Rivet Counter HO Scale GE DASH 9-44CW, Southern Pacific/As Built (R3)
With railroad, road number, and era specific details, our Rivet Counter series DASH-9 is the definitive model of this popular GE locomotive. In our continuing effort to push the boundaries of realism in model railroading, the Rivet Counter DASH-9 features operating LED front, rear, and side walkway lights.
Retail:
OUR SELLING PRICE: $179.99
Retail:
OUR SELLING PRICE: $269.99
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Item Number | Road Number | Control & Sound Options | Our Selling Price | Availability |
---|---|---|---|---|
SXT32383 | 8100 | DCC & Sound Equipped | $269.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32384 | 8100 | DCC/Sound Ready | $179.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32385 | 8117 | DCC & Sound Equipped | $269.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32386 | 8117 | DCC/Sound Ready | $179.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32387 | 8121 | DCC & Sound Equipped | $269.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32388 | 8121 | DCC/Sound Ready | $179.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32389 | 8145 | DCC & Sound Equipped | $269.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32390 | 8145 | DCC/Sound Ready | $179.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32391 | 8149 | DCC & Sound Equipped | $269.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32392 | 8149 | DCC/Sound Ready | $179.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32393 | 8200 | DCC & Sound Equipped | $269.99 | Sold Out |
SXT32394 | 8200 | DCC/Sound Ready | $179.99 | Sold Out |
Product Details
Road Number Specific ScaleTrains
- Era: 1994 to 1999, SP series 8100-8200, built 1994
- Operating LED front, rear, and side walkway lights
- Operating front deck mounted LED ditch lights
- Tall 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
- GE safety cab with three (3) side windows
- Cab interior with desktop controls for both engineer ad conductor
- Large Sinclair “ice skate” communication antenna and small Sinclair “ice skate” end of train (EOT) telemetry antenna
- Motive Equipment Inc. (MEI) ME7000 HVAC Unit
- Early curved engine cab profile
- Early dynamic brake exhaust
- Early electrical cabinet with drop grab irons on rear
- Lost-wax brass Nathan AirChime P-3-R1 horn mounted on engine cab
- Early flanged exhaust stack housing
- Early radiator door grille all the same size
- Low-mounted rear sandfiller
- Standard wheel type handbrake
- Early lifting lugs on ends of radiator wings
- Separate air tanks with upper mounting brackets
- Salem Air Dryer
- 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 non-cantilevered struts on all four sideframes
- Early, square handbrake chain bracket
Rivet Counter DASH-9 Locomotives Also Feature
- Fully-assembled (except undecorated)
- Multiple road numbers
- Printed and LED lighted number boards
- Dimensionally accurate truck centers
- Scale sectioned treadplate detail on the walkways
- Underbody frame rail with separate plumbing and traction motor cables
- Accurate hood door and long hood detail
- Accurately profiled dynamic brake housings
- See-through dynamic brake intakes with resistor grid detail
- Detailed cab interior with separate floor, rear wall, seats, and standard AAR control stand
- Sliding cab windows
- Factory-applied wire grab irons, wire lift rings, windshield wipers, snowplows, horns, coupler cut levers, trainline hoses with silver gladhands, sand hatch covers, and much more
- Semi-scale coupler buffer equipped with ScaleTrains.com durable metal semi-scale E Type knuckle couplers
- Directional LED headlights
- All-wheel drive
- All-wheel electrical pick-up
- Motor with 5-pole skew wound armature
- Dual flywheels
- Printing and lettering legible even under magnification
- Color matched to Tru-Color Paint colors whenever possible
- Operates on Code 70, 83 and 100 rail
- Packaging safely stores model
- Minimum radius: 18”
- Recommended radius: 22”
- DCC & sound equipped locomotives also feature
- ESU LokSound 5 DCC & Sound decoder with “Full Throttle”
- Dual cube-type speakers
- Accurate FDL-16 prime mover and auxiliary sounds, horn, bell, and more
- ESU designed “PowerPack” with two super capacitors
- Operates on both DC and DCC layouts*
- DC/DCC & sound ready locomotives also feature
- Operable using a DC power pack
- DCC ready with 21-pin connector
* some sound and lighting function on DCC & sound equipped models are not operable using DC
Prototype History
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.
Rivet Counter HO Scale GE DASH 9-44CW, Southern Pacific/As Built (R3)
From: $179.99