ES44AC's Are In!

Beautiful! How is the sound set?

Here's the PA and Conrail ES44's:

 

 

Wow, very impressive!  Thanks for the pics.

Any ES44 in the UP line

 

Ken M

       
       

Not in this group.  These are the Norfolk Southern heritage engines.  But Mario's Trains had a UP Boy Scouts of America die-cast ES44 on sale over the weekend.

David

I think this run was all NS Heritage Units.  My NS unit won't show up on the west coast till late next week.  I'm a bit giddy.  I haven't seen a red/yellow NS unit in 50 years.

Sure wish someone had pictures of the NKP unit.  But I see they (Lionel) got the LV unit CORRECT, that is NOT as incorrectly depicted in the catalog.  So this gives hope that the NKP unit I have on order being correct.

 

Sure do LIKE the fact that the nose door is correct and long hood headlights are correct.  Lionel APPEARS to out done MTH on these, and I am a big MTH fan.  BUT MTH particularly Mike Wolf made the WRONG decision not investing in the new tooling to make these right! 

we have been talking about the heritage units here.

 

heritage units.

Very nice looking units. I like how Lionel "semi-fixed" the pilots. 

I was just gonna say the same thing Matt. Very small gap between the body and the pilot. Also very nice detail on the pilots. All the MU hoses actually fit through the holes in the plow, air hose, MU cables, and even extra knuckles on the rear pilot. very nice! 

still waiting for my Pennsy and southern units to arrive. The Pennsy looks great in the pictures, thanks for posting. 

Oh man I was just gonna buy the conrail. The Pennsylvania is awesome looking. 

Any chance we could get a video?

In those pictures they don't look glossy finish .Did they do these in mate finish? 

would like to no how the sound set is,

Yes they all have the gloss finish.  Although they don't look quite as glossy as the SD 70s in my opinion.  It just doesn't show up in pics well.  The conrail looked really glossy in the store.  The pennsy and lehigh valley not quite as glossy, might just be the color.  

Very nice. In addition to the nose door location and light positions, mentioned above, notice that the screens on top of the radiator wing are raised, rather than fitting flush with the surrounding surface (as on original ES44 production) and notice the smaller, more uniform vents in the car body underneath the radiator wing. (Gone is the single large screen accompanied by a few smaller ones). Both are features of late ES44 production. Lionel did a nice job in accurately representing these changes. Regardless of how one feels about die cast vs. plastic, the accuracy in these models I think makes the new tooling worthwhile.

For those of us who can't run the fixed pilots, Lionel has done a great job on these models and past models like the AC6000's, SD70ace and now the ES44ac's. The semi-fixed pilots as Matt calls them is a good is a good way of making them look like fixed pilots. Nice job Lionel. 

 

 

Less than 10 days till I open up my PRR ES44AC and matching EV cabin.

This type of pilot originally came on the Vision Hybrids and I agree that it is fantastic! It is almost a perfect compromise. IMHO ALL new Lionel diesels should use this type of pilot. There is no reason for anything else. This is one of the best innovations that Lionel has come out with over the past few years.

 

I run would kadees on all my engine if they ever make them ussable by legacy remote.. But to answer your question the coupler attaches to the pilots and its the same as  the sd70 and ac6000 lionel engines.. so if this helps ..

+1 on the pilots.  

David call me with a price on the conrail!

Thanks for posting pictures of the NS Heritage ES44ACs!

 

Regards,

Swafford

Eric Siegel has the Central of Georgia posted on his Facebook page.  It's pretty sharp.

 

Has anyone purchased the red Norfolk Southern unit, and if so, have an actual photo of it to share?

Is anyone else having issues with these things pulling cars on O54? I've had mine running around the tree, which is half O72 and half O54, and the engine runs by itself just fine, but couple a car up to it, and it doesnt seem like there's enough travel in the rear end to not pull the trailing car off the track. Have tried 3 different cars right now, always the same result. Normally not an issue as my layout has an O72 loop, but my legacy set is hooked up to the tree layout for the time being.

I experienced this with the diecast ones .They have the same pilots ..I have noticed they like cars that have the couplers that swing independently from the wheels.. I hope this helps .. They don't like cars that everything is fixed on them as in the truck and coupler are one ....

Thanks for posting your heritage unit photos.

As others have mentioned, the semi-fixed pilots ARE great.

 

I can't run these yet so I can't answer the questions on sound.

 

Here are some pics of my heritage units...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They look great Keith, thanks for posting.

I really like that Norfolk Southern!!

Good Day Gentlemen,

 

Thanks for posting the pictures. These new ES44AC's look fantastic!

 

Regards,

Swafford

Keith,

 

Thanks for posting the pics of the red NS unit, as well, as posting the Interstate unit.  I have been considering both of those units.  Your photos made it a bit easier on me.

Blue liner, you will love them in person.  These are the two paint schemes I wanted most and am very glad I got them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also got a Pennsy, but its pictured above. That Conrail unit looks very tempting, too bad I'm all tapped out this month.

Yabba-Dabba-Doo the NKP unit has the Prototypical CORRECT paint scheme (NOT as depicted in the catalog).  Looking forward for mine to arrive. These ES44s with the correct nose door position, long hood horizontal headlights, screen & vent detail etc. eat MTH's lunch.  Oh and there is the pilots.  That is my opinion and I am a big big MTH fan but they missed the mark on these HS-Heritage units.

 

The two downsides with these Lionel units is not modeling the long hood ditch lights (operational OR not) and if one wants several of the units WITH prototypical road numbers we are FORCED to purchase the expensive powered units, NO non-powered with correct numbers.

 

Ron

 

Martin correct me if I am wrong, but BNSF, UP, HS and others have ES44 units with nose doors on both the left or right sides all dependent of road number.  BUT all the HS-Heritage units are of the new version/phase with doors on right plus other details.

Ron,

 

You are right.  Some units, like BNSF 6380 and 6381, have the door on the right side, while most have it on the left side.

 

Thanks for pointing that out.  I appreciate your knowledge of the prototype!

 

Martin