Lionel American Flyer ES44AC Diesel

After Lionel introduced the American Flyer SD70ACe diesel locomotive in 2012/2013 (see my Lionel American Flyer SD70ACe 2013 post for more details), Lionel completed the release of the Norfolk Southern's Heritage Series of locomotives while continuing to add to the line-up of new American Flyer diesels with the introduction of the GE ES44AC in 2013 followed by additional ES44AC paint schemes in 2014 -- see Lionel's blog posts here and here. Like the SD70ACe locomotive, the ES44AC locomotive is all new tooling in S scale with lots of advanced features including the ability to run on NMRA DCC controls (as well as other control systems) and the ability to install scale wheelsets and couplers.

At the time the ES44ACs were initially released, I acquired one of the units in the NS Southern green livery, but never had a chance to open the box due to a move that was in process. Recently two additional ES44AC locomotives -- one in in NS Central of Georgia livery and the other in NS Interstate livery -- appeared on my doorstep. It was time to get them all out for conversions and test runs. True to the SD70ACe example, Lionel delivered a nicely tooled locomotive with a lot of extra features. My modeling interests tend toward DCC control, scale wheelsets and more prototypical couplers, so I was excited to see another newer vintage diesel where all of these are supported.

If you're interested in the specific features of the AF ES44C and/or use on Lionel command control systems, please read Lionel's blog posts mentioned above and other reviews available. This post will focus exclusively on my experiences with conversion to scale wheelsets, coupler conversion to Kadee 802/807 couplers and use of this locomotive on NMRA DCC-compatible DCC systems.

Conversion to Scale Wheels

When Lionel released the SD70ACe locomotive they made an extra part (Lionel Part Number LNL6409879625 - MSRP $29.95) which is a set of 6 drop-in replacement wheelsets to convert the locomotive to scale wheels. This same part number is used on the ES44AC for the conversion, with the part description being updated to be "S Scale Wheels SD70ACe/ES44". These can be obtained from your local hobby shop (I obtained mine from Des Plaines Hobbies) or directly from Lionel Parts. Installation is not documented in the user manual, but installation is very straightforward. And if you have converted any S Helper Service diesel locomotive to scale wheels, the process is very similar.

Unscrew the ten screws and remove the metal plate covering the axle area on the front truck. If you are careful, you can leave the screws in the metal plate as you remove it. One at a time, remove the hi-rail wheels and insert a replacement scale wheelset, being careful to ensure the same orientation of the wheelset as concerns the gear placement.

Also on each truck one of the middle screws will have a small washer/o-ring under it. Be careful not to lose it, forget to put it back in, or place it under the wrong screw. In my conversion, the o-ring remained in the correct position on one truck, and on the other truck the o-ring stayed under the screw when I removed the metal plate. Repeat the process for the rear truck. One of the wheelsets in the rear truck and the replacement

set have a black band around the center of the axle, so be sure to put the replacement wheelset with the black band in the same location in the rear truck. The red arrows in the picture of the truck and the picture of the replacement wheelsets highlight the axle with the black band. The green arrow in the picture of the truck highlights where I found an o-ring in my truck. BTW the hi-rail wheelsets can be returned to the same container in which the conversion wheelsets came for storage.

Installation of Kadee 802/807 couplers

The next step is installation of more prototypical couplers. For my railroad and this locomotive I'll use Kadee 802/807 couplers. To make this change basically involves three steps:

1. Removal of the AF electrocouplers
2. Mounting the Kadee couplers
3. Installing the Coupler mounting bracket on the locomotive

These steps are documented in Operation on NMRA DCC-compatible systems

More information:

• Norfolk Southern's Heritage Locomotives
• Review of Lionel American Flyer SD70ACe with Scale wheels

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Shinohara to cease track production

This has been sent out by Scenery Unlimited:

"Shinohara, a brand leader of track and turnouts in many scales—including S— for three decades or more, has announced it will stop production of its products, although a Japanese company has plans to take over the Japanese market at last report. The brand has been known world-wide for precision and quality for a long time. Its North American distributor for the S and Sn3 scale line, Scenery Unlimited, expects to have only a small amount of stock on hand when the firm finally closes its doors, largely because the announcement came so suddenly. “This is a very unfortunate circumstance,” says Don Heimburger, president of Scenery Unlimited, “but Shinohara is planning to retire and there appears no recourse.” Scenery Unlimited will continue to sell its remaining stock of S and Sn3 track and turnouts until they are gone."

This reduces the choices of track for the scale side of S standard gauge as well as Sn3 modelers. Fortunately there are other companies with offers in the market. But none the less it is a loss for S and the model railroad market in general.

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