I just saw in the most recent MR an ad for a Ready to Roll RS3 by Athearn. About what year did RS3s show up on the NYC?
Also, how good is Athearns products, such as this one? How well do they run/look, etc. also would it be difficult to add Sound and DCC to these?
This is the old Roundhouse RS3 loco, which was not really great on detail. I have one and also some Atlas RS3’s, which I prefer. They are better runners and have far better detail and paint.
On the other hand, Athearn has done a lot to improve their stuff with the new ready-to-run series and I would trust this will be true with the RS3 just the same.
Sure they will be DCC ready (plug-in). For Sound, maybe the cab will do to place the speaker, you would have to do soething about the windows though.
I don’t know when the NYC got RS-3’s, but the New Haven got them in 1948.
Yes, this is the MDC/Roundhouse RS-3 that Athearn is using. But for starters, the MDC was always the better shell, Atlas was always the better runner. That hasn’t changed.
However, Athearn has vastly improved the MDC shell. They made the cab “see through”, they added an etched brass grill over the visible radiator fan, they re-cut the radiator shutters to be more realistic, they made the handrails from engineering plastic, and they added wire grab irons. They also have added 3 steam gen. options, 2 different headlights, 2 different fuel tanks, 2 different pilots, and brass air horn options.
In short, the Athearn RS-3 is a vast improvement over any previous model.
The drive is good, but not great. Mine is almost silent at switching speeds, but does develop a growl at the higher speeds (but it’s still far better than normal Blue Box).
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
I believe NYC got them around the same time.
Have they added any aditional weight? The MDC was always a lightweight.
Paul:
WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG.
You should know better.
The NH got their RS-3’s starting in 1950 and got a group in 1950, 1951, and 1952 for a total of the 45 units.
Now about the model. I have 2 NH.
The detail, painting, and model overall I think is AWESOME. I love mine.
One runs like junk right out of the box and will be going back to Athearn.
The other runs well. For some reason it emits a little screach short hood forward when running slow. But it goes away with a little more speed and long hood forward. Smooth runner all around - a good puller.
Most of all though - I LOVE the detail and painting. That was well done. Well, except for the cab decals they screwed up on the NH model - but the colors are right and the lines are sharp.
I think detail wise its miles beyond the Atlas - the Athearn has better details and more options, and is more accurate.
[#ditto] On the Atlas unit, runs great, quiet, and a good puller.
I’ve got two in progress - since no one seems fit to produce RS3’s in Reading even if it was the most numerous model they ran. Yes ok, the old Stewart one was done in Reading - just TRY to find one of those!
I’ve converted a couple other Atlas ones to DCC, the Kato drive is naturally superb. My Atlas is undec and will be getting Reading details and paint. The other ones I have in progress is an undec Roundhouse kit. The EARLY Roundhouse kits has an Athearn drive based on the BB models. Mine is a later one, and it has the drive from a P2K FA!
I’m hoping a future release of the new Athearn will include Reading - I need more than 2! Of course the horns will be wrong, just like the Atlas and MDC, but that can be fixed. I just need a better way to make the bracket for the ca front, I’m not too happy with how the one I made for the MDC turned out, which is partly why I haven’t proceeded with the Atlas one.
–Randy
You dont know what your talking about.
This engine doesnt resemble the old MDC at all. The new RTR RS3 is probably the best plastic deisel on the market right now, its better painted, detailed and running then the Atlas one, I have an Undec and its a true undecorated engine, no detail parts are installed yet and it has a TON of details to apply and pick and choose. DCC is a snap
Hell, even mr detail himself Jim Six gave these a good review. If its good enough for Jim Six, then its good enough for me.
At 80 bucks you cant go wrong.
I have had my NYC RS-3 for about a week. I have two Kato RS-2’s as well. I think the detail on the Athearn is sharper. It is light compared to the Kato (but what loco isn’t). I took it apart and found it has a little tray to put the motor decoder in. I have a Soundtraxx ALCO decoder on order. I put a 3/4 inch oval speaker in the little tray. It fit perfect with the enclosure. I also put a one inch oval speaker upside down in the top of the cab. Soundtraxx decoders are getting kind of hard to find lately. But I think with both speakers it should kick butt. I will post results when I get it fired up. I plan on trying the same sound decoder and cab speaker in one of the Kato RS-2’s sometime soon.
Terry[8D]
I just saw one of the Athean RS3s in my LHS yesterday. Everything about it looked sharp and top end.
Yes, the beginings of this new RS3 were the old Roundhouse models but this one is lightyears beyond anything those ever were. Personally I’ve had to eat my words a lot when it comes to Athearn. Back before they were bought out I loved their blue box kits and the majority of the rolling stock, especially freight cars, on my line came from them. When they stopped shipping to several of my favourite hobby shops, including the Walthers Terminal here in Milwaukee, I got rather upset with them and chose some P2K and Atlas models over Athearns, but well they do make a superior product in a lot of ways and I did come back to Athearn eventually.
I love their Genesis line which is, in my oppinion, one of the best production lines in the hobby, especially their EMD F-series engines. That’s probably the one “if only” for the new RS3s to me: If only they’d taken the extra step and totally done them out as part of the Genesis line, well we probably wouldn’t be compairing them to Atlas models at all.
~Metro