Putting one of Intermountain's first run General Electric ES44DC's to the BArailsystem standardized tests.
Locomotive weight: 504 grams
Drawbar Pull: 80 grams
Drawbar Push: 72.6 grams
Released in December 2011 in the following paint schemes and road numbers:
Canadian National - 2236 2239 2240 2253
BNSF - 7661 7682 7724 7737 7695
CSX - 5207 5223 5364 5398
Norfolk Southern - 7505 7519 7527 7608
The push/pull tests would be very close to accurate for those units as well...
MSRP *DCC With Sound* $259.95
Detail - Very good 9/10
Sound - User adjustable thanks to the Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder, good sized speaker. 8/10
Weight-push/pull capabilities - Decent push/pull , decent weight 7/10
Operation - Smooth drive train but not enough keep alive capacity in the decoder 7/10
Lighting - Very well done, rear ditch lights, red marker lights (CN) Excellent lighting 9/10
TOTAL SCORE: 8.0 / 10
Recommended buy. For a ready to run locomotive this is pretty much as good as it gets. Take it out of the box and start pulling trains. I am very happy with my ES44DC and probably will get another when the second run comes out.
Video of it running on my layout can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oSKVR...
More HO scale locomotive review & tests:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL079496909FA5E9B4
