Atlas Yellowbox

Ralph V has an excellent post on how he tracked down an Atlas yellowbox RS-3. This site has a thorough explanation and history of Atlas-Kato yellowbox locos.

I picked up a couple of undecorated RS-3s about 1985 (more than 30 years ago now!) when they first came out. If the list price at the time was $47.00, I probably got them at discount. Oddly, I still have them in my stash and haven't gotten to them. I did also get a couple of undecorated RSD-4/5s, which I promptly did as Santa Fe zebra stripe units -- these are in the line for DCC conversion.

Looking at the photos on the HO Scale Trains Resource site, I can see that the paint on the decorated models wasn't even up to Athearn standards of the time, which is probably why I got undecorated models only. We've sure made progress.

I seem to have been more enthusiastic about the RS-11s, which came out the same year as the RS-3s. Here's the undecorated unit that I painted and detailed for New Haven:

The only available decals were Champ, which had a too-small NH logo. I did three units in the c 1960 N&W scheme. (The original Atlas rendition of the N&W Pevler blue didn't float my boat.) So far, I've been able to dig out two from what I'd packed over two moves. These have been DCC-ed:

I pulled out an undecorated unit from my stash just a couple of months ago. I'd originally intended to do it as PRR, but Atlas has done both 1950s and 1960s versions of this as later Atlas Classic units, which I have, so I did this one as PC. It is waiting for a Leslie horn and couplers:

The Atlas factory paint improved on the 1989 runs. Here's a New Haven, now with DCC:

The Atlas yellowbox locos are some of the best hobby items we've ever had. Installing DCC is a less than $20 upgrade that makes them even better. Here is an NCE DA-SR drop-in board on a yellowbox GP7:

I didn't install lights in this one, because I redid the headlights with Detail Associates Gyralite detail. This will probably always operate as a mid-consist loco.

Think about this: when I seriously started in the hobby in the 1960s, 30-year old items were pretty much not usable -- with the exception of a few Varney car kits, you didn't get to products that you could use on a 1960s layout until you reached the post-WWII period and Athearn metal, but even locos from the late 1940s were basically unusable. Now, 30-year old items like Atlas yellowbox are perfectly acceptable and can easily be upgraded to current standards.