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Original price $219.99
Original price $219.99 - Original price $219.99
Original price $219.99
Current price $174.99
$174.99 - $174.99
Current price $174.99

ScaleTrains 31305 Rivet Counter HO Scale GE Dash 9-44CW Santa Fe ATSF 600

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, operator’s 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 Fe’s 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 Pacific’s units were some of the first new six-axle power on the beleaguered railroad’s 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 Western’s 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 GE’s “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. NS’s 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 BNSF’s 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 today’s railroads for the foreseeable future.

FEATURES:

  • Era: as delivered, series 600-611, built 2-3/1994
  • One-piece nose top grab irons
  • Early Hi-Ad trucks with reinforcement bulge and non-cantilevered struts on all four sideframes
  • Large Sinclair “ice skate” communication antenna and small Sinclair “ice skate” End Of Train (EOT) telemetry antenna
  • Operating pilot-face mounted LED ditch lights
  • Small snowplow with open doors
  • 4-step see-through stepwells
  • Wide profile end handrails
  • GE safety cab with “gull-wing” roof profile and three (3) side windows
  • Low headlight
  • Nose door with window
  • Motive Equipment Inc. (MEI) ME7000 HVAC Unit
  • Early (curved) engine cab profile
  • Lost-wax brass Leslie RS-3L horn mounted on engine cab
  • Early flanged exhaust stack housing
  • Early lifting lugs on ends of radiator wings
  • High-mounted rear sandfiller
  • Separate air tanks with upper mounting brackets
  • Dual fuel fills per side with rear fill “blanked”
  • Spare coupler knuckle holders on truck sideframes
  • All-new model
  • *NEW* Operating front, rear, and side LED walkway lights
  • Fully-assembled
  • Up to six (6) different road numbers
  • Printed and LED lighted number boards
  • Five (5) 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
    • Spartan cab with high headlight (C40-9)
  • Dayton Phoenix (DPG) Model 280620 or Motive Equipment (MEI) ME7000 HVAC Units
  • 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 see-through stepwells
  • Narrow or wide profile end handrails
  • One or two-piece nose top grab iron(s)
  • Early (curved) or late (angled) 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 steel bell (unless noted), brake wheel and more
  • Semi-scale coupler buffer
  • Durable metal semi-scale Type E knuckle couplers
  • 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
  • Operates on Code 70, 83, and 100 rail
  • Packaging safely stores model
  • Minimum Radius: 18”
  • Recommended Radius: 22”
    • DCC & sound ready locomotives also feature:
    • Operate on DC layouts
    • DCC ready with 21-pin connector
    • Not all sound and lighting functions on DCC and sound equipped versions are operable using DC