I'm Pleased To Announce:

GE ES44AC

The ES44AC (Evolution Series, 4400 HP, AC traction) replaces the AC4400CW model in GE's range. These locomotives have been ordered by every Class I railroad in North America: Union Pacific Railroad (who refers to these locomotives as theC45ACCTE), BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, Ferromex, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Canadian National Railway. Iowa Interstate Railroad ordered 14 ES44AC's in April 2008 to be delivered by October 2008 to handle an expected traffic growth of 25%-30%, resulting from new ethanol plants coming on line.^{[citation needed]} Iowa Interstate ordered two additional ES44AC's to be delivered in December 2009. Iowa Interstate again ordered 3 additional GE ES44AC's after selling 2 of the railroads EMD SD38-2's for the new ethanol plants.

CSX began receiving an order of 200 ES44AC's (referred to by CSX as the ES44AH) in December 2007. The "H" in ES44AHstands for "high", which is in reference to a combination of subsystems that produce high levels of tractive effort at low speeds. In order to be classified as an "AH" by CSX, a locomotive has to have not only an increased nominal weight (currently to 432,000 pounds or 196,000 kilograms), but also (1) steerable trucks, (2) TM3 adhesion control software, (3) software that extends to 33,000 pounds (15,000 kg) from 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) the maximum amount of tractive effort that each traction motor is permitted to produce, and (4) GE's Rail Cleaner, which directs high-pressure air onto the rails in front of the sand nozzles forward of axle number one.

In September 2008, Norfolk Southern purchased 24 ES44AC's numbered 8000-8023, and began receiving the first of these units in October 2008. Ordered to be used on long haul coal trains, they were the first new AC locomotives ever purchased by NS.^{[citation needed]} An additional 65 units were ordered in 2011, numbered 8025-8090. 24 more units, numbered 8091-8115, were ordered at the beginning of 2012. 10 of these units: 8025, 8098-8105 & 8114 were painted in predecessor company "heritage" paint schemes for NS's 30th anniversary. All NS ES44AC's are built to CSX specifications, with the exception of the Hi-Ad trucks & headlight placement.

NS 30th Anniversary, #8100 in Nickel Plate livery

KCS's units are all painted in a Southern Belle paint scheme.^{[citation needed]}

Cemex took delivery of one ES44AC - built to CSXT specifications - numbered 81, in March 2008.

Canadian National's first order of ES44AC's was in January 2012, and as of 2015 they roster about 150 units, numbered in the 2800-2900 series.

Citirail/CREX acquired 100 ES44AC's for lease service. They are painted silver with blue & yellow nose striping and blue numbers. Most, if not all of these units, are leased to BNSF Railway.

In 2013, General Electric built one ES44AC, GECX 3000, as a test bed for their NextFuel natural gas power kit. The engine runs on liquefied natural gas from a fuel tender. The unit is currently part of BNSF's GE LNG test set, partnered with BNSF ES44AC no. 5815.

Norfolk Southern Locomotives on Order

GE ES44AC

GE ES44AC

The grand kids layout will look great with these two locomotives heading up the Norfolk Southern Loop. I have decided to go with these as they are a matched pair. the rolling stock will have to wait until I cash in a few more pop cans. As I have shown in an earlier post they will have the caboose shown below to follow up the freight train.

Locomotives and Cabooses for the Grand Kids Layout

I found both CSX pieces on sale at Walthers.

I already have the Locomotive and caboose for the BNSF Railway

These two items I found at a reasonable price at Walthers the Caboose was on sale.

Merging My Wants Into A Single Layout

I have been wanting to set up an HO layout to include CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway and I have been at a loss as to how I would do that.

After some careful consideration I have decided to include those two lines in my grand kids layout currently they have a BNSF layout, so I felt I could expand that layout to include 3 mainline tracks to incorporate the other two lines.

This way I will have a layout that displays lines that service the East and West sides of the country. I can hardly wait to get started. The inner loop will be the BNSF Railway, as that much is already up and running. I use 18 inch radius track on the curves for the inner loop. The middle loop is the next thing I will work on and I figure 22 inch radius track will work out well. I haven't decided what line I will put on that loop yet. It will most likely be CSX. That would leave the Norfolk Southern Railway for the outer loop. I will most likely use a 26 inch radius on that loop.

Proposed layout Plan