Comparison Review HO Scale C44-9W Locomotives - SP

Comparison Review HO Scale C44-9W Locomotives - SP - Which Dash 9 is Best?

Рет қаралды 13,044

Күн бұрын

Comparison Review HO Scale C44-9W Locomotives - SP - Which Dash 9 is Best?
This comparison review takes a look at three different models of Southern Pacific C44-9W locomotives from three different manufacturers: Athearn Genesis, Kato Kobo Shops, and ScaleTrains Rivet Counter.
Dan has already reviewed these models individually.
This review focuses on things that are different.
Instead of giving the models a score out of 100 points, this review is broken into categories. There are three models, so each model gets from 1 to 3 points in each category.
The first place model in a category gets 3, the second place model gets 2, and the last place model gets 1.
At the end of the review, the model with the most points is the winner.
The categories include price, packaging, prototype accuracy, detail, paint, pulling power, and more!
Since Dan’s Athearn model is DCC Ready while the other two have DCC and sound, Dan isn’t comparing sound decoders. He does compare the relative noise made by the models with the sound is off, however.
If you’re looking for a Dash 9 model for your HO scale layout, then this video might help you to make a decision about which one to get.
Which model will win? Watch and find out!
#modeltrains #scalemodels #train #athearn #scaletrains #kato #hoscale #diesel

Пікірлер: 101

@theodoreshasta7846 Жыл бұрын

Dan - This type of head-to-head review is not often done and is highly informative. It helps consumers and also serves to prod manufacturers to improve in those areas in which they are deficient. Nicely done. Ted

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it. I thought since I had the models already, it might be interesting to compare them directly. Thanks for watching!

@donferrie4070 4 ай бұрын

Well-done. I remember some 40-50 years ago, the best-detailed locomotives (from the factory, not super-detailed by the modeler) were often the Kato brass in the hobby shop's glass case. Now, it seems as if the Kato models look the most toy-like. Their level of detail has slipped considerably compared to the current competition. It's amazing how high the bar has become. A long way from the Athearn Blue Box models of the '60s....

@DanielCortopassi 4 ай бұрын

The level of detail on modern plastic models is definitely higher than plastic models from decades ago. It's great that we can now buy a model that's got most of the work already done. Thanks for watching!

@TheBimmerShop 6 ай бұрын

This is one of the best review I’ve seen between the different companies. I’m just now getting back into HO and everything is a world of a difference from the last time I bought a locomotive. Thanks for this review.

@DanielCortopassi 6 ай бұрын

I'm glad you liked the review, and welcome back to the hobby! It was interesting to put together. Thanks for watching!

@Bigboyy-dd7fd Жыл бұрын

Dan I love all of your videos. The reviews and the ones where you show how you build your models. I appreciate your honesty in your reviews and how you keep them "real", without sucking up to the manufactures. I consider you the best at model train videos, period. I appreciate you and please keep up the excellent work.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Wow, thanks so much. I've basically been told I'd get more free models if I was a little less straightforward in my reviews, but I don't care about that. I don't see the point in doing a review unless it's honest. Otherwise it's just an ad. Thanks for the kind words and for watching!

@What_If_We_Tried 18 күн бұрын

Extremely thorough review and much appreciated.

@DanielCortopassi 18 күн бұрын

I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

@Form44208 Жыл бұрын

Great review Dan! Two things pull me towards ScaleTrains. The most important is how much quietly they run compared to Athearn. Another smaller thing but important is that they come with capacitors installed so they don't stall over dirty track. These capacitors are not inexpensive and sometimes difficult to find a location for inside the shell as you know. regards, NS.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I am starting to use capacitors in all my new installs if I can fit them. They're especially helpful on shorter wheelbase models that don't have as much pickup area. I like the ScaleTrains units for that reason, too. Thanks for watching!

@RonMontagueSWRR Жыл бұрын

Great review. Thanks for sharing. Soundtraxx and Athearn are my standards. I paid $264. for my 9-44CW's with sound from Lombard hobbies.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

That's a good price. Dash 9s are cool engines. Thanks for watching!

@discgolfillustrated2640 Ай бұрын

Wow! Your reviews are very precise and well presented. Thank you

@DanielCortopassi Ай бұрын

You're welcome. I'm glad you like the format. Thanks for watching!

@thomasclavinjr.3817 Жыл бұрын

I love comparison reviews! Keep them coming!

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it. I did this one because I happened to have these three models and I thought it would be interesting. I'm not sure how often I'll be in that situation, but if I can, I'll do some more. Thanks for watching!

@timothylinn2436 7 ай бұрын

Hi Daniel - awesome video, thanks for doing this, it was very informative on the three builders.

@DanielCortopassi 6 ай бұрын

You're welcome. I'm glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!

@michaelcudby787 Жыл бұрын

Hi Dan.It is good for the consumer, to have such good competition, with high end models which, theoretically, keeps each manufacturer,competitive., especially on a pretty popular model. They are a far cry from the old "blue box" models. Thankyou for the comparison review. Regards Michael NZ

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Yes, you're absolutely right, these are way beyond the old blue box version. I recently sold off my last two blue box Dash 9s. I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

@tulyar1043 7 ай бұрын

Loved this comparison video. Could you do one on the AC4400s? As for your own locos, split them up. One video on the four axle ones, one on six axle Emds and one on the six axle GEs. Then maybe one on different makes of decoders. This could help modellers select the corrrect one to suit their needs and wants.

@DanielCortopassi 7 ай бұрын

I'm glad you liked the video, and thanks for the suggestions. Right now I only have 3 AC4400s and they're all SP units from ScaleTrains, so I can't really do a comparison. I did a review of those models recently. I could maybe do some videos about some of my other diesels, but I only have a few I can think of that would work in a comparison format. Thanks for watching!

@paulkirkmanMYTRAINS Жыл бұрын

Very impressive review !!!!! Very detailed. Nice job Dan.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

@DarthSantaFe Жыл бұрын

Really nice and detailed review! It's interesting seeing all the differences among these models, and things have definitely come a long way since the 90's when your non-brass options were Athearn Blue Box, Kato and Rail Power. The only thing I'll say about the pricing is that Kato still makes their models in Japan, so the wages and production costs are quite a bit higher than the Chinese production used by Athearn and ScaleTrains.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

That's a good point about the country of manufacture. And yes, things have come a long way. Thanks for watching!

@fredrick5152 Жыл бұрын

Great comparison video Dan!

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

@mgr_video_productions Жыл бұрын

Amazing comparison video. I love how the scoring system is set up as well. Would love to see more comparison videos like this. Such as one for the HO scale Tier 4 GEVOs from Intermountain and Scaletrains.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

That's one I've had in mind to do. I already reviewed the ScaleTrains units, and I have a pair of InterMountain units. It would just be a two-way comparison instead of three. Thanks for the suggestion!

@stevek4153 Жыл бұрын

Great job on this review. According to ScaleTrains the SP did not have ground lights on the dash 9’s. They are all good models, each to their own. Thanks for the comprehensive comparison.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure about the ground lights. I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

@thelivingear990 Жыл бұрын

One thing I love about the scaletrains model is that they make it so easy for you to remove the shell without damaging details. Almost always comes down to removing the couplers and pull the shell. Athearn chains always break when I try to remove the shell.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

It is nice to just have to remove the couplers to take a model apart. The chains can be problematic on some of the Atlas Dash-8 models, too. I have a few that are broken and need to be fixed. Thanks for watching!

@Riogrande6400 8 ай бұрын

I have several SP dash 9 locomotives ABB KATO MTH and Scaletrains all have Tsunami 2 upgraded lights details weathering i like them all they run well sound good

@DanielCortopassi 8 ай бұрын

Dash 9s are cool locomotives. I'm glad you're having fun with yours. Thanks for watching!

@eliabraham6918 Жыл бұрын

Nice video. Very informative.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

@BriansModelTrains Жыл бұрын

Great video. I will start looking at Scaletrains. Historically spent my money on Kato and Atlas on expensive locomotives. Thank you for your efforts.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

You're welcome. I have quite a few locomotives from ScaleTrains at this point and have been generally happy with them. Thanks for watching!

@michaelcudby787 Жыл бұрын

Another beauty of ST locos, is that they give you a lot of options, that no one else offers.......Rivet counter with sound, rivet counter DC. Operator series with sound & rivet counter DC. The only issue with ST,is their couplers.They only accept whisker couplers from KD. The "ole #5" s dont work. Now I know this, I keep whisker couplers, on hand. That goes for their freight cars, as well.Just a small gripe, but a big issue, at the time, lol. Regards Michael NZ

@pacset2 Жыл бұрын

great review Dan

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much and thanks for watching!

@floydbeard5073 Жыл бұрын

Excellent review

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!

@normfredriksen1381 Жыл бұрын

Excellent review.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!

@dennisklauck7940 7 ай бұрын

Nice job on the comparison. Just the facts, ma'am.

@DanielCortopassi 7 ай бұрын

I'm glad you liked the review. Thanks for watching!

@tonyansill3093 10 ай бұрын

I hope Kato fullyreturns to the ho market someday. Kato had was the first to offer many details like lighted number boards before anyone else and their handrails where individual pieces that made them easier to put back together if separated then the one piece handrails that everyone else does.

@DanielCortopassi 10 ай бұрын

I have always liked Kato engines because they run so well. I have some that are 30 years old and they still run silky smooth. I think the challenge for Kato in today's HO market is that their models don't have the same level of detail as some competitors' model's that are available at the same or lower prices. I'd like to see them keep at it, too. Thanks for watching!

@kennethwilliams-dl9gi 9 ай бұрын

i noticed a few things you didnt mention (nit picky). the Kato? headlights and front door window are different, plus its hose connections are black on the back and it doesnt have hoses on the front. also the front door handle is in a different location with regard to the "P". on one its in the red part of the "P" and on the others its in the white. so the "P" is in a different place or the door handle is in a different place. im partial to color so i prefer the paint scheme on the BNSF and UP the most then it would be either Santa Fe or CSX. being from California originally and seeing SP and BNSF trains as recently as 2009, those are probably why i prefer them. or maybe they just look cooler to me.

@DanielCortopassi 9 ай бұрын

Thanks for pointing that out. It's can be difficult sometimes to decide how much to mention vs. how much is too much. I like the Santa Fe warbonnet Dash-9s too. Thanks for watching!

@Torquewrench1 10 ай бұрын

Be awesome to see your whole collection of engines

@DanielCortopassi 10 ай бұрын

That could take a while. I probably have too many to cover in a video of reasonable length. We'll think about it, though. Thanks for the suggestion and for watching!

@jhoodfysh Жыл бұрын

That was useful Daniel.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you found it so. Thanks for watching!

@robertsiebenrock3997 Жыл бұрын

Very good review. I agree completly.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for watching!

@Roman-hx3qj Жыл бұрын

Excellent

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Thanks so much!

@timothylinn2436 7 ай бұрын

Hi Daniel - I purchased a Scaletrains AC4400 DC only recently. I noticed that the head lights do not come on still 2V or some time after the train is creeping to speeding up; if at 1V the train creeps really well at say what could be close to 1 or 2 scale MPH, but while creeping the lights are not on. I think the KATO trains come on really early in DC mode. Wondering have you noticed this before on the scaletrains - and in this case - what would a DC operator due for slow speed creeping - just live with out lights :(

@DanielCortopassi 6 ай бұрын

All of my ScaleTrains locomotives have DCC and sound, so I don't have any experience with the DCC ready versions. If the models have a constant brightness circuit for the lights, sometimes those require a certain amount of voltage to get the lights to come on at all, usually in the 1-2 volt range from what I understand. I'm not sure what to suggest unless you wanted to bypass the factory electronics and install your own lighting setup. Before I switched to DCC, I had a couple of locomotives with constant lighting chips in them. Those may still be available. As I recall, those also needed a certain amount of voltage to start working. One of the many reasons I like DCC is that the engine lights can be on even when it's not moving. Thanks for watching!

@stoveapple Жыл бұрын

Hey Dan, can you do a video on making brass handrails that you put on your custom railroad locomotives

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Yes, I've been planning to do that as part of my SP consist build series, but I have a couple other models that need handrails. Maybe I'll think about doing a separate video just about that. Thanks for the suggestion!

@alexanderson3602 Жыл бұрын

Nice

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@lucgagnon5241 Жыл бұрын

Hi Dan. I remember you've reviewed the Rapido Trains SW1200 (SP Model). I also remember your desapointment on some features of that engine but I would like to know if you recommand it or not. Thanks.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Well, I sold the SW1200 I reviewed and wouldn't buy another one. So I guess the short answer is no, I wouldn't recommend it. There were a lot of issues but the deal breaker for me were the triangular areas near the steps. They were the wrong shape and there's not an easy way to fix that. Even the old Proto 2000 models from the 90s got that part right. It's not a bad running model, so for someone less concerned about accuracy it might be okay. Thanks for watching!

@lucgagnon5241 Жыл бұрын

@@DanielCortopassi Many thanks for answering my request. I was looking up to Milwaukee road SW1200 scheme. As I'm stocked with tight curves and lack of space, I can't think of 6 axles engines. I told you once that I'm not a big fan of Rapido's engines. You gave me an honest point of view of the situation. I appreciate. Keep on your great work.

@markhayes6407 5 ай бұрын

What I don't like about loksound is the sound is not loud enough espeially comparing it to Athearn . In order to change that you need a lok programmer to change any sound. Athearn just a few CVs and its changed.

@DanielCortopassi 5 ай бұрын

I've found that volume and sound quality are very dependent on the speaker and enclosure, regardless of brand. I like the horn to be fairly loud since they are in real life and they're not all going off at the same time usually, but I always turn the diesel noises down. Thanks for watching!

@markhayes6407 5 ай бұрын

@@DanielCortopassi that's possible because I'm basing it on a friend who bought a SD40-3 in HO and he complained it was softer than other ones he had purchased. Maybe it was the speaker position.

@DanielCortopassi 5 ай бұрын

@@markhayes6407 It could have a lot to do with it. It's difficult to compare different decoders in different locomotives. A better test would be to have different decoders in identical locomotives, to rule out the speaker as a source of differences. It could be that the LokSound decoder volume is lower by default than Soundtraxx, but I don't know that. I've had some LokSound engines that are super loud, and others that are softer, but again, I think a lot of that is the speaker setup.

@farmerdave7965 10 ай бұрын

I have one which is an Athearn blue box.

@DanielCortopassi 10 ай бұрын

I used to have one of those too. They're solid runners. Thanks for watching!

@trevorgwelch7412 2 ай бұрын

Are you a fan of Broadway Limited Locos ?

@DanielCortopassi 2 ай бұрын

Some. I've done reviews of their recent SP GS-4 and longer ago a GN 4-8-4, and I liked both of those. I also have one of their SP cab forwards and that's also a pretty good model. I had a couple of their diesels way back when and I was less impressed, but they may be better now. Thanks for watching!

@josephhoppe6984 Жыл бұрын

my athearn CN C44-9W does actually have truck lights, they are just very dim. so yours may also have truck lights

@Eagle91382 Жыл бұрын

Joseph, you can make the ground lights brighter by changing CV61. It defaults to "50", but you can make it brighter by choosing a higher number up to 255.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

The ground lights seem to be a railroad option. I didn't see any LEDs for that on my Athearn model, but it's possible that SP didn't have them on their Dash 9s. I still haven't found a definitive answer yet. If CN Dash 9s had them then I would expect Athearn to include them. Thanks for watching!

@8mmzzs Жыл бұрын

@@DanielCortopassi If you look at the time at 12:26, Athearn's model does have the truck lights.

@dennisbailey6067 Жыл бұрын

Can you tell us why you favour ESU over other brands?

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

There are a lot of reasons. The motor control is superb. The lighting effects are fantastic, and there are no restrictions on function key assignments, so any lighting output can be assigned to any key you want. You can also have "not pressed" key assignments, which I haven't seen in other brands. I use that for things like number boards, so that they're on unless I press a certain key to turn them off. And of course the sound is awesome, especially the new 5 series which has Hi Fi quality sound. Having them be reprogrammable is another bonus. If you want to change the sounds in a model, it's easy to do. That can be useful if ESU releases a different sound file that may be better for the particular model you've installed a decoder in. Thanks for watching!

@dennisbailey6067 Жыл бұрын

@@DanielCortopassi Thanks for the info.Always like to know more about Decoders,pro And con.

@gacj2010 Жыл бұрын

Dont you wish this guy was a neighbor to you ...... Ahhh I guess he'd get sick of too many questions asked of him.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Thus far (to my knowledge) I haven't ever lived next door to another modeler. Thanks for watching!

@spacecalander Жыл бұрын

Anyone using TSU is lost or loves to tinker for an hour each install to make them perform realistically like the Loksound

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Motor control was the biggest reason I lost interest in the original Tsunami. I think the Tsunami 2 is a little better but I wouldn't trade in my Loksounds. Thanks for watching!

@williamflowersrailfannerpr3808 Жыл бұрын

Let the ho scale train games begin

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Maybe I should have had prizes? LOL. Thanks for watching!

@James-Railyard Жыл бұрын

I’ll take the Athearn over the ScaleTrains as their DCC ready boards don’t force you to use a specific brand of decoder to access all lights on a model. That’s not a problem if you prefer that brand but I do not and never will. Thankfully Athearn uses the brand I prefer but I still like the aftermarket style over the factory style decoders. It just baffles me how manufacturers that also use the same brand that ST does for their factory decoders use motherboards that allow access to all lights with different decoders but ST uses proprietary electronics which kills my interest in their engines. Rolling stock is second to none but engines still need work.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

It's good that there are choices with these models. If Athearn and ScaleTrains push each other a little bit because of competition, the end result is better models for us. Thanks for watching!

@mcbombernuggets Жыл бұрын

190th like!

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Yay! Thanks for watching!

@FourDollaRacing Жыл бұрын

😴💤

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@spacecalander Жыл бұрын

Athearns is over priced, and so is Kaato. pronounced like the steampunk model.

@DanielCortopassi Жыл бұрын

Higher prices seem to go hand in hand with high-detail models, unfortunately. I do agree that Kato is pricey for what you're getting compared to the other two. Thanks for watching!