Having spent a good part of my live in the European country I grew up, I had no idea what an RS-3 diesel engine was, until I started being interested in US railroads, present and past, and in model railroads. I had no idea, however, that I came across this type of locomotive a long time ago when I was about eight or nine years old. I’ll never forget the story about a runaway locomotive that I found in a book that was full of stories about trains, cars, airplanes and even spaceships. I was fascinated by the raw power of that engine whose runaway journey began in Jersey City and abruptly ended in South Amboy (some twenty miles further East of where this photo was taken) after three fearless crewmen on another locomotive had stopped her. It was only recently when I found a transcript of that same story about the Runaway Loco on the Main Line and realized that the loco was CNJ #1706, an RS-3 diesel. The event happened in November 1959.
Here’s a photo of the CNJ ALCo RS-3 1542 in N scale on my CNJ Bronx Terminal layout. I know, it’s unlikely that the Bronx Terminal has ever seen a RS-3 on its tracks. Nevertheless, it looks cool.
