HO Scale H16-44 DC/DCC/S NH McGinnis Scheme #1600

HO Scale H16-44 DC/DCC/S NH McGinnis Scheme #1600 Overview

The H16-44 series was Fairbanks Morse's attempt to compete in the growing hood-unit market in the 1950s. Built between 1950 and 1963, the H16-44 offered 1600 HP from its 8-cylinder opposed piston diesel engine. 209 units were built for US railroads and 58 for Canadian roads.

In 1955, Fairbanks Morse updated the design for their H16-44 locomotives. These changes involved raising the walkway & simplifying the design of the short & long hood to make construction easier. From the outside the locomotives looked much like their bigger brother – the H24-66 "Trainmaster" but with 4 axles instead of 6. Under the hood the locomotives were nearly identical to the earlier phases of H16-44 except for replacing the Westinghouse Electrical System with a more reliable General Electric system. These "Phase III" units are the basis for Rapido's new model.

A total of 165 of the H16-44 Phase III Locomotives were built between 1955 and 1963. Locomotives for the Canadian Pacific Railway & Canadian National Railway were built by Fairbanks Morse subsidiary Canadian Locomotive Company. The last H16-44 was built for the Ferrorcarril de Chihuahua al Pacifico Railroad in 1963. This was the last Fairbanks Morse Locomotive to roll off the assembly line as the company folded the same year.

Rapido is now offering the H16-44 Phase III Locomotive in HO Scale. Since we so much enjoy reducing our design engineers to tears, Rapido is, of course offering these locomotives with all the road-specific details we can fit to make these models as accurate as possible!