Everything is happening at the same time…

 Once upon a time, back in the day. I was fond of titling blog posts with favourite, (and often obscure to most people) song titles. This song just seemed to fit today, because two O scale locomotives arrived courtesy of that well known auction site. I’d won the items over the last couple of weeks. But because of the vagaries of the postal system they both arrived today. 

First the AHM Atlas Plymouth MDT. Six wheel version.

Rear three quarter view. It’s that tank on the footplate that I love about the 6 wheelers

Front three quarter view. Horn looks a bit bent.

The weathering is nice and probably better than I could do out of the box right now. You can find these on eBay for $25. If the wheel replacement is as easy as they say. There can’t be any cheaper way to start a P:48 roster.

Next up,  a Weaver Alco RS-3. My misfortunes with the first RS-3 I purchased were documented earlier. Undaunted, I sought out the correct one. It turned out there were a plethora of them at the time I was searching. I could pick and choose. I chose this one.

The previous owner was starting on a low nose conversion

All the paint has been stripped off the body has been primed

The correct, convertible bogies.

As there were so many of them out there I looked around at the prototype and became somewhat enamoured of the low nose RS-3. Simple conversions of the regular (high nose) locomotives they were mostly used in hump yards. I expect the nose being chopped improved visibility. Some found their way into road service and one is preserved at the Alberni Pacific Railway in Canada. 

I like locomotives with character and I think the low nose RS-3 has it. Some of them, like the one preserved at the Alberini Pacific Railway look downright odd, like some weird multiple-eyed alien.  But this one  looks quite normal, and compares nicely to my unfinished model. I just need to reshape the window, add the light housing and it should look the part.

The character of the low-nose is captured well.

One last thing. It’s an older loco. So it came in an old box and the warning on the outside made me smile. It’s so from another time. The typeface, the wording, the emphasis in the warning. It just made me laugh.

I wasn’t really expecting all this to arrive on the same day. But it does spur me on to get a concept for the layout going and come up with a proper design.