Kato 37-6442 | GE | AC4400CW | Diesel Locomotive | 5615 | BNSF | H2 | HO Scale | Review | HD
17This is my review of the Kato HO scale GE AC4400CW in the BNSF H2 (Heritage II) livery and is numbered as 5615. This is one of my favourite models to come from Kato and I just adore the striking BNSF H2 livery on this model as it suits the locomotive quite well. I bought the model for a great price and the only drawback is that the walkway guard rails are slightly damaged in some places. So I may either repair, replace or even try and buy brass replacements as brass versions will be more robust. As you may know, Kato models are Made in Japan, so you can expect very high quality from these Japanese made model locomotives and I presently have five different models from Kato in HO scale. Performance is good all round with all-wheel drive and a central mounted 5-pole can motor coupled to a fly-wheel drive that results in very smooth running at all speeds. The haulage is excellent as well as the model during the test drive showed no signs of struggling with this 8 wagon length freight train that was used during the test on my layout and the model could easily haul a much longer train if necessary. The model also has working head and ditch lights at the front and a basic light at the rear of the locomotive as per the prototype. There is an 8-pin DCC socket on the PCB inside, so a decoder can be easily plugged in for use on a DCC layout. This model came with a Digitrax decoder pre-fitted, so the model is future compliant for when I finally get round to building a DCC layout.