During the late 1950'S eight Alco RS-3's were assigned to the Berkshire Line. Six assigned at the southern end of the line for trains originating or thru trains requiring engine change at Danbury CT, and 2 assigned at the northern end at Pittsfield MA.
A page from the 1957 NH Engine assignment book shows these 8 RS-3's within red lines.
Also from this engine assignment page surrounded in blue is the notation that RS-2's (#'s 0500 - 0516) may be MU'ed with the RS-3's (#'s 517 - 561).
Model RS-3's
Like the "signature" structures that have already been modeled for this layout, the RS-3 was the "signature" locomotive of the Berkshire Line during the era of the layout and a requirement to accurately portray Berkshire Line.
The Shoreliner magazine that members of the New Haven Railroad Historical & Technical Association receive had an article in 1986 about modeling the New Haven RS-3's (now out of print). The text and reference photos from the article are useful for all scales but mainly focus on upgrading the then recently released Atlas RS-3 in HO scale with detail parts available at the time to better model the features of the NH RS-3's. Some of these detail parts are indicated on the drawing below from the article.
Two of these first run Atlas/Kato RS-3's were purchased at that time and the details suggested in the article were added including cutting off the hood ends and replacing them with single headlight hood ends from a Stewart RS-3 kit. Painting them in a green and orange scheme with Accu-paint and decals from Accu-cals the results were pleasing enough that two more were purchased and the same upgrades made.
Subjectively I never thought that these Atlas RS-3 looked proportionately correct when comparing them with prototype photos and measurements, but nonetheless they ran great in DC and a little better with the capability to change CV's after switching over to DCC in the 1990's. These four RS-3's from the 1980's have soldiered on for many years on prior layouts but the original design body shell has fallen into disfavor personally when compared to the newest accurate and well detailed diesel offerings available from several manufacturers today, therefore they have been seldom used on this layout where RS-3's are the required "signature" locomotive.
Improving the RS-3's for use on this layout
The Bachmann Trains display at a train show a few years ago had an example of their HO RS-3. Liking the way the body shell looked proportionally compared to the Atlas shell a powered unit was purchased in NYC livery thinking it could be used at the B&A interchange at State Line MA on the layout.
The Bachmann shell measures very well against the dimensional specifications indicated on a 1950 New Haven Railroad diagram, a part of that diagram is shown below.
Using the body shell from the NYC unit to explore the possibilities of mounting Bachmann RS-3 body shells onto the four Atlas powered chassis on hand appeared promising and a less expensive way to achieve RS-3's that looked correct. Bachmann periodically has a sale on their parts, during one of those sales four NH body shells with a single headlight were purchased.
Adapting the Bachmann shell to the Atlas chassis is not that difficult but does require modifications to the chassis casting if a more detailed fuel/water tank injection molding from Bachmann or Athearn is desired and some notching to the removable chassis weights for sound decoders and speaker. These modifications can be accomplished with hand tools.
In the photo below toothpicks point to the part of the Atlas chassis casting that needs to be removed on both sides if a wider more detailed tank molding is to be used. The chassis at the bottom has the modifications made, this was done with just a hacksaw and file. The wires showing were later moved with the instillation of a sound decoder.
The Atlas model has body shell mounted couplers so provision to mount couplers onto the Bachmann shell can be made by adding some styrene blocks under the body shell ends with taped holes to mount coupler boxes as below.
To provide room for the new sound decoder and speaker the removable weights on each end require a notch cut into both, a notch on the cab end for the decoder seen on the left and a larger notch into the weight on the prime mover end at the right for the speaker. Again a hacksaw and file were used for this.
The latest 5 series ESU LokSound decoders are used with their # 50321 speaker. These already great running 34 year old Atlas/Kato chassis run even better than before and sound very realistic with this decoder speaker combination.
The detail parts suggested the the 1986 Shoreliner article have again been fitted to the Bachmann shell. Additionally the large and small tool boxes that are attached to the water tank on the prototype were fabricated with styrene and glued to the appropriate sides of the tank. Windshield wipers will be added after glazing is installed.
The Bachmann shell lacks some detail that has been added, this includes the doors on the hood ends, correct drop steps, crankcase vent and grab iron detail as seen in the photos below.
Painting will be next step. Four road numbers that have photographic evidence of operating on the Berkshire during the era of the layout have been chosen.
The model pictured above will be painted first in the NH McGinnis black and red-orange mid 50's scheme, this will be road number 555.
Newly painted 555 in the McGinnis scheme at Danbury. Model 555 will be weathered to show some use to a degree somewhere between the below photo and the second photo taken a decade later.
The remaining three will be painted in green and warm orange delivery schemes.
Will post photos after painting.
Great idea to use the Bachmann RS-3 body to update an RS-3. I have used the Atlas RS-3 chassis for RS-2 shells with the usual modifications. I model the area around Framingham to Walpole Jct, so RS-2s are a must have unit. Cannot wait to see your Warm Orange and Green RS-3 units.
ReplyDeleteBEAUTIFULLY done Joe!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll have to update my Atlas/Kato RS-3 to use the Bachmann shell. It was one of the first engines I built for the New Haven back in the late 80's. I knew the hood lengths were wrong. I did not know about the Bachmann shells. Thanks for the advice.
ReplyDeleteHi, do you have the whole engine assignments book? I would like to get a copy how many pages are there?
ReplyDelete