Full review and standardized testing of the HO scale GE Tier 4 GEVO made by ScaleTrains.com.
Locomotive weight: 739 grams / 26.1 oz
Drawbar Pull: 126.4 grams / 4.46 oz
Drawbar Push: 120 grams / 4.23 oz
This model was announced in January 2017 and delivered in September 2017 in 7 different paint schemes and 37 road numbers. The models are available in DC or DCC with ESU Loksound.
MSRP:
DC/Silent – $149.99 USD
DCC/ESU Loksound – $224.99 USD
Detail – Very good. All of the unique CN specific details and very accurate to the prototype. Fantastic looking grills. Rotating bearing caps which is super cool and a package of additional roller bearing caps included. The bad: 2/3 locomotives I looked at had a slight lean to the left, one more pronounced than the other. Not a huge deal as I didn’t even notice it until I started shooting this video and was staring at it at eye level up close. Nonetheless, disappointing and now I can totally see it whenever I look at the thing. Hopefully it is easy to fix. The conductors side number board looks like the decal slid off. Kind of unsightly but should be able to fix it, hopefully… 8/10
Operation/Drive train – Very very slow crawl speed, nice smooth, quiet operation. Sounds match the motion well. Quite a delay between first speed step and motion but probably tuneable on JMRI. 9/10
Weight – Weighing in at 739 grams / 26.1 oz, this thing is a record breaker! Heaviest locomotive I have weighed to date. The next closet are the Kato SD90/43MAC at 616 grams and the Athearn Genesis Gevo at 581 grams. That is a substantial gap and this thing is absurdly heavy… 9.75/10
Sound – Good sounding recordings in the ESU decoder. Prime mover is nice and throaty and the volume levels (besides the loud horn and compressor) are set at an acceptable level right out of the box… 8.75/10
Lighting – Working DPU lights, headlights and ditch lights. No step lighting and dim rear ditch lights make this a good but not great attempt at the prototype… 7/10
OVERALL SCORE: 8.5 / 10
A very nice and HEAVY locomotive from ScaleTrains.com, however the few misses left me feeling like I should have hedged my bets and bought an Intermountain instead of solely sourcing my Tier 4s from ScaleTrains. In this day and age and for these prices I expect it to be on par with the Rapido locomotives which regularly score above 9/10.
For comparison, all of my other review and tests of the following HO scale locomotives can be found at the link below:
Atlas Gold Dash 8-40C
Kato AC4400CW
Kato SD90/43MAC
Intermountain ES44DC
Intermountain SD40-2W
Athearn Genesis ES44AC
Athearn Genesis GP40-2LW
Rapido F40PH-2D
Intermountain ES44AC
Bowser SD40-2
Rapido F40PH-2D Rebuild
Rapido GMD-1
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ScaleTrains.com Tier 4 GEVO webpage:
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