my ESPEE MODELERS ARCHIVE

California's Railroad to the U.S. 1861 - 1996

Southern Pacific RS11

As far as HO Scale models are concerned, it looks like both the Atlas and the Proto 2000 examples are both of Phase Ia type. Which means that they are only good out of the box for early numbered SP units ie. 5720-5729 later renumbered 2900-2909, this includes the three ex Demonstrators.

see David Thompson's RS11 Roster for Phase details.

see also the SP RSD12 model webpage for a detail photo of an Atlas RSD12; which is an Atlas RS11 shell on an RSD4/5 chassis.

I recently bought an Atlas Classic RS11 in Black Widow paint, this resulted in two pieces of good news:

• The model has the correct wheelbase - I am led to believe older models has a too short truck spacing,
• The correct wheelbase means that the chassis is good for an SP RS32 :-)

Models:

• N Scale:
  • Atlas

• HO Scale:
  • Atlas
  • Lifelike Proto 2000 - unfortunately the carbody is not high enough some 7 - 9 (scale) inches too low
  • Model Power (Mehanotenika)
  • Tiger Valley - Hi and Lo-nose

• O Scale:
  • ???

References:

• Model Railroading Dec. 1988 - SP RS11 Diesel Detail Close-up - Proto photo of SP 2913, 2921.
• Railroad Model Craftsman Sep. 1984 - SP RS11 detailing and painting, Model Power or brass.
• Mainline Modeler Dec. 1985 - Atlas RS11 Product Review
• Mainline Modeler Jun. 1986 - Atlas RS11 Product Review
• Mainline Modeler Oct. 1986 - Atlas N RS11 Product Review
• Mainline Modeler Nov. 1986 - Plans RS11
• Model Railroader Dec. 1986 - Atlas N RS11 Product Review
• Model Railroading Spring 1983 - Atlas RS11 Product Review
• NMRA Bulletin Jun. 1987 - Atlas RS11 Product Review

Additional N Scale Model Info supplied by John Barnhill