Heard Shane from ScaleTrains say that they will release a new ES44 in N Scale in the not to distant future. He also stated that they have the exclusive licensing agreement with BNSF to do the 25th anniversary locomotives! That makes this BNSF fan one happy man. I think the offical announcement will come later this year. What's really good about this is they should be later phase locomotives instead of the early phase ones we have now. It's really a good time for N Scale. But let's hope we also get to see some SD40T-2s. I hope the anniversary locomotives will also be offered in the Operator line too. The special CSX units they showed in HO would also be great in N. Ralph
Agreed that N is finally getting noticed as a market. Too late for my era, but the "time tunnel" (remember that?) may make one or two happen. Saw one on the KC railcam the other day - purty!
I'm in! Hoping there will be options in the rivet counter line. Intermountain is supposed to come out with some SD40T-2s and I'm watching for announcements there too. Although I can model in my own grabs etc I'd rather one come from the factory already installed. I'm lusting for a good Rio Grande in the SD 40T.
I'm not angry about this. Even though I already own 4 Fox Valley and 1 Kato ES44s, I'm still dying to have one with sound, and I passed on the BLI version because I thought it was atrocious. ScaleTrains, Bring. It. On.
They had a Youtube livestream on Thursday where they announced the HO version. It had mixed reactions based on the chatbar, but I expect the models to be high-quality and accurate like all their other trains. They have done a ton of cool stuff, but this was definitely a surprising announcement. In HO scale, Athearn Genesis, MTH, Intermountain, Bachmann, and Walthers Mainline all produce ES44 models. While the ES44 is a common locomotive, the market seems flooded with models that are almost exactly the same. Scaletrains is known for cutting-edge products like the Big Blow, C39-8 and Tier 4. None of those had really been produced before, which made those releases so exciting. It is a bit of a letdown to see them produce a model that every other company has already covered (at least in HO). The launch video featured the 3 CSX 'heritage schemes' (2 First Responder units and camo veterans unit) which made it seem like the paint scheme is their main selling point. When Genesis does a re-run, I can guarantee they will do those too.
Yeah, am glad that at least it's been announced what our next locomotive is going to be and we didn't have to go through the pre-announcement guessing game like on the turbine. In the HO locomotive announcement I think a lot of people were expecting the four axle that ScaleTrains said they are working on or an AC4400CW. I think sometimes it's best just to make the announcement and not give people time to get their hopes up only to be disappointed, but that's just me. They said somewhere that it's a three year process from start of a project to delivery so hard telling what "good stuff" is awaiting us down the road. Ralph
I really do hope to see a tunnel motor from ScaleTrains in N scale, I think they would do a great job on those. Ralph
Tunnel motors from Scaletrains would be great. I've very satisfied with everything I've bought from them and would happily order from them confident that they'll deliver a high quality product.