ScaleTrains Rivet 33656 N Scale GE ET44 Tier 4 Diesel “Southern Belle” KCS 5021 DCC & Sound

Introduced in 2012, General Electric’s Tier 4 GEVo Series represents the latest in diesel-electric locomotive technology. The GE Tier 4 GEVo is designed to meet increasingly stringent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions regulations.

The EPA “Tier” emissions standards are a series, or Tiers, of allowable emissions levels based upon a locomotives’ date of manufacture. The highest and most stringent tier level, Tier 4, sets maximum allowable NOx and hydrocarbon emissions levels for locomotives built for domestic use 2015 onward.

While similar in appearance to previous GE GEVo designs, the Tier 4 models featured a longer frame compared to their predecessors. This allows for a larger radiator “cab” (GE refers to the various sections of the long hood as “cabs”), and a “hump” over the engine cab for advanced exhaust treatment equipment.

Initially, a boxy housing filled the entire roofline on the blue-painted field test/demonstrator units. Due to changes in treatment equipment and clearance issues, the “hump” would decrease in size and shape into a boxy compartment around the exhaust on initial production units. This culminated in an angled compartment surrounding the exhaust manifold on the latest production versions (2016+).

Despite boxier engine cab rooflines and a radically styled radiator cab, the basic Tier 4 design shares a family appearance with GE safety cab-equipped units going back to the DASH-9s of the 1990s. It even includes the same 12-cylinder GEVo-12 series prime mover and 4,400hp as its predecessor model.

The Tier 4 units have proven to be popular with the major railroads including BNSF Railway, Canadian National, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific. While GE has settled on a basic carbody design to keep production costs down, there are notable variations and detail differences due to customer specifications.

With many units built for railroads across the US and in Canada, the Tier 4 GEVo can be seen operating nationwide in a variety of assignments.

The HO Scale Tier 4 GEVo is made under trademark license from General Electric Transportation.

FEATURES:

• Era: 2018-current
• KCS Series 5000 to 5024, built 12/18, 2019
• KCS specific PTC antenna farm
• Unique to KCS, lack of single grabiron on right front of nose.
• Fully-assembled
• Multiple road numbers
• Operating LED front deck-mounted LED ditch lights
• Printed and LED lighted number boards
• Body mounted semi-scale Type E knuckle couplers; Micro-Trains® compatible
• Coupler box accepts Micro-Trains 1015/1016 couplers without modification
• Walkway with front anticlimber
• GE “nub” pattern walkway tread
• Sand box clean out door with knuckle buster latch and hinge
• Wide profile end handrails
• Front nose headlight
• Nose door with window
• Detailed cab interior with floor, rear wall, seats, and control stand
• Tinted cab side windows
• Cab roof JEM Communications PTC antenna farm with three large Sinclair antennas on front cabinet and three small Sinclair antennas on rear cabinet
• Left side dynamic brake cab: tri blower dynamic brake with flush exhaust
• Right side dynamic brake cab: door with grille, door with grille, small grille, and door with grille
• Current production engine cab (long hood) with angled exhaust compartment roofline
• Lost wax brass cast Nathan AirChime K5HLR2 horn mounted on engine cab roof
• Accurately profiled frame with separately applied plumbing and cabling
• GE Hi-Ad trucks with separately applied brake cylinders and air plumbing
• 5,300 gallon fuel tank with external waste retention tank
• Dual fuel fills per side with rear fill “blanked”
• Factory-applied wire grab irons, snowplow, trainline hoses with silver gladhands, 3-hose MU clusters with silver gladhands, MU cable, uncoupling levers, windshield wipers, mirrors, sunshades, air tanks, fuel tank mounted electronic bell, brake wheel, exhaust stack, and more
• Motor with 5-pole skew wound armature
• Dual flywheels
• All-wheel drive
• All-wheel electrical pick-up
• Directional LED headlights
• Printing and lettering legible under magnification
• Paint colors match Tru-Color Paint color: TCP-075 PRR Brunswick Green, TCP-299 KCS Southern Belle Red
• Operates on Code 55 and 80 rail
• Durable packaging safely stores model
• Minimum Radius: 9 ¾”
• Recommended Radius: 11”
• DCC & sound equipped locomotives also feature:
• ESU-LokSound 5 Next18 Micro DCC and sound decoder with “Full Throttle”
• Cube-type speaker
• Accurate GEVO-12 prime mover and auxiliary sounds, horn, bell, and more
• Operates on both DC and DCC layouts

* In DC operation, both front ditch lights illuminate; rear ditch lights (if equipped) do not illuminate

NOTE: Road number may vary from picture shown.