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THE SAGA OF DELWARE & HUDSON RS-3 #4069

by Webmaster on August 6th, 2010

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Delaware & Hudson. Back in my youth when I both lived and worked in New York State, whenever the opportunity presented itself, I would find the nearest D&H facility or trackage and take photos of whatever showed itself.
That’s why I have slides of the D&H Sharks, PAs and the “Adirondack” with PAs at the Fort Edward station.
So about a year ago, I started thinking (always dangerous) that maybe the Dividing Creek could have a D&H interchange train. Onto Ebay, where I found a Kato D&H RS-2 for really cheap money. The only problem: it was in the gray and blue paint scheme and I felt the older black and yellow would be more appropriate. Fortunately, Highball Graphics has the proper decals, so another order went out. Now I was set.
Enter Jere Jozak. We were talking about the project and Jere says: “I have an Atlas RS-3 in the black scheme” Without much further ado, I now have an RS-3 in black and Jere has an RS-2 in gray and blue.
Next, I added a different style horn and jeweled marker lights. And then the project languished until last week (end of July 2010).
Naturally, I had to install a Dynatrol receiver, but since Dynatrol is limited to 18 channels, I needed to select a channel that wouldn’t interfere with locomotives used more frequently. I selected channel 5. The only other locomotives using #5 are the Rutland 70 tonner and the NYO&W F3A.
So, I plugged in my soldering iron and prepared to install the receiver. I had already prepared the locomotive with a styrene box over the forward truck to hold the receiver, so I got the #5 receiver ready to go.
Here we digress: over the course of time I have acquired a lot of extra Dynatrol receivers from Jere, Bob Pierce, Ace and Ebay to ensure I had enough back-ups on hand. End of digression.
I wired the receiver in (temporarily), put the loco on the track and it took off like a rocket. Obviously, something’s amiss. Unwire the receiver, wire in #12 (for a test check), locomotive runs perfectly. Throw receiver away. Rummage for another # 5, wire it in temporarily. Put the loco on the track–takes off like a rocket. @#$%&*.
Unwire receiver, throw receiver away, rummage for (as it turns out) my last #5 receiver. Wire it in, put #4069 on the track and…and…PERFECT!!   Huzzah!.
Now the ultimate test–add the shell. Once again, back on the track–#4069 runs like a champ.
Among my many foibles, I believe the locomotive and the van (caboose) should be the same road name. So during the course of all this, naturally, I needed a D&H caboose of the same vintage. Back to Ebay where I was able to locate an Ambroid D&H wood caboose. Curse the luck, I was outbid. However, the seller contacted my and let me know he had a Gloorcraft or Quality Craft kit (I forget which) he would sell me for the same price.
So finally, the Dividing Creek can have a Delaware & Hudson interchange train with proper locomotive and caboose. Of course, I still have to figure out how it will fit into the operations scheme.
Happy model railroading!
Don Howd

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