Recent Model Announcements - N&W Related Stuff

NW Mailing List nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Wed Jun 30 20:36:15 EDT 2021


Good evening fellow NWHS members, I wanted to reach out to the mailing list and provide an update of recently announced and soon to be arriving models that are N&W, VGN & NS related. I won’t post any pricing info, as street pricing and MSRP vary, so please support your LHS. Just for sake of avoiding confusion, any offerings where ‘N&W’ is shown as the road name, the model is in an older paint scheme that will include either ‘AND’ or ‘&’ in the lettering. Where ‘NW’ is shown the late Block NW logo is being used. That being said, here’s what we have:
>From Atlas O Scale – New Announcements:

1.       N&W ACF 2 Bay Offset side 2 bay hoppers, shown as NW Class H51, which are ex P&WV cars that last until 1973 on NW. There are four road numbers and are only in their 3-rail version. Anticipated Delivery Date: 4Q 2021.



2.       Norfolk Southern Gunderson Multi-Max Autoracks with the new Horsehead logo. There are four road numbers and are available in both 2-rail and 3-rail versions. Anticipated Delivery Date: 4Q 2021.
>From Atlas N Scale – New Announcements:

  1.  Various SD50’s, SD 60M’s & SD60E’s. These will be DCC Ready only, but will have operating ditch lights. Anticipated Delivery Date: 2Q 2022.
     *   Norfolk Southern SD40E’s (rebuilt CR SD50’s), three road numbers.
     *   Norfolk Southern SD60E’s (rebuilt SD60’s with Crescent Cabs) seven road numbers total, including four numbers in std. Horsehead, plus the #911 First Responders, unit #6920 Honoring Veterans unit and #6963 ‘GoRail’ unit.
     *
>From Athearn in both HO and N Scale – New Announcements:

1.   N&W – 40’ – 3-bay 70-ton Rib sided Hoppers; these are a re-issue of the upgraded MDC / Roundhouse car. There will be two – 4-packs and a single car, for a total of 9 unique road numbers. Based on the road number for the single car, these are lettered for the H3’s built in 1944. Cars in both scales will have knuckle couplers, metal wheels and a removable load. Anticipated Delivery Date: August 2022.



2.   NW 50’ SIECO Single Door Boxcars. These were built in the 1975 and are lettered as XF cars for Food Service Only. There will be three road numbers. Anticipated Delivery Date: August 2022.
>From Athearn Genesis HO Scale – New Announcements:

  1.  They have generically announced the GE AC4400CW. This line of models is currently in design and no road names or numbers have been officially announced. While CSX was the only eastern US railroad to order the AC4400CW, these units have found their way to NS from every railroad that owned them. NS leased a pair of Southern Pacific and a pair of CSX units to perform road testing early on during the genesis of the AC traction development race against EMD. These models could potentially become AC44C6M models, which for NS are rebuilt C40-9’s and C40/44-9W’s, a program that NS has been working through both internally and with GE / Wabtec for the past 6-7 years. So, there is hope on that front.
  2.
  3.  Athearn has also joined in the GE Dash 9 market. For NS modelers this means another GE C40-9 “Top Hat” as well as another variant of the C40/C44-9W, which NS had some 10 different orders of. There will be at least three road numbers for each release and will be offered in both DC/DCC Ready and DCC & Sound.  Those models should start to arrive in May 2022.

  4.  Athearn has also announced the SD80/90MAC platform models. While the SD80MAC’s for Conrail and NS Repaints have already hit the streets, they have recently announced that they will be offering the SD9043MAC. These units were built with the then standard EMD 710 series prime mover, but were set-up to have the prime mover be able to be replaced with H Series prime movers that were later found in the SD90AC’s. Due to mechanical failures in the H series prime movers, the program fizzled. Union Pacific and Canadian Pacific were the only original buyers of the SD9043MAC, however Norfolk Southern bought ~100 units second hand from UP, via EMD, and another 10 that were from the Indiana Railroad, Appalachia & Ohio and CIT Leasing. These units were rebuilt into SD70ACu’s, which Athearn has announced as well and should be hitting the streets this fall. The SD9043MAC’s from UP did serve on NS as patched, meaning for the most part they still wore UP Armor Yellow and Harbor Mist grey. Athearn’s announcement for the NS (ex-UP) SD9043MAC’s will have three road numbers in both DCC Ready and DCC & Sound and is expected to deliver in Summer 2022.
  5.
>From ScaleTrains – Previously Announced and Soon to be delivered:

1.  In Kit Classics line – CB&Q Havelock Shops built 52’-6” Gondolas – Due August 2021. NW is offered as a road name with 3 unique road numbers. These are stand in cars for NW Class G72 gondolas. They will have metal wheel set and plastic knuckle couplers. As the name implies, they are a ~12 to 15-part shake-in-the-box kit.



2.  In both the Operator and Rivet Counter Series – Conrail Hollidaysburg Shops built; Johnstown America kit supplied G52X Bethgons. The entire fleet of some 600 G52X class cars were absorbed into the NS fleet when the Conrail merger took place in 1998. These cars are shown to arrive in July 2021, but that may shift with the current worldwide shortage of available shipping containers. There are 24 unique road numbers for the mineral red scheme in the rivet counter line, plus the one road number for the grey test scheme. In the operator line, there are an additional 6 unique road numbers in the mineral red scheme. Though these are shown as sold out at ScaleTrains, they usually have a few pre-orders that end up backing out, so you may be able to get them direct, if you have not already, or through one of their brick & mortar stores.


3.   More NS Admiral Cab SD40-2’s, which are former Southern units, as there are only a couple of former NW units with Admiral cabs that were rebuilt. This is their 7th run of SD40-2’s and these should arrive in September, 2021.


4.   For N Scalers the NS GE C40-9 Top Hat has been announced for a while, but they are showing to arrive in August 2021, while a second run for HO modelers has a delivery schedule of “Fall 2021.”


5.   More NS Multi-Max Autoracks are in production as well. In HO, both Operator & Rivet Counter Series models are showing to deliver in June 2021, while more N scale racks are scheduled for this fall.


6.   As I type you should have already seen the N&W EMD SD45’s in the Rivet Counter line. There were three road numbers in Pevler Blue and the #1776 Bicentennial Unit. These models are sold out at ScaleTrains. I don’t know if the Commissary has any of these units in stock or not.


7.   The last soon to be delivered from ScaleTrains, more HO NS GE ET44AH’s are scheduled to arrive in July under both the Rivet Counter and Operator banners.
>From ScaleTrains – New Announcement:

  1.          Recently ScaleTrains announced the second full blown run of NS ES44AC’s in the Rivet Counter line. Aside from two road numbers for the standard NS Horsehead logo, SXT is starting to offer the NS Heritage fleet units. In this initial run the following units will be offered, #8099 – Southern, #8102 – Pennsylvania, #8105 – Interstate and #8114 – (original) Norfolk Southern. These are scheduled to ship in March 2022. The #8103 – Norfolk & Western should be in the next run of ES44AC Heritage units, whenever those are announced.
  2.
And now for the most delectable info….
>From Rapido Trains in HO Scale – New Announcements:

1.   Earlier this week Rapido Trains announced the first run of HS Scale GE U25B’s, covering Phases I, II, & III. While Wabash and N&W were not in this initial release, Rapido did state that there will be future runs, covering Phases IV & V units, which should cover the units originally bought by the Wabash and those re-painted post-merger into a variety of N&W schemes. This project is in the early design phase and they have no scheduled delivery dates at this time. Pricing has been established for both DCC & Sound units as well as DCC Ready units.



2.   A couple of weeks ago Rapido announced HO Scale USRA Single Sheathed 40’ Boxcars. N&W is being offered in the first run, there will be a single six-pack of cars, and you can buy individual road numbers from said six-pack. The N&W car will come with AB brakes pre-mounted to the car, with optional KC brakes included in the box and they will have a wood door. Rapido is also offering Youngstown corrugated & Credo panel door designs as well for the other road names. This project is in the early design phase and they have no scheduled delivery dates at this time. Pricing has been established for both the single cars and the six-packs.


3.   There will be a second runs of Alco RS-11’s, which will include four road numbers for Nickel Plate and road specific details. This project is in the early design phase and they have no scheduled delivery dates at this time. Pricing has been established for both DCC & Sound units as well as DCC Ready units.


4.   At the same time Rapido announced the USRA Single Sheathed Boxcars, they also announced the ultra-modern FreightCar America AutoFlood III - 4,200 cf Rapid Discharge Car. This is a car that in-part was built in the former N&W East End Car Shops in Roanoke, VA. The relevant road names at this time include CEFX (Capital Equipment Leasing w/ Red Rotary Dump End), GATX / GGPX and Progress Energy (PGNX). The Progress Energy cars were originally loaded on the branches just west of Williamson and on the end of the Clinch Valley District, ran east through Roanoke along the Virginian and were destined for the Progress Energy plants in North Carolina. In the first run there will be three sets of 6 packs for a total of 18 numbers. Individual numbers can be bought at random from each of the six packs as well. NS does own two classes of this car, H64 & H68 classes, both of which are 4,050 cf, so they are slightly smaller, but will work with this tooling. Hopefully at least one, if not both classes will be in an upcoming run, as well as N Scale if they decide to go that route with this car as well. This project is in the early design phase and they have no scheduled delivery dates at this time. Pricing has been established for both the single cars and the six-packs.


5.   And finally, the Fairbanks Morse H16-44 project is going to continue forward. Initially there was a lack of response, but Rapido took the project back to the drawing board and added a couple of more road names. Though not new to the list, both Virginian and N&W repaints will be offered in the first run. There will be four road numbers to start for both road names. The Virginian units are to be numbered #39, #42, #47 & #49, which are from the Nov / Dec 1956 build dates. The N&W Repaints are in the Pevler Blue Hamburger Scheme and are of the same build dates. That being said, the 3D isometric model does have the raised center end rails from these later dates, but is not shown on the lettering diagrams. Hopefully some clarity can be gained on this issue prior to production. This project is in the early design phase and they have no scheduled delivery dates at this time. Pricing has been established for both DCC & Sound units as well as DCC Ready units.
Sorry for the massive download info dump, but there are some exciting models coming our way in a variety of eras. I hope this brings anyone interested up to speed on recent announcements if you haven’t already seen them. And I will apologize for the wonky format of this e-mail, I typed it out on a Word document, and cut and pasted into the e-mail and the copy went crazy on me.
Hope everyone has a safe and wonderful 4th of July Holiday weekend!
Russ Goodwin - NWHS Modeling Chair
Oakwood, GA
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