|
Atlas O Trainman RSD4/5
Review and Photos by George Brown
June/July ’06 Issue of O Gauge Railroading
The RSD4/5 is
the first diesel locomotive in the new, lower-priced Trainman
line from Atlas O. Sized at a full 1:48 scale, the RSD runs on
either 3-rail with O31 minimum curves or on 2-rail. To reduce
price and also make for a stronger overall product, many details
are cast or molded into their respective component rather than
being the separate but occasionally fragile details that
distinguish Atlas O Master Line diesels. Details cast into metal
components do not seem to have the depth of relief that I enjoy
seeing on current-production Master Line diesels; but even with
most details molded or cast-in, the Trainman RSD is definitely
not a stripped-down, plain-Jane locomotive.
With the stage
now set, let's take a close look at the Trainman RSD4/5.
Construction
Mechanically
the Trainman RSD follows the conventional architecture used by
several manufacturers for contemporary O gauge diesels, with
some notable exceptions. A plastic shell assembly rides on a
stamped steel frame rather than on the die-cast frame of Atlas
Master Line diesels. This shell includes a separately molded cab
that straddles a one-piece hood with molded walkways. Cab
windows are clear plastic, and walkway handrails are wire with
pressed metal stanchions. Molded-in details on this assembly
consist of door handles and hinges, vents, radiator grills,
rivets, and nonslip walkway pattern. These details are crisp and
visible, even with the Cotton Belt “Black Widow” livery on our
evaluation RSD.
On top of the
long hood, a see-through etched-metal fan grill covers the
realistic three-bladed fan. Separate wire grab irons adorn both
hoods, with a single horn mounted in front of the cab — yes, the
Trainman RSD is wired to run long hood forward. After removal of
the four screws holding it in place, the shell assembly comes
off the frame with no fuss or muss, and it goes back on just as
easily. Without a doubt, the RSD is the easiest Atlas O engine
I've disassembled, ever!
Under the
frame, the two-piece die-cast speaker housing adds necessary
weight for traction and also represents the RSD's fuel tank,
battery box, and air reservoir. A can motor with a flywheel
mounts on each of the die-cast trucks and drives all three
wheelsets via the same all-metal gear train that drives Master
Line diesels. Die-cast side frames follow the RSD prototype with
drop-center equalizers, friction bearing journal boxes, and
brake cylinders with air lines. Flanged wheels are at each end
of the trucks with a blind wheelset at the center. Between low
gearing and four traction tries on each truck, the Trainman RSD
is a heavy hauler, especially considering the engine's average
weight (see the RSD's performance numbers).
On each 3-rail
pilot, Atlas O's unique but cosmetic draft gear box encases the
company's own coil-actuated tinplate coupler with a removable
plastic air hose/isolation valve mounted on one side. This hose
has to come off for adequate coupler swing on O31 curves, but
it's an easy off-and-back-on, too. Multiple unit lines are cast
into the pilots on both 3-rail and 2-rail versions. Of course,
2-rail RSDs have scale automatic couplers.
Last, but
certainly not least, is the flawless Atlas O finish and precise
decoration and lettering, but with one surprise. The black truck
side frames have a pristine gloss finish, unlike the satin paint
on the rest of the engine. As Jim Weaver of Atlas O explained,
this gloss black is a chemical coating and not paint, but since
it is only available in black, colored trucks are painted.
Those of us who
have to employ something like a Mini Maglite to see nearly
invisible stamped or raised ID labels for the electronics
control switches, which are usually located under the engine
frame and are also frequently obscured by a truck, labels on the
RSD are large, easy-to-read white letters — very thoughtful!
The only
digression I could find from the Black Widow scheme of
full-scale Cotton Belt RSDs is the model's black handrails
rather than the prototype's yellow, which is a trivial
compromise to Trainman's lower cost. As a side note, only the
SP-owned Cotton Belt had yellow handrails on their Black Widow
road switchers. Handrails were predominantly black with silver
trim on Black Widow road switchers owned by the SP and the
SP-owned Texas and New Orleans.
Electronics
Trainman 3-rail
engines are available with either a conventional electronic
reverse unit licensed from Williams with horn and bell sounds or
Lionel's TrainMaster Command Control (TMCC) with RailSounds
version 4.0. TMCC-equipped RSDs use a Lionel motherboard and DC
motor driver (DCDR) as well as the three Lionel circuit boards
used in every TMCC locomotive: the R2LC command receiver plus
the RailSounds power supply and amplifier. Installing an
owner-supplied 9-volt alkaline battery for RailSounds backup
requires taking the shell off the frame, but that’s easy, as I
mentioned earlier.
Both TMCC and
conventional-only versions of the RSD have constant brightness,
directional lighting that uses golden white LEDs, which I like,
rather than brilliant blue-white lights, which I don't. Lighted
number boards get their illumination from the LEDs reflecting
inside the shell.
Because of the
cost premium for speed control, it is not available in Trainman
engines. But as I'll get into in a few lines, I didn't miss
speed control with our evaluation RSD. A smoke generator also
fell to cost reduction, but for O gauge railroaders, including
me, who shut off their smoke units anyway, I didn't miss that
either.
Operation
Out of box, the
RSD ran well, and after a couple of hours of break-in plus
setting its TMCC stall voltage, it was a superb runner. At scale
speeds of over 10 scale miles per hour with track power of 14 to
18 volts, the RSD maintained whatever speed I set with only
minor slowdown as it ran through O42 or tighter curves. Even
switching cars worked well with good response to changes at the
CAB-1 throttle. Although I enjoy running engines at a
self-regulating crawl or other speed, I have to question if
maybe the complexity, cost, and sometimes quirky behavior of
speed control electronics are necessary, especially with the
smooth-running Trainman RSD4/5 on a flat layout like mine.
Our RSD
negotiated O31 curves and Lionel O22 turnouts with the agility
of a much smaller engine, even with its scale-length and
long-wheelbase three-axle trucks. The only glitch was the
engine's center-rail pick-up rollers, which happen to be spaced
the same as the distance between the insulated frogs on my two
point-to-point O22s. The RSD's large flywheels carried it across
the insulators with no more than a headlight blink resulting
from the momentary dead spot. Since I had installed the
RailSounds backup battery for running the RSD in
transformer-controlled conventional operation, RailSounds stayed
up during the momentary power interruptions.
A broken wire
from the center-rail pick-up roller sent the RSD into the CCRR's
backshop, where a few minutes with soldering tools took care of
the situation. The wire broke off its terminal after the engine
ran only a few passes through my O31 reverse loops, although it
had already run well for over an hour on my wide-curve main
line. So to relieve any strain on the other pick-up wires when
the trucks pivot to their left or right limits, I also
repositioned those wires on their respective mounting screws.
Jim Weaver sent a second RSD, finished in a handsome and
flawless Santa Fe blue and yellow, that ran without any problems
on my O31 curves and reverse loops.
RailSounds in
the RSD reproduces the distinctive throb of the ALCO 244 prime
mover, with a single-tone horn for accompaniment. These sounds
are the same repertoire that ran in the Atlas RS1, reviewed in
Run 200 (OGR April 2004).
At the End of the Day
With its
inaugural Trainman RSD4/5, Atlas has succeeded admirably in its
response to customer and dealer requests for products with lower
cost, robust details, and scale size trains that run well on
traditional O31 layouts. Suggested retail prices are attractive,
and the discounted prices available from some dealers make the
Trainman RSD even more attention grabbing. At these prices,
anyone for double-heading a pair of RSDs?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Prototype Notes: Cotton
Belt RSD5
ALCO's postwar
1600 hp RSD4 or RSD5 six-axle road switchers were nearly the
same engines as the four-axle RS3 and six-axle RSC3. Uneven
spacing of the RSD's double-equalized trimount truck visually
identified it as ALCO's three-motor "C" truck for heavy duty
service, such as climbing mountainous grades. Evenly spaced
axles of the RSC3 indicated the two-motor A-1-A truck, intended
for normal service on light roadbed.
Atlas O
Trainman RSD4/5 models prototype ALCOs equipped with C trucks
and an air-cooled turbocharger, as indicated by the exhaust
stack placed lengthwise on the long hood. The stack for engines
using the later and less problem-prone water-cooled turbocharger
sat crosswise on the hood. Our evaluation RSD represented one of
three RSD5s that served the Southern Pacific-owned St. Louis
Southwestern Railroad, the Cotton Belt Route, from 1953 to 1969. |
