Model Railroading > HO RS3’s

I know the new Bowser engines are the end all and be all of HO RS3's, but I have a few old Stewart, Atlas, and Athearn units. Thinking about putting Stewart Phase II bodies on Atlas RS and RSD drives.

How is the dimensional accuracy on these engines? Specifically the Atlas drives and running board/pilot castings. The Atlas shells look off -- short hood too long and long hood to short? As well as the narrow carbody louvers. Pretty sure "CNW" has sussed this all out; IIRC he has put Stewart shells on Atlas drives. The Stewart and Atlas cabs both look off to me. Insights welcome!

Interesting observations.   I have a number of these, well not the new Bowser units but the others.   It never struck me that the proportions might be off.   I never picked up the Stewart flat die kit as the grabs were molded on and it felt like it would be rather difficult to get the thing all together and not have joints in the body in the wrong places.   As an ATSF guy and with CNW being my number 3 I know we are desperate for the phase 3 with the large square openings and carbody filters, but they were RSD5's not RS3.    I resorted to buying a couple of ALCO Models / Samhongsa phase 3 RSD5's just to get the nice bodies.     The plan is to equip them with KATO Trimount trucks and flat cans so they run nice and smooth and quiet and will run with other modern production units.    I will try and do some research on this today, comparing hoods and cabs and drawings.   Maybe another TOer will get to it first and save me the time.

Richard.

As a mid-1970s HO modeler of the C&NW's Alco Line, I've built several RS3, RSD4 and RSD5 models using the Stewart flat shell kits and Atlas (Yellow Box) drives.  I agree, the Atlas RS shell is tooled incorrectly.  The long hood looks too short and the whole model looks out of proportion to my eye.  The Stewart shell measures out much closer to scale but it's biggest defect is the rounded tops of the hoods.  The hoods should be more flat on the top.  Comparing the two cabs (Atlas and Stewart), the side windows on the Atlas should be taller.  I chose to use the Atlas cabs as they come with window glass.  I've collected a good stash of Stewart shells and Atlas parts donors, and plan to build several more.  I figure if I build the whole fleet using the same techniques, the inaccuracies may not be so obvious.

Photo 1: An example of the three RS3 phases.  All three are Stewart shells on Atlas drives.

Photo 2: One of the RS3s just before painting.

Photo 3: A scratch built frame that accepts the Atlas (Kato) drive and fits the Stewart shell.


Dennis

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Thanks, Dennis! Are you using the Atlas roof, then?

Nice work Dennis, always like to see your work!

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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Are you using the Atlas roof,

I'm not sure what you're referring to as the roof.  I used all of the Stewart shell pieces except for the cab, which I replaced with the Atlas cab.

Dennis

Top of the hoods, I meant. Looks like a different color plastic than the sides and ends so I thought you might have used Atlas for that.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Top of the hoods, I meant. Looks like a different
> color plastic than the sides and ends so I thought
> you might have used Atlas for that.

The Stewart kits were flat kits, the sides, top and ends were all seperate pieces.