This review is on Model Power’s ALCO RS-2 in the Burlington Northern paint.[:D]
Model Power’s RS-2 uses the same shell that was used on the 1970’s AHM RS-2, but with a better drive. The walkway going around the sides has safety-tread detail, but the tread is over sized. But it’s nice that it was included instead of having a smooth walkway. The molded-on grab irons on each end are upside-down for some reason, but that can be fixed if you’re good at super-detailing.[:D] I tried putting wire grab irons over the originals to make it look better, but it didn’t really work.[:I] The paint looks good from a distance, but if you look closely the colors don’t have very straight seperation lines. The printing looks good, but it’s not excellent. The window glass is a one piece arch that’s only in the side windows, so the front and back windows are open holes. The pilots are open so the truck mounted couplers can swing back and forth, so there sin’t much detailing, except for a very simple lift bar and some spots for MU hoses. The vents on the long hood look good, even if they aren’t see-through. The headlight lenses don’t look all that good, because the glue they used to mount them created a white circle going all the way around them. The horn is a seperate piece that looks OK. The railings are cast onto the plastic frame and are very thick and brittle, so you have to be careful with them. The fuel tank is a one piece casting, but it looks decent enough. The truck sideframes have all the detail molded on, but they actually look pretty good.[:)] So except for a few detail problems, the engine looks fairly decent.
The RS-2 has all wheel drive and very quiet gearing, but only two wheels on each truck pick up electricity, so it has to be kept real clean to run well. The engine started moving at around 3.5 volts, and I could keep