Intermountain ES44AC, ES44DC and Athearn SD70ACe's

[NYSW F45]

padded envelope showed up yesterday from IM with the replacement mesh grill I needed. Now i just hope the number boards show up soon.

[NYSW F45]

got the other parts I needed yesterday. CP red handrails. Stupid me didn't even realize that the CP doesn't have rear ditch lights. Sooooo, time to modify the ditch light off the NS handrail to the CP handrail and paint it. The one disappointment is the numberboards that were sent. I still haven't been able to figure out what this part is that actually came. I cant tell if it's the clear lens or something else. BUt its definitely not the plastic numberboards.

[bigB]

Hey Guys,

I put this in the Wiring/DCC section too, but I figure some of you with the NS version may find it of interest. Its a video of how to easily rewire your NS ES40DC for flashing ditch lights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQSVGWxsoIc

Brad

[bigB]

Hey everyone,

I forget where, but somewhere within this thread a while back several of us were discussing putting the new boxcar logo of CSX on these locos. I even joked tongue in cheek about kitbashing a decal. Well, Microscale just released these:

http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/...duct_Count=387

Im personally waiting for Intermountain to release a run of these hopefully in the ES44AH version.

Take care,

Brad

[Orange Irish]

So after some time with these models, has anyone found a significant difference in performance between the Athearns and IMs? I can live with or fix cosmetic faults, but I'm more concerned about motor and traction and overall operating quality. Is there much difference between the two? Have minor deficiencies been corrected after the initial runs?

[diburning]

Intermountain has fixed their GEVOs after the first run. The lights are brighter and the engines run a little smoother.

Athearn's fixed the speaker enclosure issue after the first run. Both are quality products.

As for operation-wise, the Athearn SD70ACe appears to be heavier than the Intermontain GEVO. But, the Athearn Genesis motors are still a hit or miss when trying to run them with each other. My Intermountain GEVOs are the same. (one of the four always tries to go faster or slower than the others)

[Orange Irish]

Thanks. I won't be running consists but when I run several trains at a time I'll hope and prefer that they don't require too much attention in preventing run-ins. I contemplated getting two of each, but based on this info prehaps I'll buy four IMs so I can be more certain of the speed consistency. Thanks!

[diburning]

My Intermountains have the same problem as well. I would still reccommend the Athearn though. The Athearn has better sound.

[NYSW F45]

When I finally upgrade the speaker in my es44dc i'll have to post a comparison video.

[Orange Irish]

diburning -

Oh, I misunderstood what you meant by "the same". They both have Tsunami's, so is it the sound quality that is different or the types of sounds available on each model?