Good News: Atlas has just announced production of the RS1 in both N and HO scales. The road #'s they will be producing are 101 and 111. The first question that I am sure everyone will ask is whether or not they will have the AT&N sub-lettering under the cab. If the pre-production artwork shown is correct the answer is YES. They are also showing both RB and FB trucks available so one would assume they would get the right ones on the Frisco version. The only problem that I see is the lack of an NMRA 8 pin plug for DCC but that can be worked around. I did notice that there was a note on the N scale version that it would not have a DCC ready frame. I am not an N scale modeler so one might want to weigh in here. The MSRP on both versions is $104.95 and they show an August availability. Here is the link to the HO drawing. http://www.atlasrr.com/Images/HOLocomotives/hors1/0207/RS-1 Frisco.gif Enjoy! Robert Hoover, Jr. FriscoFriend
I made note of this on the New N-scale thread a few days ago. The non-DCC ready frame on the N-scale version is entirely expected. Atlas has retooled SOME of their "Classic" locomotive frames to take a plug and play decoder, but the RS-1 isn't one of those frames. The main thing this indicates is that the motor is not isolated from the frame. A decoder installation is still possible, but it will take a little work. Paul