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Product News & Reviews
rEviEW: Alco Century 628 Diesel, MsrP $439.95 (2-rail DCC
ready), $479.95 (3-rail tMCC), or $229.95 (unpowered, both
2- and 3-rail).
Atlas-o, 378 Florence Avenue, Hillside, nJ 07205
www.atlaso.com
reviewed by Brian Scace
Oh, I remember these things! Back when I was going to
school in Upstate New York, the Alco C628s were not the
most common units to see, but there were four groups of them
that weren’t too hard to find. Of course, the Delaware & Hudson
roster of handsome grey, blue, and yellow units could be
found just by heading south to Binghamton, or east toward
Albany. Lehigh Valley had two groups, the original “Snowbirds”
and the ex-Monon units painted in Cornell Red. They
could be seen from time to time on the line through Geneva.
Finally, the ex-Pennsy units would get out on the main from
time to time, passing through Syracuse paired up with the later
C630s and C636s. They made the more common SD40s and
SD45s look small; these were long units for their day. I was a
confirmed Alco-phile then, learned to respect them when I
worked with ‘em, and I still like them today.
The C628 was one of the early players in the mid-60s
horsepower race between Alco, GE, and EMD. This was the
era that saw horsepower jump from a pretty standard 450HP/
axle up to 600HP/axle, and is usually associated with the
coming of the second generation of Diesel locomotives in the
US. It was a highly competitive period; no sooner than GE
introduced a 2500HP catalog model, then EMD would match
it, Alco would best it, and GE would top that. In an interval
of two years, it wasn’t uncommon for a builder to completely
junk its catalog and issue an entirely new line, just to do it
again two years after that. This was also the time when the sixaxle
unit became accepted as true road power, rather than the
specialized drag engine it had been.
Atlas has a nice model, here. The model scales out nicely
(Don’t use Alco general arrangement drawings as a reference;
they are notorious!) using class book dimensions. By the way,
although not really detailed enough to build models from,
railroad classification books are a great reference for checking
basic dimensions. The various dimensions given, because the
operating and engineering folks depended on the class book
for their work, are pretty reliable for units as they actually
• O Scale Trains - Nov/Dec ’06
existed on the property.
Anyway, fit, finish, and detailing level are all up to Atlas’
standards, with one exception. We received one of the LV
“Snowbirds” for review. This is a difficult scheme to pad-print.
The black lettering has to be thick enough to go on the white
carbody in one swat and come out opaque. On the other
hand, thick isn’t very forgiving about flow into crevasses and
reliefs. Such is the case here. The printing doesn’t fill into all
the contours on the hood sides, such as in the door post areas.
Spend a few minutes with a good brush and some Scalecoat to
fix it up.
In operation, the performance of our 2-Rail DC version
was, again, as expected from Atlas. The unit MU’s well with
it’s older brethren, pulls nicely, and behaves like any other of
the recent Atlas twin-motor vertical drive power. Behavior is
best using a relatively sophisticated throttle, such as an MRC
Controlmaster. Marno-stats or Variacs won’t control these guys
very well.
And what’s this?! The Scace-switch is finally a reality? For
those of you recently joining the faithful followers of Scace’s
tiltings-at-windmills, one of my all time pet peeves about the
modern crop of “cross-cultural” (meaning intended for both
the three- and two-rail marketplace) offerings are the class
lights. Everyone loves those pretty green class lights. I’ve been
pushing for a switch somewhere on the two-rail DC versions of
Diesel models, such that the green (Green classification lights
showing indicate that another section of this scheduled train
is following this one.) can be switched to white (White class
lights indicate that the train is an “extra”, not a scheduled train.)
Finally, someone has listened and delivered. All you do is pop
off the radiator louvers, flip the switch, and the class lights
change color. No more green for us non-carrier control Ludite
neurotics! Now, who is going to be the first to have a Scaceswitch
that turns off the class lights on steam power? Atlas has
thrown down the gauntlet! Thanks, Jim. I needed that.
All in all, a nice model of an impressive prototype. This
time ‘round, they’re in Phase 1 configuration lettered in SP,
Atlantic Coast Line, Lehigh Valley, Delaware & Hudson, and
Louisville & Nashville. It’s also very nice to see that someone is
listening to suggestions (I didn’t whine. They were just, well...
suggestions.) and putting them to good use.
Atlas has also announced a new model of the C-630 similarly
equipped and priced. Roadnames include Conrail, PRR,
Reading and UP, all with two road number choices, and an
undecorated unit as well.