Introduction

ScaleTrains 32368 Rivet Counter HO Scale GE Dash 9-44CW BNSF Heritage 4331

General Electric wrestled the title of top domestic locomotive builder from EMD during the late 1980s with their Dash-8 series. GE once again positioned themselves to shakeup the locomotive world yet again less than a decade later. Entering the 1990s, GE completely revamped their locomotive lineup by utilizing customer feedback, learning from experience gained from previous locomotive series, and improvements in technology.

A single C44-9W demonstrator unit, numbered 8601, made its debut in 1993 (and later became C&NW 8601). While similar at first glance to predecessor models like the C40-8 and C40-8W, the Dash-9 series featured a few notable physical differences. Built on a slightly longer platform that allowed for a massive 5,000 gallon fuel tank, Dash-9s also featured thicker radiator wings at the rear of the carbody. This is usually the quickest way to differentiate them from previous models.

Thanks to its long production span and customer options, small detail differences could be noted between various customer orders. This includes changes with HVAC system vendors (the large A/C box behind the cab on the conductors side), engine cab profile, radiator lifting lugs, hood end, trucks, fuel tank, stepwells, operators cab, and even handrail profiles.

The C44-9W proved to be extremely popular over its production span with over 3,500 locomotives being sold new to ATSF, BC Rail, BNSF, CN, C&NW, NS (including 100 spartan cab equipped versions, nicknamed Top Hats), QNS&L, SP, and UP.

NS was an important customer with over 1,000 Dash-9s on the roster. They preferred customized models in the form of 100 spartan-cab equipped, 4,000hp C40-9s (nicknamed Top Hats) and numerous examples of safety cab-equipped versions rated at 4,000hp, and designated as C40-9Ws. All C40-9/Ws would eventually be uprated to 4,400hp with their designations changed accordingly.

Over the years, the Dash-9s could be found in a variety of assignments. Santa Fes C44-9Ws were delivered in the famed red and silver Superfleet scheme and could be found hurtling across the southwest with hot piggyback trailer and container trains in tow.

Southern Pacifics units were some of the first new six-axle power on the beleaguered railroads roster in more than a decade. They were pressed into a variety of assignments ranging from hot intermodal trains to coal and iron ore drags.

Chicago & North Westerns units made their debut in flashy lightning stripe livery and handled numerous assignments during their brief tenure before being absorbed by Union Pacific.

The Dash-9 series remained in production until the early 2000s when it was superseded by GEs Evolution Series ES40/44-series models. Age has begun to catch up with the earliest C44-9W and related models so some railroads are storing and/or rebuilding these veteran units. NSs oldest units, the spartan-cab C40-9s, are being rebuilt with the latest GE safety cab for increased crew comfort and safety plus AC-traction for increased performance.

Originally built in the early 1990s, some of BNSFs former Santa Fe fleet are also in the process of being rebuilt with AC-traction to extend their service lives and improve their performance.

Built over a long timeframe, and proving to be a solid, upgradeable platform, the C44-9W family of locomotives including rebuilds is sure to remain a fixture on todays railroads for the foreseeable future.

FEATURES:

• Era: late 2010s to present, series BNSF 4300-4598, built 1-12/99
• LinkUp PTC antennas
• Exhaust stack storage cover bracket
• Clear air cab and engine cab swapped with H1 unit
• Dayton Phoenix (DPG) Model 280260 HVAC Unit
• Wabtec Graham White 994-500 Series Air Dryer
• Engine cab swapped from H1 painted unit
• Rusty air tanks
• Green color under lower yellow stripes on nose front
• GE safety cab with gull-wing roof profile and four (4) side windows
• Operating LED front, rear, and side walkway lights
• Operating front deck mounted LED ditch lights
• Short snowplow with open doors and grab irons
• 5-step stepwells with see through steps
• Walkway with front anticlimber
• Narrow profile end handrails
• Front nose headlight
• Nose door with window
• Two-piece nose top grab irons
• Standard battery box doors
• Cab interior with desktop controls for both engineer ad conductor
• Late angled engine cab profile with tri-fold power assembly access doors
• Late dynamic brake exhaust
• Early electrical cabinet with drop grab irons on rear
• Lost-wax brass Nathan AirChime K3LAR2 horn mounted on engine cab
• Late non-flanged exhaust stack housing
• Tall latched access door on long hood end
• Late radiator door grilles in alternating heights
• High-mounted rear sandfiller
• Standard wheel type handbrake
• Early lifting lugs on ends of radiator wings
• Separate air tanks with lower mounting brackets, connector pipe and connector pipe cover
• Fuel tank mounted steel bell
• Dual fuel fills per side
• 5,000-galon fuel tank with vertical weld seam
• Round and vertical analog fuel gauges
• Late Hi-Ad trucks with cantilever struts on right front and left rear sideframes
• Early, square handbrake chain bracket
• Spare coupler knuckle holders on rear pilot face
• Fully-assembled (except undecorated)
• Multiple road numbers
• Operating front, rear, and side LED walkway lights
• Printed and LED lighted number boards
• Four (4) cabs
• Gullwing with three (3) side windows
• Gullwing with four (4) side window
• Standard safety cab with low headlight
• Standard safety cab with high headlight
• Dayton Phoenix (DPG) Model 280620 or Motive Equipment (MEI) ME7000 HVAC Units
• GE Hi-Ad trucks with separately applied brake cylinders, air plumbing, and struts (per prototype)
• Early with reinforcement bulge
• Late with cantilever struts on right front and left rear sideframes
• Late with non-cantilevered struts on all four sideframes
• Late with cantilever struts on all four sideframes
• Rotating axle bearing caps
• Nose door with or without window
• Four (4) step or five (5) step stepwells with see through steps
• Narrow or wide profile end handrails
• One or two-piece nose top grab iron(s)
• Early (curved), late (angled) or late (angled) with tri-fold power assembly access doors engine cab profile
• Early flanged or late non-flanged exhaust stack housing
• Early or late lifting lugs on ends of radiator wings
• Low or high rear sand filler
• Separate air tanks with lower or upper mounting brackets
• Three (3) types of fuel fills per side: single; dual; dual with rear fill blanked
• Spare coupler knuckle holders on truck sideframes or rear pilot face
• GE nub pattern walkway tread
• Accurately profiled frame with separately applied plumbing and traction motor cabling
• Detailed cab interior with separate floor, rear wall, seats, and desktop controls or control stand, per prototype
• Tinted cab side windows
• 26 individually-applied etched metal see-through radiator intake and exhaust grilles on sides and top of radiator compartment
• Bathtub exhaust silencer
• 5,000-gallon fuel tank
• Factory-applied detail parts: wire grab irons, snowplow, spare knuckles, trainline hoses, 3-hose MU clusters, uncoupling levers, windshield wipers, mirrors, sunshades, air tanks, fuel tank mounted bell, brake wheel, exhaust stack and more
• Motor with 5-pole skew wound armature
• Dual flywheels
• All-wheel drive
• All-wheel electrical pick-up
• Directional LED headlights
• Printing and lettering legible under magnification
• Paint colors match Tru-Color Paint color wherever possible
• Operates on Code 70, 83, and 100 rail
• Packaging safely stores model
• Minimum Radius: 18
• Recommended Radius: 22