Atlas Cotton Belt RSD-5s

I've always liked the Atlas Cotton Belt RSD-5s. SP's versions were heavily modified,and the only good models are in brass. Cotton Belt's, although they carried the black widow paint, are much more factory stock. I had two problems with getting Atlas models. The first is that the original Yellowbox Kato versions have always been hard to find, and I found one only very recently.

The second is that the reissued Atlas Classic version came out in a year when the Atlas RS-3 frames had zinc pest. First they swelled, pushing the couplers and end platforms up, and then they disintegrated. I got a number of RS-3s and RSD-5s that year, and they all had this happen -- well after the warranty expired, of course. My attitude toward Atlas has soured over the years.

Nevertheless, it was, and still is, possible to order replacement frames from Atlas at a pretty reasonable price, and then it's an intermediate-level project to disassemble the loco, clean off the bits of disintegrated frame, and reassemble the whole thing like new. I've done this on most of the locos I have with the zinc pest.

I started this several years ago on my Classic Cotton Belt RSD-5, but I got sidetracked when I somehow mislaid one of the weights during the disassembly-cleaning process. I finally got around to ordering a replacement and finished the basic reassembly. It's now ready for a Digitrax DH165A0 decoder and LEDs.

The zinc pest left the shell and walkway in some disarray, which I will need to repair. But it's finally on its way!

Much more recently, I found a Yellowbox Kato loco on eBay. It was at a low price with no bids and only hours left on the auction. I snapped it up!

It's missing an end handrail, but this should be easy to find on eBay. A positive is that the wheels show it's never been run at all. The original owner weathered it and put the engineer in the cab.