Rare ALCO


N

NH Mike

CEO & Wheel Cleaner
Thumbing through an older book called "New England ALCOS in Twilight" I came across a single picture of an RSD15 which looks like an elongated RS11 on 6 wheel trucks. No mention of whether it was a Schenectady or MLW product. It caught my interest and I'm thinking of building one using an Atlas yellow box RS11 and an RSD4/5 for the trucks.

Was an HO model ever produced of the RSD15 and has anyone ever seen the actual prototype?
 
now heres my question of an RSD15...its available in a high or low(alligator) nose configuration. On the real train, whats underneath the high hood thats not under the low hood area? Why would you want a high hood which has such limited visibility?
 
NH Mike said:
Thumbing through an older book called "New England ALCOS in Twilight" I came across a single picture of an RSD15 which looks like an elongated RS11 on 6 wheel trucks. No mention of whether it was a Schenectady or MLW product. It caught my interest and I'm thinking of building one using an Atlas yellow box RS11 and an RSD4/5 for the trucks.

Was an HO model ever produced of the RSD15 and has anyone ever seen the actual prototype?
Click to expand...

After dinner tonight I looked back into the book at the picture. Its pretty small and not well exposed but I noticed it has the notched corners on the hoods which makes it a Schenectady build and not a MLW. Also caught the PRR keystone herald on the nose which again confirms the ALCO build and not MLW. Pennsy it would seem was always the road to have an odd unit or two. They also had RS27's which were another rare item by ALCO.
 
oxfordlawn said:
now heres my question of an RSD15...its available in a high or low(alligator) nose configuration. On the real train, whats underneath the high hood thats not under the low hood area? Why would you want a high hood which has such limited visibility?
Click to expand...
Many early diesels had high short hoods, and were set to run long hood forward. This was a holdover from the days of steam, when the engine crews had the length of the boiler between them and, for example, a truck crossing the tracks.
The low short hood was introduced to improve visibility when operated short hood forward. Other than the occasional steam generator, the only things generally in the short hood would be some air valves, the toilet, and equipment storage.
 
Thanks for the links guys. Both links will be helpful. Info on wikipedia shows the 15 was much more popular on the western roads than back here in the East.
 
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