Lionel ES44AC's

@breezinup posted:

Like you, though, I also prefer the look of them blackened.

Sounds pretty easy to fix, even for a painting klutz like me.

@MELGAR posted:

Is the 1942 version a model of an actual locomotive or just a fantasy paint scheme? Please excuse my ignorance.

MELGAR

Fantasy, was produced by TRAINWORLD and dubbed The WARHAWK, because of the nose art.

@3rail posted:

Well guys. I just opened my CN Heritage EJ&E. Looks great, excellent paint job and runs like a champ.

But, both of my MU cables are busted off. There is only one of them in the box, the other is MIA.

Very frustrating.

Donald

I've glued my fair share of those back on, no good though that it's missing one entirely. I wonder what Lionel will do. Hopefully you don't have to ship the entire locomotive in. I'm worried about that on mine once the dealer decides to ship them to me

@Surefire posted:

I've glued my fair share of those back on, no good though that it's missing one entirely. I wonder what Lionel will do. Hopefully you don't have to ship the entire locomotive in. I'm worried about that on mine once the dealer decides to ship them to me

Yes, Surefire, me too. I may try to drill the holes deeper in the receptacle castings. Most likely will fix the front one. The rear is not very noticeable once it is coupled to another unit or cars. Regardless, just sloppy quality control which should not be happening on a $700 locomotive.
Donald

is the ns 40th set out yet?

very sad i had to pass up on that set

oh well another holy grail item along with the new hope set and rocket booster set i'll probably never own

seems like my dreams are useless these days of having my own escape from this nasty world and my scary morbid thoughts of death and other scary things

an escape where i can build an O and S gauge utopia where the ground is covered in snow , everyday is christmas, aliens are friendly and give us cool tech from space and people live in harmony and my imaginary friend Fenix Starr is president of the USA

As noted waaaaaay up at the top of the thread where I posted photos of my new BNSF ES44AC we got on the topic of the broken MU cable, and (in my opinion) how unsightly the Lionel rendition was.
I got the idea to craft my replacement, and there is a bit of funny story to it. I first tried some steel wire I had but it was too stiff to bend. I then thought I could soften some styrene rod and shape it, but that became frustrating and too hard to manage the temperature and shape etc. And then on the way home from dinner tonight I stopped into my FLHS to see what would work, only to strike out. But then a most fortuitous sighting happened.

As I was going down the basement steps of our 95 year old home I spied the tail end of some ancient telephone wiring that I never bothered to dispose of. And what did I see but some orange solid core copper wire on one of the strands! I snipped a piece off, formed it to shape with my fingers and hobby pliers, and stripped the ends. The Lionel MU sockets already have a hole, but I cleaned out the old glue with a pin vise and bit. A dab of super glue, and the new “hose” slipped right into place. I didn’t even need to paint it, and it’s prototypically coated in rubber. Photos below of my wire source and the rear pilot. Can’t see it by that angle, but it also obeys gravity and “hangs” vertically, contrary to the Lionel version.

Repurposed salvage! Looks good.

Looks great! That's what they should have looked like. Even looking back at the Lionel Dash-8s from the mid 90s, the MU cable was better proportioned.

Rob

Finally got my set. Added the IC and WC to the original group since I have a problem with buying trains. 3 MU hoses and a brake hose were broken off, reattached all without issue. Overall I'm very pleased with how these turned out.

Hi Team,

I picked up this Lionel ES44AC BNSF beauty from Eastside Trains in Kirkland, WA.  They are about a 60-minute drive from my home in Tacoma, traffic on I-5 is not too bad on a Saturday morning. While I can choose to have them ship it to me, I prefer to pick it up directly and avoid any damage then can occur from shipping a single unit. 

Where I did run into a problem was with the Bluetooth, the engine just would not run, nothing was working!  Man was I upset! Here we go again, no doubt that the problem was due to poor quality control somewhere at Lionel! After I cooled down and read the manual, I uncovered that there is a "Bluetooth Switch" on the engine, so I tried that, still no go.  Then it dawned on me that perhaps my version of the LionChief app was a bit old, so I uploaded the new version, and everything works fine. Go figure.  The instructions from the manual are below. 

Just received the Trainworld Exclusive 1942 ES44AC...it is gorgeous!  Love the paint scheme

I have the BC Rail and the E J&E units and I am disappointed with the color of the trucks and fuel tanks on both of them.  They appear to be a light bluish gray.  In any pictures of the real engines they all look to be either a silver aluminum color or a medium gray.  It is my understanding that the original livery color for the trucks and fuel on both is silver.  

Larry

I plan to add one of the new 2024 BNSF ES44ACs to my layout this year. I would love if Lionel did a BNSF ES44C4 with the correct truck details (also an FEC ES44C4). Lionel did include GE Radial Steering Truck tooling for their new CSX ES44AHs. I would also love an ET44C4 and/or ET44AC Tier 4 unit with Legacy control.