The New Walthers Mainline BNSF ES44C4

As soon as my budget allowed, I ordered one of the new Walthers Maintline BNSF ES44C4s. Although these are intended as layout-quality models at a price range and detail level generally comparable to Bachmann and Roundhouse, Walthers has issued these with some road-specific details, notably headlight position and truck sideframes. I was especially interested in the BNSF version, which it calls an ES44C4, since these are very common in my area. In fact, I've got hundreds of photos of these, so I thought that for starters, I'd post prototype and model shots for comparison.

Overall body details appear to be consistent with the prototype photos. There is a basic cab interior.

Major paint and lettering features are reproduced. Smaller labels and builder plates are not. As with other finer details like windshield wipers, brake chains, piping, grab irons, and the like, the question is whether it's worth the considerable effort and time required to add these, given the price level of the loco. Versions with finer details are in fact available from other manufacturers at a higher price. Interestingly, in the 1970s, when afermarket details became common, the Atlas and Athearn bluebox models available didn't have better-detailed counterparts available except in brass, although these ran poorly and often required painting, at a much higher relative price.

The biggest thing to note here is that there is no PTC antenna array on the cab roof. These vary by roadname, and on the BNSF, there are variations among orders, so at this price level, this isn't a big minus. On the other hand, the model press, insofar as it still exists, hasn't covered PTC or modeling options. I'm not sure if there are generally available commercial products for BNSF PTC antennas, though commercial parts do exist for UP and NS versions.

The fuel filler is present to the left of the air tanks here, but there's an object farther to its left that doesn't appear on most BNSF prototypes at least. I believe it may be part of the weight distribution system mentioned below, but the position of this box isn't consistent among orders.

The extra cylinders on the truck sideframe are what makes these locos a "C4" on the BNSF. The trucks do not have traction motors on the center axles, and when starting, the cylinders raise the center axles to take weight off them to allow the powered axles to have more weight on the rail. Walthers has maintained this detail for its BNSF locos. However, the box just under the BNSF AC44C4 class designation in the prototype photo does not appear on the model. This is apparently part of the weight distribution system. Although I mentioned a box above that doesn't always appear, this one does seem consistent in photos I've seen.

The detail that's present on the pilot is correctly positioned and colored, but Walthers didn't include cut levers, air hoses, MU hoses, and MU cables. The plow is the correct size and type for BNSF units. I substituted a Kadee #156 centerset long shank coupler for the Walthers coupler included on the front. This prevents the Kadee uncoupling loop on cars coupling to the loco from interfering with the plow. The Walthers metal couplers seem to be very similar to Kadee #5s, and I don't have problems with them. I left the standard-size Walthers coupler on the rear. I do substitute the Kadee coupler boxes for the Walthers coupler pockets supplied. I needed to trim some material off the top of the Kadee box to get it to fit the mount on this loco. However, the Kadee snap-together design makes installation much easier.

I do have some concern about the brightness of the head and ditch lights, although of any models currently available, I don't think any headlights or ditch lights are bright enough. If I really wanted to get this right, I'd probably want to pull the light board, hard wire the lights to a decoder, and fiddle with the resistor value to the LEDs to make sure that the brightness of the ditch lights in particular is increased. But especially considering the price level of the loco, I don't think this is worth the effort. On the other hand, I think the 3-rail O loco makers do a much better job of punching the headlight brightness up!

Regarding DCC issues, my loco is the DC, DCC-ready version. I agree with fellow blogger and visitor Neal M that too many locos with sound on a layout can be annoying. On the other hand, the price difference between Walthers Mainline locos with sound and DCC and DCC-ready is $50. Adding a DCC-only decoder is about $20, so considering the additional cost of a sound decoder and speaker, the sound versions of these locos are cost-effective. Full premium locos with more detail and all sound features from other manufacturers sell for around $100 more than the Walthers Mainline locos with Soundtraxx limited-feature sound. I certainly don't need to have more than a few locos with full sound features like radio messages and startup sequence.

Below is a photo of the DCC-ready ES44C4 chassis:

The loco is laid out much like the Mainline SD70ACe released several years ago. I'm not sure if there's enough room to put a Digitrax Xtdender capacitor in the speaker enclosure area, but it does appear that not as much material would need to be removed from the upper rear frame to make enough room for one.

Here is the chassis with a Digitrax DH126D decoder installed:

There isn't a whole lot of wiggle room to install these. The shell will just barely fit with the decoder mounted as shown.

My biggest concern with this loco, but it isn't unique to the Mainline marque, is the very brittle plastic horns, which in my experience often don't survive just taking the new loco out of the box. Otherwise, these are smooth-running, robust locos. They meet the need they're intended to supply, good, sturdy models that are meant primarily for layout operation at an affordable price. DCC will allow speed matching with locos of other manufacturers. I will certainly be adding more Walthers Mainline locos in the recent releases to my layout.