New Atlas N Scale RS11

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

A little history here. My railroad is set in 1958, and is a mostly-Alco powered. Among their recent purchase (in 1958) were RS11s, RS12s and SD9s.

Up until recently, the only RS11s in N scale were older Kato-made Atlas units, circa 1994 or so. They came in both RS11s and 12s (4 or 6 wheel trucks the only difference). While they are good runners, they lack flywheels and contact strips for the trucks, had open pilots, rapido couplers and require some surgery for a DCC conversion. The RS11s used traction tires, the 12s did not. I’m also told the wheelbase is not right. Still, they were pretty good locomotives since all but the lack of flywheels and wheelbase (and in N scale, who would know?) could be fixed.

Well, Atlas re-released the RS11 in their Classic series and just started shipping them. I bought mine from Brooklyn Locomotive Works (www.blwnscale.com) and they arrived today. They are pretty much what you would expect from Atlas, nice runners, Accumate couplers, scale speed motor, flywheels and electrical contact strips for the trucks. I’m told the wheelbase is correct and they look good. The slow speed performance is good and they are smooth at all speeds. Sorry, I haven’t had a chance to latch them up to a string of cars and let them lug them up the 1.8% helix to see how they pull.

And the best news is…drumroll…it appears that the standard Atlas-friendly decoder (Digitrax DN-163A0 or equal) fits. The standard lightboard is the same part number as that of the SD7/9. I bought non-DCC units because I’ve not been overly impressed with the decoders Atlas uses, which are Lenz products but lack some of the goodies. For roughly the same price as the factory-installed DCC units, you can get the non-DCC loco and a full-featured DN-163A0 decoder. The installation should take about 10-15 minutes.

Overall, if the late 1950s or 1960s are your era and you are in N scale, these are nice locomotives. Very similar to the SD7/9s in performance.

2

I take it these are the same locos? http://www.nscalesupply.com/ATL/ATL-LocomotiveALCORS-11.html . Also what road did you get them in?

3

That’s the one. Mine are undecorated, although I do have one Alco demonstrator unit on order from MB Klein.

4

Nice little write up Mark.

Let us know how they pull.

Craig

5

Small correction: it’s RSD-12 not RS-12.

6

Small correction noted, my goof.

An update. I ran the RS11 with a string of freight cars tonight, up “heartbreak hill.” For me, that is a 24" radius, 2% grade helix of 2 1/2 turns, Atlas code 55 flex track. The speed entering the grade was about 40 scale mph. One disclaimer here, the RS11 is still DC and the track is DCC so the test is slanted against the locomotive. For those who may not know, DC locos do not give their all on DCC and vice versa. I have some DC Life Like FA2/FB2 locos that would pull my car, but barely budge on DCC.

The cars were a combination of Micro Trains, Intermountain and Atlas all with stock low profile plastic wheels.

At any rate, the RS11 lugged 13 cars up the grade. It began slipping with the 14th added. For comparison, all these are DCC equipped:

Atlas SD7 pulls 12, but slips on 13.
Atlas RSD4/5 also pulls 12.
Intermountain FT handles 16 with little effort (I didn’t add more to test its limit)
Kato RS2 pulls 14.
Kato E8 pulls 16 with no effort at all.

So, at this point the RS11 pulls about like I expected. For N scale, 12-14 cars up a 2% grade is decent. I did not try an older RS11 or RSD12 to see how well they do with this same test. I probably will, but spent too much time making a fool of myself wondering why the RS2 assigned to address 120 would not budge with address 03 selected on the throttle!