Yet another ALCO RS3

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I just received a new kit from roundhouse. An undecorated ALCO RS3 deisel. I am looking forward to assembling and painting this little gem up. I have assembled the drive line to check for any problems.

While pulling all the bits out and inspecting them I found the die cast chassis to be a bit poorly engineered. Everything fits together beautifully yet when checking clearances for the trucks I found an issue with the power feed tab sticking up from the trucks. When the loco turns the power feed has a chance to short on the chassis.

Have any of you had to rectify these problems before? I am going to alter the cross member that sits in the bogies by cutting a wedge out so that this tab clears the chassis.

I know there has to be many ways to skin this cat and wonder if any of you would be keen to share some knowledge.

2

Gidday Chris, Is the kit new, or “new” 2nd hand? The reason being that I acquired an unbuilt kit, 2nd hand, a while back and seeing your post got me thinking that I should have a closer look at it. As you will see it is different from yours and that I don’t have your problem.

However If I did I would probably alter the tab rather than the cross member, or at the very least, just put some heat shrink on the area of “possible shorting”.

I will trim my tabs back and hard wire direct to the motor.

Ref: your title, I personally don’t think you can have enough RS3s. [:D]

Cheers, the Bear.

3

Cheers JaBear,

Great idea, I do have some heat shrink tube floating about but the saga continues. This seems to be a new production of the model you have. I picked it in an auction on eBay for only $30 + a few extra bucks for postage. Taking the time to run my eye over this is proving to be a good idea.

There seems to be a few more problems lurking in the drive train worm gear mechanisms. The thrust washers seem to be a little too wide clipping the gears as they pass under them. This I noted a s a clicking sound.

Here you can see the thrust washers(transparent discs) at each end of the worm gear.

Remedy: remove and reduce the diameter of these little buggers.

I have cleaned up the chassis and altered it slightly instead of wiring the bogies directly. This will avoid shorts on small radius turns.

At the moment I have wired the unit as a simple forward and reverse DC controlled engine though this product is quite easy to convert to DCC. I will eventually add some lighting but for now am concentrating on the body detail. I might go read some airbrush threads and decide whether to purchase a kit. I wonder if Revell still sell canned air. [:S]

This is turning out to be a little more fun than I thought.

4

Gidday again Chris, Better you than me, however as an old saying goes, “If is was meant to be easy, every fool would be doing it”.

Trouble is I keep trying to prove that saying wrong. [(-D][(-D].

Still I"d rather try to prefect my modelling techniques on a “cheap” kit than something expensive, plus half the challenge, to me at least, is to make it look like a far more expensive item.

Looking forward the track to your “Win”.

Cheers,the Bear.

5

Cheers Jabear,

Hope your little unit comes along well.

I am still deciding the color scheme for this unit. I have been looking around on the net for pics of these units on the west side of America but have found it to be an EMD and GE populated area. I am hoping I could use something from the Californian side of things but the truth be grim. Maybe I will head more central north to Erie. [^o)] Reading paint schemes and the Seaboard coast line RR have impressive designs.

Railfan Pictures of RS3 ALCO units

6

It’s possible that Great Northern and/or Spokane Portland & Seattle RS-3s could have got into Northern California. They may have travelled down the Inside Gateway in pool service. The type just wasn’t that common in California, though you could find them in Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and British Columbia.

7

MDC originally used an AThearn Blue Box drive - that’s the version the Bear has. They later switched to a Proto 2000 drive, that’s the version Chris has. The P2K version has better truck sideframes as well - it’s the drive from the FA, that’s why there is the groove on the flywheel - that was for the rubber band that drives the fan on the early FA’s.

And no, you can naver have too many RS3’s. I have 4 undec Atlas ones, plus 2 MDCs and an Athearn, the Athearn being an updated version of the MDC kits. One of the MDC’s is factory painted Reading - but it’s not correct, the color is off and the lettering is the wrong size. I also have a spare Atlas chassis with a bad motor (because I dropped a brush spring and never found it) with a PRR shell, and a spare Athearn chasiss with an L&N shell - which originally had the Reading shell but this chassis has very poor power pickup even after soldering wires to both sides so I picked up the L&N one cheap and swapped drives to make my Reading one run.

–Randy

8

Here is my RS-3, a Proto-1000, pretty much just as it came.

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff111/Mittersill/100_1457.jpg![](http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff111/Mittersill/100_1457.jpg)

One of these days I will paint the truck sideframes to kill the plastic gleam, and paint the exhaust stack rust colored. And install a crew. Since you are looking for a road to paint for, why not the Boston & Maine. They were big users of Alco’s, and the old maroon and gold (Pre Mcguinnis) paint scheme is colorful.

9

That’s an RS-2, but we won’t hold it against you [:D]

Proto hasn’t made an RS-3, yet. I wish they would. Preferably in Reading as-delivered paint, and NOT the same number that Athearn did. hint hint. (it worked with Athearn - I talked to the rep at the National Train Shown when it was in Philly a few years ago and soon after they announced the Reading units. Even had nearly the right horns. Missing cab drip rails, like most every plastic Reading loco, though).

–Randy

10

Chris,
As Randy said, the MDC/Roundhouse RS-3 model shown in the first post was made from the mid-1990’s right up until they were purchased by Horizon in 2004. Before then, the MDC/Roundhouse RS-3 had normal Athearn flywheels without the V-belt slots. First in the “gray” motor (w/ cast flywheels), later in the “gold” motor (w/ brass flywheels). Both of these non-V-belt RS-3 models used unique non-Athearn trucks with a completely custom gear ratio that ran them slow (and loud).

BTW, I can tell you one thing: watch those handrails! They are incredibly delicate. They have a styrene stanchion that looks great, and a metal handrail that works well. However, the tops of the plastic stanchions is very, very thin. One false move, and you’ll rip the wire handrail right off the model (don’t ask me how I know that). They do look better than just about anything else…

Funny about the plastic thrust washers clicking the gears. All the FA-2’s of that generation also had that clicking sound.

For detail parts, try Athearn’s parts department. They got the MDC tooling and upgraded it, so if they have some items left, they should fit your model. Other than that, Custom Finishing makes some RS-3 specific parts, like the curved grabs (the Athearn grabs are wrong, BTW).

As for Western versions, the MDC RS-3 is the Phase Ib type, by far the most popular one. Western roads (defined, by me, as those West of Chicago) that had Phase Ib RS-3’s were: CNW, CRI&P, SSW, D&RGW, GBW, GN, LS&I, MKT, NP, and SP&S. If you like SP, SSW was owned by SP, so the paint schemes are quite close other than lettering. And who knows? Maybe they ran through to California?

Paul A. Cutler III

11

Hi dstarr, Yes the Boston and Maine livery is great, though I was looking for a scheme from the West coast north of California in the county side. I am modeling a small town branch that services an industry that consists of Timber, Fuel and scrap. I will be expanding into cement when I configure the other end of the line.

Hi rrinker, I also there is a lot of detail that is missed in the kits but will be more than happy to scratch build the parts as I go. I will most likely good as dead by the time someone releases a model that is exactly what I’m looking for. [(-D]

Paul3, Thanks for the tip with the hand rails, I will be sure to take care with those. I am looking at making the grab irons on the nose from small gauge wire that I have here. Steady as she goes. I expect the SSW to be the grey blood nose scheme. I am starting to go more toward an ex RR unit that was purchased after retirement and then reconditioned for my private branch.

Will keep yal posted

Cheers

12

Gidday Randy & Paul3, thanks to you both for your comments regarding the history of the MDC kits. In the big picture it doesn’t really matter, but is interesting to know, as I’m sure that both Chris and myself will have plenty of Fun [?] assembling them. [(-D].

Cheers,the Bear.

13

I’ve got 36 RS-3s: 1 Roundhouse, 18 Athearn, and 17 Atlas units.

14

Looks like my livery is going to be ex Spokane Portland and Seattle.

I am going to look closely at these units.

The RS3 unit running on my layout will be renumbered and renamed for my freelance branch with the same scheme.

15

You can order the handrails from Athearn for their current RTR RS3 and they are almost a drop in fit except for near the steps.You may have to drill some holes for the ends of the handrails near the steps. You may have to use a little CA for the slippery plastic the holes may be a little larger

16

As that is the Proto FA drive, I would check the wheel gears, that sound you heard could have been a cracked gear… Check to see if the wheels are seated tightly in the gears, if a wheel turns when you’re holding the gear then it’s cracked. You can get replacement gears from Athearn. Look up “cracked gears” in the search function and you should get the links to several posts on this subject.

17

Just had my first sweep at the Airbrush world today. The unit works well and is so much more accurate that a spray can. Getting that ultra thin coat is a breeze.

I am using the “SCA” pro Airbrush kit. It comes with 2mm, 3mm and 5mm needles.Using the 2mm nozzle and needle for this project I managed to get a decent coat with the smallest “Testor” paint mix.

Just a bit of practice at the moment.

I need to dull down the yellow a bit.

This is just a start on this model and there is a long way to go to perfection. I am happy having some progress at the moment.

Popped it on the chassis for a quick spin.

Looks like the Die cast chassis is going to need a coat of black.

Will continue to post pics as I go.