RSO Locomotives

Duster408 Jan 20, 2008

  1. Duster408

    Duster408 TrainBoard Member

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    What you anyone tell me about RSO brand trains(or maybe locomotives). I have seen only two locomotives and never rolling stock. All that was on the bottom was RSO Yugoslavia.
     
  2. watash

    watash Passed away March 7, 2010 TrainBoard Supporter In Memoriam

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    I have an HO F-7 and an 0-4-0 that my wife found at a garage sale. Both run fairly well, but lack a lot of the usual detail, as expected on train set locos. (She got both sets for $15.00 total.)
    There is no place for a coupler on the front of the F-7. The coupler on the front of the 0-4-0 is a dummy molded on as part of the frame.

    The track is brass and all three cars have plastic wheels, X2F couplers, and no addon's. The paint and lettering is not too bad, each shell is a single injection molded part. The trucks are solid, plastic, and held in place by a plastic stud. One lopes down the track as if drunk.

    The little steamer has side rods and connecting rods, but no valve gear at all and no lights. They run on DC.

    Both will slow down to about 30 mph or stop, but can hit nearly 200 wide open and will derail on a #4 turnout.

    The steamer will pull all its cars, but the F-7 will only pull two cars or spin its drivers. Neither engine has any traction tires.
     
  3. WHOPPIT

    WHOPPIT TrainBoard Member

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    Arent they linked somehow to Mehano? Their models were made in yugoslavia and they made trains for IHC, MRC, Modelpower amongst others

    Paul
     
  4. Petey

    Petey TrainBoard Member

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    Mehano, RSO, both Yugoslavia, the country now called several somethings else. Largest, and still importing, IHC---Reliable runners, MANY paint schemes, Trainworld must have had a full boxcar at all times. Pacific & Mikados steamers were all USRA. Later Hudson & Mountains were based on different prototypes. I have a very nice maroon boiler 4-8-2 lettered for the Rock Island. I believe their Mountains are based on C&O.
    Rolling stock much rarer.
     
  5. Lownen

    Lownen TrainBoard Member

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    I have two MKT E7s, powered and dummy (same road numbers :( ) that say "Made in Slovenia" on the bottom. A web search of "Slovenia model train" only found Mehano, so I presume that's where they came from.

    They both look very nice. I got them on ebay for $8.50, description said they didn't run. Carpet fibers had bound the front truck on the powered unit and whoever tried to fix it didn't get it put together right. Had it running in a few minutes. Not bad for the price.

    I also have two old LifeLike Alco Century 420s (Conrail) in N Scale that I would guess by the mechanism came from Mehano too. Got them very cheap. Easy DCC install on all of these, but the decoders cost more than the locos.
     
  6. Vera-H

    Vera-H New Member

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    I have a 4-6-2 AT&SF steam locomotive, I thought it was an Atlas because of the box it was in when I purchased it, but it wasn't. I found the same RSO and Yugoslavia on the bottom of it, but there was also "ATEST" next to RSO. I'm curious as to if you've found out any more about this brand, as I am likely in the same, if not similar spot you were with this hunt, so long ago.
     
  7. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    It's Mehano. It's most likely their USRA Pacific. RSO, ATEST, Yugoslavia, it's all the same stuff. Mehano/IHC had been reorganized a few times, a bit like E&C shops becoming LBF and some of those other passenger car kit companies passing their tooling around. Mehano still exists today, although I'm not sure what happened to their American line of models. Their steam locomotives are sorely missed, as what used to be cheap kitbash opportunities have become more expensive on eBay.

    IHC was the importer, and sometimes the boxes came marked as such, although there are also Mehano-branded boxes. IHC is no longer, which is why I suspect Mehano retired their US line of products.
     

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