajan

great post!

@naveenrajan posted:

For someone wondering what these differences are, here are some photos that I took in the last decade, showing the gull-wing cab on C44-9W with the next generation, Evolution locomotive, without the gull-wing cab.

This gull-wing cab is a unique detail on Santa Fe and later BNSF, C44-9W and possibly the BNSF AC4400CW.

Starting from the Evolution Series, the cab roofline looked similar across all ES44AC & ES44DC, locomotives. even on BNSF.

When I first saw them, in person, I found out through a Google search that ATSF ordered them, this way to get the corners of the roof to clear some loader, possibly for coal, for both Dash-8 & Dash-9, with the wider nose, North American Safety cab.

BNSF inherited all these Santa Fe models and despite patching the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme, with their logo or completely, repainting the locomotive into the contemporary BNSF colors, the C44-9W still retain these gull-wing cabs despite being in service close to 3 decades.

These are just my opinion.

Naveen Rajan

The tooling as purchased from MTH did not have this feature.   It is sometimes impossible or too expensive to modify existing tooling that was not designed from the start to have variations added, so we decided to run the model as is and apply these paint schemes.  Similar decision have been made on other models as well. 

Naveen, Great question

NR,

See if Atlas part  26500302 might be a solution for you.  Atlas made different cab castings for their product;  I imagine the MTH loco has a one-piece body shell [ ? ].

SZ

@Steinzeit posted:

NR,

See if Atlas part  26500302 might be a solution for you.  Atlas made different cab castings for their product;  I imagine the MTH loco has a one-piece body shell [ ? ].

SZ

SZ,

Thanks for the suggestion. I will keep that in mind if I find any at a good price, after they are delivered.

But this being a Premier model, I am unwilling to commit to reserving one for $612, now that I know that they will have incorrect roof profiles.

It is unfortunate that MTH didn’t plan the original tooling, with this variation, in mind. BNSF has the largest field population of these Dash-9, among any railroad. Some of these former BNSF C44-9W locomotives were even sold to other railroads, in the US and abroad. Hence this Gull-Wing cab should be on 3 of the 7 unique schemes, in this run of the Premier, Dash-9, from Atlas, as they are either an ATSF, current or former BNSF Dash-9.

These are just my opinion,

Naveen Rajan

@Steinzeit posted:

NR,

See if Atlas part  26500302 might be a solution for you.  Atlas made different cab castings for their product;  I imagine the MTH loco has a one-piece body shell [ ? ].

SZ

Correct, the MTH is a one piece shell.