"QUESTIONS ON DETAIL OF ATLAS HO SCALE RS-3 LOCO"

[nambo]

Hi, got a few questions the ATLAS HO scale RS-3 loco, item number 7028 painted for the Rio Grande Railroad, road number 5202, before I by one.

Is there any cab interior detail, if so whats included, also is there coupler cut leavers (are these separate wire or plastic wire pieces or are they moulded on to the loco in some sort of unrealistic square shape, its kind of hard to tell from the photo on the ATLAS internet site), are brake and M.U. hoses included, any windshield wipers, see-through steps and side walks (did the real RS-3 locos have see-through steps and side walks?) and is there fan grill detail too?.

If there is no cab interior detail, then can you see through the cab without the motor being right in the middle of the cab floor blocking view from one side of the loco cab through to the other?, if the motor isn't in the middle of the cab and if there is no interior detail, is it possible to partition off the cab area from the rest of the inside shell of the loco so that the wires and motor of the loco can not be seen when viewing locomotive and also, so that interior detail can be added?(or is the loco cab already partitioned off from rest of loco shell inside?)

Thanks guys for reading (I know its long!), if anyone can answer these question the help will much appreciated!, as I have already emailed my questions to ATLAS, but its just that they take a while to reply as they haven't yet and I really NEED the answers to these questions soon before the auction for the RS-3 closes.

[modelmaker51]

The view thru the cab is blocked, (the hood is a one-piece casting with separate cab). There's room to add an engineer and brakeman. The clear plastic window "glass" is usually not clear enough to make out much detail in a model cab and with high-hood units the cab is pretty dark anyway.

The original Atlas RS-3 had all details except the horns molded on. The Atlas "Classic" units have individual grabs. Coupler lift levers are molded on on both versions (but look pretty good). There are no M.U. or brake hoses.

Footboards and all steps are solid. Footboards were open grates on the proyotype. The walkways do have diamond tread pattern molded in.

No windshield wipers. The fan screen is pretty well done but is not see thru (no fan blade).

This model was first produced in 1989-90 and was reissued a couple of years ago as an Atlas "Classic" with the separate grabs upgrade. The original had a KATO drive, the "Classic" has the chinese clone and runs equally well.

Fair price: $50-$100.

[nambo]

Modelmaker51, do you mean RS-3 or RS-32, its just that you said RS-32 instead of RS-3 which sort of confuesed me. But if you were talking about an RS-32 would the same details that you said still apply to the Atlas RS-3 loco, by the way I'AM BUYING THE LATEST release of the Atlas RS-3, so would the details that you said still apply to this new release?

Also, you said "Footboards were open grates on the proyotype. The walkways do have diamond tread pattern molded in." So what is "open grates" does this mean that the prototype had holes in the side walks and that the model RS-3 does't?

And one last thing, you also said, "Coupler lift levers are molded on on", does this mean that the coupler cut levers are one-peice with the loco ends, OR is there a space between the coupler cut levers and the loco ends-thus are the coupler cut levers are round plastic wire peice with a gap between them ad the loco ends RATHER than an unrealistic all one-peice square moulded on thing like grab irons on an Athearn box car?

Thanks.

[modelmaker51]

Sorry, I meant RS-3. - I made a typo. I'll edit my post.

[modelmaker51]

The latest release is the "Classic" series which is as I described above.

What you are refering to as "side walks" are more commonly called "walkways" and these have "diamond tread" pattern molded in as the prototype did, (the prototype had the raised pattern stamped into the steel - no holes.

Footboards are the steps you find at the ends of a locomotive attached to the pilots. These were outlawed by the FRA back in the late '60s or early '70s for all locos, but many model manufacturers include them anyway as is the case with the Atlas RS-3. These were originally made of wood being later replaced by open steel grating for better footgrip and to allow debris to fall through. The Atlas model has solid steps (no holes). The molding technology of the time the original model was made did not have that kind of accuracy and would probably be too costly to change now.

The prototype corner steps (to climb up to the walkway) were plate steel (no holes) as does the model (no holes that is).

The coupler levers are molded on, but do have good relief. They are not separate parts.

As I mentioned a fair price for this very good running model is about 50-100 bucks.

If you want something with all the detail you seem to be looking for, you might consider either the LifeLike Proto 1000 RS-2, or the Kato RS-2 (if you can find one) at a slightly higher cost. ALCo produced the RS-2 just before the RS-3 and there were some small differences in horsepower and appearance.

The RS-32 (that I mistyped) is a different ALCo engine that LifeLike/P2K recently released. It is a dirivative of the ALCo RS-11. The P2K model has all the "bells and whistles" of todays technology.

[nambo]

Thanks modelmaker51, you have gave me lots of info, thank you very much!