Every year since 1999, the Canadian Pacific's Holiday Train has plied CP rails between Montreal and the Pacific coast, helping over a hundred towns and cities celebrate the season by supporting their local food bank. At each stop, a boxcar opens up to become the stage for a traveling band. Trailing passenger cars accommodate Santa and his helpers. Performances are free, but guests are asked to bring donations for the local community's food bank. In its first 18 seasons, the train has raised over $143 million and 4 million pounds of food donations.

There are two sections of the Holiday Train, one traveling across southern Canada and the other visiting CP rails in the northern U.S. Our model represents the brightly lit 2009 version, which ranged as far south as Scranton, PA.

Heading the train is a scale model of General Electric's AC4400CW, the same diesel that pulled the prototype. Our twin-motored model features Proto-Speed control for smooth, steady speeds from a crawl to full throttle; remote-controlled Proto-Couplers; LED-Illuminated headlight, number boards, cab interior and holiday lights; variable-intensity ProtoSmoke diesel exhaust; and a full symphony of train sounds, from holiday music to diesel sounds, wailing horn, clanging bell and crew conversations.

From the dawn of dieselization through its first six decades, virtually every American diesel locomotive used DC traction motors. By the early 1990s, however, a series of technological advances allowed designers to tap the inherent superiority of AC traction - namely, the ability of an AC motor to start a heavier load than a DC motor, with the same prime mover. The superior adhesion of AC power touched off a new horsepower race because, with the same number of wheels, AC traction could put more horsepower on the rails.

Two years behind rival EMD, General Electric entered the AC traction business in June 1993 with the AC4400CW - 4400 horsepower, "C" for 3-axle trucks, and "W" for wide North American cab. The new engine was basically an AC version of the Dash 9-44CW introduced the same year. The key external difference between the two engines is the large box behind the cab on the left side of the AC 4400CW, which houses much of the AC traction electronics.

Although General Electric's AC power arrived on the scene later, its AC engines have outsold those made by EMD. One reason may be GE's use of one inverter bank per traction motor, a design that allows the crew to cut out a single malfunctioning motor and still retain more than 80% of a locomotive's function. On a comparable EMD AC-powered engine, an entire truck has to be taken offline if one of its three motors fails.

One area of weakness for GE was its high adhesion trucks, which were generally acknowledged to be inferior to EMD's steerable radial truck. Later model AC4400CWs feature GE's own version of a steerable truck, which improves adhesion on curves.

Now you can bring the brute strength of the AC4400CW to your own freight operations. This model offers the industry-leading features you expect in a Premier diesel: awesome sounds, superb detailing, see-through body grilles, a wealth of added-on details, and smooth operation at any throttle setting from a crawl to high-speed mainline service.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Features:

 

Intricately Detailed, Durable ABS Body

Die-Cast Truck Sides, Pilots and Fuel Tank

Metal Chassis

Metal Handrails and Horn

Moveable Roof Fans

Metal Body Side Grilles

Detachable Snow Plow

(2) Handpainted Engineer Cab Figures

Authentic Paint Scheme

Metal Wheels, Axles and Gears

O Scale Kadee-Compatible Coupler Mounting Pads

Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting

Directionally Controlled Constant Voltage LED Headlight

Lighted LED Cab Interior Light

Illuminated LED Number Boards

Operating LED Ditch Lights

(2) Precision Flywheel-Equipped Motors

Operating ProtoSmoke Diesel Exhaust

Onboard DCC/DCS Decoder

Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments

Proto-Scale 3-2 3-Rail/2-Rail Conversion Capable

1:48 Scale Proportions

Proto-Sound 3.0 With The Digital Command System Featuring Freight Yard Proto-Effects

Unit Measures: 19 1/2" x 2 1/2" x 4"

Operates On 36" Radius Curves Diesel DCC Features

F0 Head/Tail light

F1 Bell

F2 Horn

F3 Start-up/Shut-down

F4 PFA

F5 Lights (except head/tail)

F6 Master Volume

F7 Front Coupler

F8 Rear Coupler

F9 Forward Signal

F10 Reverse Signal

F11 Grade Crossing

F12 Smoke On/Off

F13 Smoke Volume

F14 Idle Sequence 3

F15 Idle Sequence 2

F16 Idle Sequence 1

F17 Extended Start-up

F18 Extended Shut-down

F19 Rev Up

F20 Rev Down

F21 One Shot Doppler

F22 Coupler Slack

F23 Coupler Close

F24 Single Horn Blast

F25 Engine Sounds

F26 Brake Sounds

F27 Cab Chatter

F28 Feature Reset