Description
The GE DASH 9 replaced the earlier DASH 8 series and featured numerous electronic improvements that enhanced overall performance and reliability. It quickly became one of the most common locomotives in the United States. Most are still in service today. Our Rivet Counter™ DASH 9 sets new standards for railroad, road number and era-specific™ features, factory-applied detail parts, lighting, and sound. All Rivet Counter N Scale locomotives are available DC/DCC ready with Next18 connector or factory equipped with ESU LokSound™ 5 Micro DCC and sound decoder with cube-type speaker.
Road Number Specific ScaleTrains
- All-new model
- Era: 2004 to present
- Series 2603 to 2696
- Road numbers 2603, 2612 and 2626
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- Standard CN Scheme
- Fully-assembled
- Multiple road numbers
- Operating LED-illuminated front and rear deck-mounted ditch lights*
- Printed and LED-illuminated number boards*
- Factory-applied detail parts: wire grab irons, trainline hoses with silver gladhands, 3-hose MU clusters with silver gladhands, MU cable, uncoupling levers, windshield wipers, mirrors, sunshades, brake wheel, and more
- Short snowplow with open doors and grab irons
- Semi-scale Type E knuckle couplers – Micro-Trains® compatible
- Body mounted coupler box – accepts Micro-Trains® 1015/1016 type couplers without modification
- 4-step stepwells
- Walkway with see-through grating, and ribbed anti climbers, front and rear
- Wide profile end handrails
- Nose door without window
- Front LED-illuminated headlight with lenses on low short hood
- GE safety cab with Canadian “teardrop” front windshields, and late sub-base louvers and access panels Detailed cab interior with floor, rear wall, seats, and desktop
- Tinted cab side windows
- Large Sinclair “ice skate” communication antenna and small Sinclair “ice skate” End of Train (EOT) telemetry antenna
- No walkway HVAC unit installed
- Late (angled) engine cab profile
- Late non-flanged exhaust stack housing
- “Bathtub” exhaust silencer
- Exhaust stack storage cover bracket (If applicable)
- Late radiator door grilles in alternating heights
- Low-mounted rear sand filler
- Late lifting lugs on ends of radiator wings
- Rear LED-illuminated vertical headlight with lenses
- Accurately profiled frame with separately applied plumbing and traction motor cabling
- GE Hi-Ad trucks with separately applied brake cylinders and air plumbing
- Separate air tanks with lower mounting brackets
- Fuel tank mounted steel bell
- 5,000 gallon fuel tank
- Single fuel fills per side
- Motor with 5-pole skew wound armature
- Dual flywheels
- All-wheel drive
- All-wheel electrical pick-up
- Printing and lettering legible under magnification
- Operates on Code 55 and 80 rail
- Packaging safely stores model
- Minimum Radius: 9 ¾”
- Recommended Radius: 11"
DCC & sound equipped locomotives also feature:
- ESU-LokSound 5 Micro DCC & sound decoder with “Full Throttle”
- Cube-type speaker
- Accurate FDL-16 prime mover and auxiliary sounds, horn, bell, and more
- Operates on both DC and DCC layouts
DC/DCC ready locomotives also feature:
- Operates on DC layouts
- DCC ready with Next18 connector
- Note: some sound and lighting functions on DCC & sound-equipped versions are not operable using DC
General Electric wrestled the title of top domestic locomotive builder from EMD during the late 1980s with their DASH 8 series. GE once again positioned themselves to shakeup the locomotive world less than a decade later. Entering the 1990s, GE completely revamped their locomotive lineup by utilizing customer feedback, learning from experience gained from previous locomotive series, and improvements in technology.
A single C44-9W demonstrator unit, numbered 8601, made its debut in 1993 (and later became C&NW 8601). While similar at first glance to predecessor models like the C40-8 and C40-8W, the DASH 9 series featured a few notable physical differences. Built on a slightly longer platform that allowed for a massive 5,000 gallon fuel tank, DASH 9s also featured thicker radiator “wings” at the rear of the carbody. This is usually the quickest way to differentiate them from previous models.
Thanks to its long production span and customer options, small detail differences could be noted between various customer orders. This includes changes with HVAC system vendors (the large “A/C” box behind the cab on the conductors side), engine cab profile, radiator lifting lugs, hood end, trucks, fuel tank, stepwells, operator’s cab, and even handrail profiles.
The C44-9W proved to be extremely popular over its production span with over 3,500 locomotives being sold new to ATSF, BC Rail, BNSF, CN, C&NW, NS (including 100 spartan cab equipped versions, nicknamed “Top Hats”), QNS&L, SP, and UP.
NS was an important customer with over 1,000 DASH 9s on the roster. They preferred customized models in the form of 100 spartan-cab equipped, 4,000hp C40-9s (nicknamed “Top Hats”) and numerous examples of safety cab-equipped versions rated at 4,000hp, and designated as C40-9Ws. All C40-9/Ws would eventually be uprated to 4,400hp with their designations changed accordingly.
Over the years, the DASH 9s could be found in a variety of assignments. Santa Fe’s C44-9Ws were delivered in the famed red and silver “Superfleet” scheme and could be found hurtling across the southwest with hot piggyback trailer and container trains in tow.
Southern Pacific’s units were some of the first new six-axle power on the beleaguered railroad’s roster in more than a decade. They were pressed into a variety of assignments ranging from hot intermodal trains to coal and iron ore drags.
Chicago & North Western’s units made their debut in flashy “lightning stripe” livery and handled numerous assignments during their brief tenure before being absorbed by Union Pacific.
The DASH 9 series remained in production until the early 2000s when it was superseded by GE’s “Evolution Series” ES40/44-series models. Age has begun to catch up with the earliest C44-9W and related models so some railroads are storing and/or rebuilding these veteran units. NS’s oldest units, the spartan-cab C40-9s, are being rebuilt with the latest GE safety cab for increased crew comfort and safety plus AC-traction for increased performance.
Originally built in the early 1990s, some of BNSF’s former Santa Fe fleet are also in the process of being rebuilt with AC-traction to extend their service lives and improve their performance.
Built over a long timeframe, and proving to be a solid, upgradeable platform, the C44-9W family of locomotives including rebuilds is sure to remain a fixture on today’s railroads for the foreseeable future.