Atlas Classic Minneapolis & St Louis RS-1

The Atlas HO RS-1, in either its original Atlas Kato version or the made-in-China Atlas Classic version, continues to be one of my favorite locomotives. It's simple, it has a heavy chassis and a smooth running mechanism. I like to find them in the more obscure road names. I recently found a better-than-usual price on eBay for one in Minneapolis & St Louis. The M&StL disappeared in the first wave of railroad mergers around 1960, along with roads like the Virginian and the Lackawanna. The M&StL used RS-1s as both yard switchers and road switchers. Their only other road units were EMD Fs until they acquired GP9s late in the road's history.

I did some research and found that the M&StL had an almost unique number system that was based on the month and year the unit was acquired. Thus RS-1 845 was acquired in August, 1945. The only other railroad I'm aware of that used this system was the Henry Becker dairy farm railroad, the Centerville and Southwestern, a 9-7/16" guage line that operated in Roseland, NJ. This system was used on its rolling stock, but not its locomotives.

A change of management in the late 1950s led to a renumbering of M&StL's locomotives into a more typical system that put them into classes based on model.

I'm not sure when, or even whether, Atlas added an 8-pin DCC socket to this model. Even in the Atlas Classic range, most or all that I've found need to have the PC board replaced with a decoder based on the original shape and mounting method. I've settled on the Digitrax DH165A0. The advantage of these is that a resistance for LEDs is built in, so especially with the Classic version, it's possible just to bend up the leads so the LEDs face the light bars without modification and soilder them directly to the decoder as shown here.

Back To Scenery On The HO Layout

Over the past week I returned to some overdue scenery work on my main HO layout. I'd built a Bar Mills Bull's Salvage kit and surrounded it with additional junk piles from assorted manufacturers, but I'd left the scenery behind it half done. Not long ago, I picked up a pack of Woodland Scenics Ready Rocks, not quite having an idea of what I'd use them for. I've long since finished most of the rockwork on my layout, but Ready Rocks are useful for smaller areas, since they avoid the trouble and mess of mixing plaster, pouring it into molds, and coloring the castings.

I bulked up the cardboard lattice, which I'd already started for hardshell, and clamped a Ready Rocks Shelf Rock casting directly to it, using silicone calk to glue things together. I'll add more cardboard lattice and probably another Ready Rocks casting to the right, and then I'll finish around the edges of the castings with plaster cloth covered with Sculptamold.

The METRA Fox Lake Line In 1997

I recently found some photos I'd taken 25 years ago while I was visiting family in Chicago. I had a chance to take a quick ride on the METRA Fox Lake line while I was there. I'm now glad I did, since much of what I saw is gone.

After leaving Union Station, the train passed the Western Avenue coach yard.

I caught some shots of scap rail and ties along the right of way:

It looks like 25 years ago, the Rondout tower was still in service, with even a platform for the operator to hand up orders. I checked Google Maps, and all this is now completely gone.

The F40Cs that operated on this line were withdrawn in 2004.