I have around 12 of these locos and I’d really like to have E44’s. If someone has real brass E44’s they’d like to trade for my plastic E33’s, I doubt you would have to twist my arm too much…
Failing that, has anybody ever considered kitbashing/converting the E33 into an E44? When you look at the two locos, they have a lot in common, but the E44 has additional trim pieces and a different nose than the E33. The E33 has additional underbody detail hidden behind side-skirt trim panels. These could be trimmed-back in a similar manner to the E44. I think if you could just do something to get that look you’d have a “good enough” representation of an E44…
Does anybody have any ideas how to go about it? (I’d like to hear the “real modeller’s” view and then the “I’m a klutz” modeller’s view…)
Many years ago I kitbashed a U25c by rivarossi for the trucks and chassis and an Athearn Sdp40 shell into a fairly accurate model. I just cleaned everything off the roof and cemented a sheet of thin styrene to finish the box and fabricated a new square nose. i wound up with about six of them and if you do it right the motor slips right into the SDP40 cab. Everything on the underframe past the motor gets wiped out. Bill Schopp in RMC did a straight conversion of a U25C back around 1968. It wasn’t quite as realsitci as mine but it was pretty close.
Turns out they’re both exactly the same length. The hoods are the same shape, just have different nose and trim panels, but they do have different pantographs. That part is correct.
Here are the details:
Manufacturer: General Electric
Class: EL-C
Weight: 174 tons
Length: 69 ft. 6 in.
Height: 15 ft. 10 in.
Horsepower: 3300
Tractive effort: 98,500 lbs.
Max. speed: 65 mph.
Pennsylvania Railroad E44 Power type Electric
Builder General Electric
Build date 1960–1963
AAR wheel arr. C-C
UIC classification Co’Co’
Gauge 4 ft 8½ in (1,435 mm)
Length 69 ft 6 in (21.18 m)
Width 10 ft 0 in (3.05 m)
Height 15 ft 0 in (4.57 m) over pantograph locked down
Axle load 64,043 lb (29.0 t)
Locomotive weight 384,600 lb (174.5 t)
Electric system(s) 11 kV, AC, 25 Hz
Current collection method Pantograph
Traction motors 6 of 733 hp (547 kW)
Top speed 70 mph (113 km/h)
Power output 4,400 hp (3.28 MW)
Tractive effort Continuous: 55,500 lbf (246.9 kN);
Maximum: 96,150 lbf (427.7 kN)
It also turns out that a Blueline RSD15 chassis is a very close match to the bachmann underframe. I haven’t tried fitting the bachmann shell on the BLI chassis yet but holding them up side-by-side reveals the wheelbase is the same, the length is the same, the trucks are the same except more detailed. The details between the wheels (air tanks, etc) are different but wouldn’t be hard to do up in styrene (or just move over the bachmann details). Then you would have a BLI runner under a nice E33 (or E44 assuming the conversion) shell.