Arctic Cat ZRT wrote:If you actually go through and see what people are posting about, it is much more than people praising the locomotive. Much of this talk is about improvements to the locomotive, such as sounds, and the fact that people are trying to repaint the thing. Plus the ES44 is actually a pretty interesting locomotive when read-up on. Yes it may not have unique styling, but under the skin they are quite impress in terms of the technology and developement that went into these beasts! GE has even developed a "hybrid" version of the locomotive. Sounds pretty unique to me!
Well you are right to an extent. Anything unique internally to the ES44 can't be really expressed in Railworks since RW doesn't seem to take tractive effort or horepower advantages into account between locomotive models. GEVO's sound about the same as they did when they were first introduced. It's only the subtle difference in sound between the 12 and 16 cylinder that you have to work with. So it's all about cosmetics and in that department the ES44 isn't exactly setting the world on fire. It looks about the same as many GE locos of the past 20 years.
To be fair...... the same can be said about EMD's locomotives. Although over the last 20 years they've had a little bigger variety cosmetically. Like spartan/comfort cab, flush radiators/SD45-style flared/SD70ACe extreme-flared, non-radial trucks/radial trucks, etc etc.
But start clicking on the pages of threads to see their page counts and other than talking about routes like Donner Pass or the talk about the impending release of RW 2013 here in the General Discussion section, most never come close to the size of this thread. Now in threads like a Work In Progress section they are big for locomotives. But remember..... this thread started about the fact the ES44 was coming to the Sherman Hill route.... not a repaint/horn thread.
That's the reason I'm stunned that one model, on one route is getting this much attention here. I'm not mad. It was simply an observation and I'm simply amazed and puzzled.
As my sig says....Donner Pass/Tehachapi Loop/Cajon Pass/Coastal Route... also Cuesta grade/Beaumont hill/Altamont pass/Feather River route just to name a few more. Those in glass houses.... 
) To me it looks more business like, that huge nose just is awesomely bully and conveys the idea of sheer power. Others may have a different opinion and they are more than welcome, so no rant please. For me RW is late steam ('cause of having crawled all over the Big Boy at the Smithsonian, WDC and the NRRM in Green Bay, WI, and boy, is that a PIECE of engineering) or starting '90s with the Dash9...
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There's one round and one big one to paint. OK if they are all the same color, but if not: ISSUE!!!!!!!
