This Review is on Roco’s SD24 from the 1970s, which was sold by Atlas.[:D]
Roco did a good job on making their SD24 one of the better detailed plastic diesels of the 70s. Most of the detail is cast on, but it’s done very well. The railings going all the way around are black vinal (a type of plastic) and are nearly indestructible! They’re also made better than the railings you’ll find on a Kato diesel![:D] The two vents on the rear-sides of the engine are done very well, and if you look closely you can see screen detailing inside the vents. The air tanks on top behind the cab are a seperate piece, and they look very good. The grab irons are molded on and look OK, but not excellent. The pilots are completely filled in except for the slots for the couplers, which is pretty uncommon for an engine of this age.[:D] One problem with them is that the coupler boxes are too low, making it so you need raised couplers. Kadee #5s would be too low by over half a head. The paint isn’t done nearly as well as the shell, sadly. To give an example, I’ve seen better on an old Tyco diesel.[:(] The yellow faids into blue in some places, and the printed lettering looks terrible, with dozens of blue spots showing through. the yellow pin-striping is extremely rough. But everything looks fine from about 3 feet away. The window glass looks good, and is almost flush with the windows. The headlights on both ends are designed so that both will light up.[:D] The fuel tank has a large gap on each side for some reason, and Roco did this on almost all their diesels. The truck sideframes are a single piece, but they look very good.[:D]
The SD24 test ran very well, operating smoothly through the entire speed range. It reached a maximum speed of 89 scale MPH at 12 volts, which isn’t too bad for an engine of this age. The gears made a fairly loud