PREORDER Intermountain HO 497115-02 GE Tier 4 GEVO Famous Image Collector Series, Southern Pacific Santa Fe #8559

The Officially Licensed GE ET44 "Tier 4 GEVO" from InterMountain continues our tradition of excellence in this series of modern, GE-built locomotives. This all-new model features finely molded parts, railroad specific details, prototype based color representation with laser sharp painting and printing inlcuding the numerous miniature labels accurately represented. Our all-new Tier 4 drive is smooth, heavy (approx. 1.6 lbs), and powerful with an all new larger motor.

In early 1983 two large Western railroads, Southern Pacific and the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe sought to combine as a single railroad. Their efforts were unexpectedly met with resistance and inevitably a negative decision from the ICC. In mid 1986 the Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corp. was forced to sell off the Southern Pacific. Not after dozens of locomotives had already been repainted for both ATSF and the SP into the new “Kodachrome ” scheme. Modelers and enthusiast sometimes reflect about “What if? ” the proposed SPSF merger actually happened. Coming up 40 years, the SPSF has not been forgotten. Adapting real railroad common practices, including an interesting nod to historical heritage railroads, we developed a plausible alternate reality. Assuming the Southern Pacific Santa Fe integrated ET44AC Tier 4 GEVOs to remain compliant to EPA emission targets. An additional opportunity is an SPSF heritage paint scheme, commemorating the historical railroads that made up both merging railroads. Following the practice of numbering the locomotive to an important year, in this alternate timeline, 1986 would be the year SPSF was officially merged. For SPSF #1986 the conductor side long hood represents the Santa Fe predecessor railroads and the engineer side represents the predecessor and subsidiary railroads for the Southern Pacific. The very first experiments of the Kodachrome scheme were with white lettering. Other details such as SP style roman road numbers reflect on a time when SPSF was repainting locomotives in a manner to add either “SP ” or “SF ” after the merger was approved. Kodachrome was modified over the years leading to the ICC decision. Changes to the color of the letters on the long hood and nose stripes. Officially the font of the road numbers were to match the Santa Fe ’s including the size. InterMountain adapted these features to the GE ET44AC. Early SPSF rosters depicted numbering for GE locomotives to begin with the 8000 series. Assuming the SPSF acquired ES44AC GEVOs in large quantities, and populating the higher numbers meant that the new Tier 4 GEVOs would most likely be replacing earlier retired and displaced GEs in the 8500 series.

MODEL FEATURES:
Fully-assembled and ready-to-run
DCC-equipped features Lok Pilot DCC decoder installed on a plug-and-play technology with 21-pin connector motherboard
Scaled from prototype resources including drawings, field measurements, photographs, and more
Accurately-painted and printed paint schemes
Coupler cutbar
MU hoses
Trainline hose
See through cab windows
Full cab interior
Walkway tread
Fine-scale Celcon handrails for scale appearance
Windshield wipers
Lift rings
Wire grab irons
Detailed fuel tank with fuel fillers, fuel gauges, breather pipes, and retention tanks
Metal knuckle couplers - Kadee compatible
Driveline with 5-pole skew wound motor, precision machined flywheels, for trouble free operation
All-wheel drive with precision gears for smooth and quiet operation
Wheels with InterMountain RP25 contours operate on all popular brands of track
Animated spinning roller bearing caps
Bidirectional LED constant lighting
Heavy die-cast frame for greater traction and more pulling power