Having seen locomotive 9401 on the entry to Wickham in the Pilbara in May 2023, I was absolutely convinced I had to have a couple of these locomotives (9401 and 9405) in HO scale to enhance my collection of Pilbara work horses.
As usual there was no HO scale models that reflected the livery of the Robe River locomotives, so I had to make my own. I managed to source five Alco RS3 locos from the USA (used) and then converted them to reflect the past history of the Pilbara. The original Alco RS-3 Model in Robe River livery represents the Alco locomotive built by Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) in 1951 for NSWGR and was used for the 1954 Royal Tour train pulled by these two diesel locomotives painted royal blue for the occasion, and comprised a composite sitting and power car, a buffet and sitting car, the Commissioner's car, the Premier's car and the Royal car.
Locomotive 9401 is now preserved on display at Wickham (WA) as an entry statement to the town (see image). The other ex Robe River locomotive (#9405), is thought to be preserved at Karratha (unconfirmed). This Alco RS-3 HO scale model locomotive was made by Kato in Japan, a company acclaimed for manufacturing detailed and very reliable models. This one is no exception! It was originally produced in a Santa Fe livery but I've recently repainted and detailed it in the Robe River livery sporting the road number 9401. It has flywheel drive to all wheels, Kadee knuckle couplers, and is fitted with an ESU Loksound v5 sound decoder.
