Folks, Charlie Ro played Santa Claus in our house this year... as the new ES44AC's arrived right on Christmas Eve afternoon! Doesn't get much better than that! 
Candidly speaking, I was tired of watching prices spiral into the stratosphere for the Vision Line BNSF ES44, so I was really glad to see Lionel offer the BNSF road-name in their array of new, non-diecast ES44's. On the surface though, these locomotives appear to be the exact same tooling as Lionel's prior run of ES44's about a year ago. I bought a pair of CN models back then, and they were about $150 less per locomotive. So what gives with the price increase on this go 'round??? 
My first guess is Lionel testing the waters to see how much they can get for these puppies. A few bucks over the prior year's models and I would have written that off to Chinese labor. But $150 per locomotive (which is roughly 38-40% over the prior run) smells more like Lionel pushing the price envelope on these to see what the market will bear. 
And I suppose we're the fools for buying this stuff. 
However, I had two motives in mind when I decided to splurge a bit for these models.
First, I wanted a second BSNF unit to pair up with the original #6431 BNSF Vision Line ES44 (diecast) that I snagged a few years ago from a forum member. The natural counterpart to BNSF #6341 is of course its die-cast twin-brother, BNSF #6436, reportedly produced in smaller quantities. And ironically enough, one just recently did make an appearance on eBay for the insane amount of $1800. 
But there's no way on God's green Earth I was gonna pay anything near that for ONE locomotive, when I paid less than that for all three of the units I purchased from this production run. Perhaps a lot of other folks are thinking along similar lines, 'cause the BNSF unit from this 2015 production run appears to already be a popular choice. And the dealers who do have one or two extra units are already placing a premium on them. One forum sponsor is now asking the $650 MSRP for all of these 2015 ES44AC models, and another has a modest $30 premium on the BNSF model over their regular selling-price of the other 2015 ES44AC models.
Anyway, the street-prices will be what they are. So here are a few quick iPhone pics of the nice models I purchased... Enjoy!!!
The "golden swoosh" is a nice variation, and makes for an eye-catching MU configuration when paired with its Vision Line "big brother" (in terms of weight and price). Given the $530 I paid at its pre-order price, this was a much more cost-effective way to achieve a double-headed BNSF ES44AC configuration. 
Perhaps in a few years when prices retreat from the stratosphere on the BNSF Vision Line models, I may add a 3rd BNSF unit, #6436, to the roster. Or maybe Lionel will even issue another non-diecast BNSF ES44 in their 2016 catalog. 
Hey, we can all dream, right??? Until then, here's my newly double-headed BNSF configuration, which should have plenty of pulling-power for my needs.
I should have stopped at just the one BNSF model. However, earlier this year I took delivery of the Sunset/GGD El Capitan cars, and thought... Geee, wouldn't it be cool to head that train up with some "modern" motive power instead of the purely prototypical F3 configurations that are most common. Well... that line of thinking set me back another grand or so for the two Lionel Santa Fe powered ES44's. 
Pricey for sure... but it's still less than the price of a complete contingent of Santa Fe F3 A's and B's -- although I admit an F3 ABBBA configuration heading up a long El Capitan train would certainly look pretty cool too.
Anyway, here are a couple of pics of Santa Fe #440 and #444...
As for features... these models are nicely equipped. Both the BNSF and Santa Fe units have silver trucks, which really accents the nice detail on them. And although I haven't been able to test my units on the track yet, the steps leading up to the pilot platform seem to move independently of the trucks themselves. So while they are not fixed pilots, it's certainly a step in the right direction from the more common approach of having the coupler, pilot-steps and trucks move together as one integrated piece. Minimum curve as stated in the specs is O-54. Nice!!!
There's been some question about placement of the headlights for different road-names... and I'll leave that to the experts. All I know is that both the BNSF and Santa Fe models which I purchased have the headlights over the cab windshield. And they look absolutely fine there to me. For the price, I suppose these models should be as accurate as possible to the prototype (within reason). But then again... these are not Vision Line models either.
As I said earlier, these are very pricey locomotives for sure. And when I first saw the $650 MSRP when they were catalog'd, I gulped. But when I looked at the alternatives on the market to what I was trying to accomplish, these 3 new ES44's turned out to be a cost-effective way to achieve what I had in mind.
If you're on the fence about purchasing one of these models, I wouldn't wait too long. Sellers are already in game-playing mode with the BNSF model. And I suspect that model will disappear before we see across-the-board, year-end inventory clearance sales applying to these jewels.
David
This is my first modern Lionel engine and my first engine with Legacy. Now all I need to do is find a lightly used Reading Heritage engine to run with it!
