Depends on the railroad, but I’d say more ran the RS3 long hood forward than ran short hood forward. Minor quibble on the Proto Geeps, my road ran them long hood forward (and they put the F on the right end) but they are wired to run short hood forward and the crew figures are in the cab facing the short hood. First generation stuff like that, long hood forward was far more common. I always remember this AFTER I’ve soldered the decoder wires to the motor leads, so i end up changing CV29 to flip them around.
I had a newer P2K PRR GP7 with sound I bought to get the sound chassis. It ran long hood foward from the factory, but the crew figures faced foward… I had to adjust CV29 so that it worked under my short-hood foward BN GP9. If the shell I plopped on the drive happened to be an ex-GN unit, it’d be right. But the shell I had at the time was for an ex-Q unit.
Your statement: “It ran long hood foward from the factory, but the crew figures faced foward…” is confusing. It sounds like what you wanted to say is: It ran long hood forward from the factory, but the crew figures faced backwards. Could you clarify, please?
Here is an older photo of my 2 Atlas RS3’s. I certainly agree they are smooth runners. They are not yet converted to DCC. Most of my layout is now DCC, and these eventually will be converted.
Most of the early yellow box Atlas-Katos have this issue, RS3s and C425 for sure. A simple fix is to acquire a newer frame from Atlas. The newer frames have the coupler mount built in, attaches with a screw. The older bodies should fit right on, and the drivetrain components go right in.
The RS1s and GP7s have a fairly massive cast frame which includes the coupler mounts.
You could cut the mounts for the coupler off and attach a piece of thick styerene to the frame and drill and tap it. I HAD to do that when I put newer C425 shells on my Kato-built C425 drives.
Did you get this unit going?
Have you tried jumping the Motor leads directly to see if it will spin up that way?
I did have one of these that would not run well, I found that the Brush Springs were compressed, one side was severe & not making consistent contact.
I gave them a little stretch, & did normal PM, & it is a real nice runner now.
Perhaps something to try.
Best of luck.
No, I need to find some time to work on it. I did jumper the motor and found the motor to work. I need to remove the Rail Command receiver and install new lights and a DCC Decoder, to get it up and running.
I had three of the early Atlas RS locos in ATSF zebra stripe livery. They were a big step upward from the other locos I had, and continued to run flawlessly for almost 20 years. I eventually sold them on Ebay when I downsized my loco roster. BTW, the Stewart F units that came right after them are still with me, and the “bang for the buck” is just as outstanding as those Atlas units.
I sorta knew the history of this locomotive and figured it was going to be a good runner. I look forward to getting it up and running. It will be a great addition to my Northern Pacific layout. Thanks to all who have helped me out! It may be that I will not be working on this item during the summer as the time I have available for this hobby is almost non-existent, during the summers.
