Its exciting because thats the most common locomotive I see while railfanning the BNSF. Other than that, spotting differences are likely only relevant to people such as I who relish and nitpick such things. And obviously there is a market for that otherwise Scaletrains would just use one shell and chassi mold and call that an ET44C4, C44-9, and ES44 all at once.
Also, I love the air compressor “whoop” which they sadly did away with in the ET44C4s…
Heres the website link. That should prove to be adequate documentation:
Even though I model modern, I wasn’t in the market for another loco, and I didn’t “NEED” one. However, I pre-ordered one, here’s why:
I’m a firefighter. So, I pre-ordered the First Responder 911. Part of the proceeds go to charity.
ScaleTrains puts a lot of detail into their products
For me, the price was reasonable for DCC/Sound
It has a LokSound decoder with 2 sugar cube speakers. My next loco upgrade will incorporate dual speakers, so this will give me an idea of the sound level.
Although Athearn offers a First Responder loco and I like that paint scheme, it was $40 more and has only one speaker.
The $40 difference allowed me to pre-order a 4785 hopper, set to be released within a week of the loco.
This will be my first ScaleTrains loco. I will start a ScaleTrains train, consisting of this loco, the pre-ordered hopper and a tank car I won at an RPM years ago.
As we’ve discussed numerous times, everyone’s wants and desires are different. Excited? Yes, but not because it’s yet another ES44, but because of the things listed.