The ALCO RSD-15s were built between 1956 and 1960 in Schenectady, New York. Rated at 2,400 horsepower, these versatile engines were known as a Jack of all trades as they were suited for mainline freight as well as passenger service.  They also saw duty as yard switchers!  Railroads could order the RSD-15 with either a high or low front hood.  The low hood versions quickly donned the nickname of Alligators

Industry-Leading Features of this Model:

• The ALL-NEW Paragon3 Sound & Control System
• Integral DCC Decoder with Back EMF for Industry-Best Slow Speed Operation in DC and DCC
• Precision Drive Mechanism engineered for continuous heavy load towing and smooth slow speed operation
• 5-Pole Can Motor with Skew Wound Armature
• PRR A-units are equipped with trainphone antennae.  B-units are not.
• Premium Caliber Painting with Authentic Paint Schemes
• Prototypical Light Operation with Golden White LED Headlight
• Operating Kadee Knuckle Couplers
• Factory Installed Engineer and Fireman Figures
• Near-Brass Caliber Detail at a Plastic Price
• Minimum Radius: 18" or greater recommended

The new RSD-15s are equipped with Paragon3 with Rolling Thunder.  (Keep in mind that for the very best effects, Paragon3 needs to be used in conjunction with the powered subwoofer and receiver box under the train table.)

Below is a brief sampling of the features that make the ALL-NEW Paragon3 with Rolling Thunder^TM the new benchmark in model railroading sounds and motor control:

How does it work? The speakers in most HO scale locomotives will only reproduce sounds above approximately 600 hertz. The human ear can detect sounds between 20 to 20,000 hertz, and we can feel sounds at even lower frequencies. Many of the sounds real trains make are in the lower frequencies that models cannot reproduce. This is due to the tiny speakers which cannot move enough air. To overcome this shortcoming, Paragon3 incorporates a cutting edge radio transmitter system we call Rolling ThunderTM that sends the low frequency sounds to a specially designed receiver and subwoofer under your layout. Since low frequency sounds have a longer wavelength, it is difficult for the human ear to detect the direction of the source. The result is that while the locomotive moves around the layout, you can hear the high frequency sounds coming from the locomotive, and the low frequency sounds from the subwoofer-- all perfectly synchronized to the motion of the locomotive and the puffing of the smoke, and your ears will perceive the full array of sound as coming from the model!

On a large layout, where a locomotive can be very far from the subwoofer, the Rolling ThunderTM system detects the distance and fades out the subwoofer until the locomotive gets close again, or, if another locomotive is in range, it will connect automatically to the subwoofer and begin playing its sounds at levels appropriate to its distance to the subwoofer.

The system consists of the Paragon3 sound system in the locomotive, with its integral Rolling ThunderTM transmitter, a Rolling ThunderTM receiver box under the layout, and a powered subwoofer.