As stated the Lionel NS-NKP Heritage ES44 diesel finally arrived.
To be clear I am a BIG MTH fan. When my local toy train shop gave me the MTH four-page NS Heritage Series brochure I immediately ordered the non-powered NS/NKP unit to drag behind my Lionel Legacy 765 Berk (6-11212). Also added three of the MTH power units to my purchase list. It should have arrived last May (2013). But luckily MTH failed to ship it. It was fortunate since I figured out that the MTH ES44’s were not prototypically correct for the NS Heritage units. The major disappointments with the MTH ES44’s were the nose door location and long hood headlight orientation.
I turned to the Lionel catalog but saw that the NKP (and also Lehigh Valley) were shown (cataloged) with INCORRECT as originally painted out shopped. Contacted Lionel, but they were UNABLE to verify the correctness of production units. A forum member finally posted a picture from York I believe. Ordered from local dealer Nov. 7th. As of Feb. 7th the local dealers attempts to acquire through Lionel distributors failed. Now ironically Lionel’s main place and warehouse is only 30-miles south. Found one at an Authorized Lionel dealer in Columbus, OH on eBay. Paid full price but then it took USPS 8-days to get it here (426-miles by road/320-miles by air) via 2-Day Priority Mail. Picked it up at PO Feb.18.
Here are a series of pictures of my Lionel unit and a MTH unit. The Lionel has nose door on correct side and log hood headlights in correct orientation. Also as pointed out by another forum member the radiator screens are raised and vent pattern is correct or at least more correct. I also noticed the can side windows are correct on the Lionel and also the pilot handrails and stanchions are more correct on the Lionel. And let us not over look the semi fixed pilots.
Now as to the paint both missed the mark some how but I see the Lionel unit overall better. The stripes on the Lionel to me appear in proper proportions to each other. But both missed the correct angle on the first yellow stripe on the nose. On the prototype there is a slight wedge shaped black stripe from top of hood contour. On the Lionel that black stripe is almost parallel. On the MTH the black wedge is too big. Now what this dose is moves the stripes along the body sides. The stripes are slightly high on the Lionel but more than slightly low on the MTH. On the Lionel the road name, road number and “NS” reporting marks appear to be better shaped and proportioned. The yellow stripes on the Lionel are somewhat transparent in places. Also on the Lionel yellow paint did NOT fill many of the detail groves resulting in black (lines like) in the stripes and lettering. Additionally on the Lionel some of the top deck and end of radiators there is a mild orange peel affect. The MTH unit has more prototypical signage decaling.
Make no mistake in my opinion Lionel did a MUCH better job on these NS ES44 units.
The biggest bummer with Lionel is they did NOT make non-powered units in prototypical road numbers.
Lionel
MTH
Lionel on left
Lionel on left
Lionel on right
Together
As I stated, I am or have been a BIG MTH fan, but Lionel ate MTH's lunch with these NS Heritage ES44's.
Ron
