And here’s the BF15 or ‘Freight Shark’.
http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=bf-4-a_before1950.gif&sel=die&sz=sm&fr=
And here’s a BP20 A unit:
http://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=bp-20-a.gif&sel=die&sz=sm&fr=
Wow. They were 80 feet long, 10 feet longer than the E8. That’s one big loco. [:-^]
The newer ER (still Roco) units have decent can motors with dual flywheels, and a DCC sockett. They run just as good as other late model offerings such as P2K, and Genesis. The paint color is good in my opinion, although they are still just a little rough in detial. They do have an issue that is difficult to correct if it bothers you as much as me. They have changed from the truck mounted couplers to body mount, proprietry units secured with serious friction pins, and they protrude very far from the body, as you can see in the pics in a previous post. Coupled together the gap was severe. It took me loads of time and “engineering” to get a marginal improvement, by fabricating new platforms for the rear and heavy filing and use of Kadee specilaty couplers on the front. My B unit is the older model with the loose shell. It has the truck mount couplers and takes up the rest of the space.
I also have a set of the older Roco units with the “large” can motor. They run very well for the period they were made. Except for the mounting, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference in the shells. In fact the older ones are very well done for the period. The trucks are not interchangeable with the new ER release, if they were I would put truck mount rear couplers on my new ones!
I picked up my old ones for $5-$15 at hobby shows and the new ones for $68 each through careful research of web vendors, ebay, and shows. I believe the older mechanisms are the same between Roco sharks, Alco FA, and F units.
Additionally I have an ABA set of BP20 resin kits they were marketed by Miracle Castings. I lucked into a deal on ebay, $150 for all three plus two powered Athearn P unit drives. It took almost three years to get that doing a search every day! I saw about 1 every four or five months and they usually went for over $100 each. I have not completed them, but I have done test fitting. I would say they are about a 6.5 skill level with “shake the box” freight cars being 1 and Bo
I remember seeing those kits on Ebay, but I was unsure as to their quality. Did you ever complete them?
Here is a discussion I started recently on kitbashing a set of BP-20 locos utilizing a Proto 1K chassis from their DL-109 locos…with photos of my efforts thus far
http://www.modelrailroadforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31120
(not sure how to add a web link)
Sharks? 12 years ago I happened on a pair of Alco Models brass sharks, and wound up repowering them with A-Line motors , adding weights and Decoders. They’ve been good runners, even with the KMT Drive tower in the rear and the thru the tank driveshaft powering the front truck.
After paint and detailing, they made a pretty respectable pair…
Yeah, they may be noisy, saves me from buying Tsunami’s for them!!
Someday I may retire them and go plastic, or just save them for special “excursion service”.
One of the first Model Railroaders I ever purchased, back in 1961 or so had drawings and photos of the Baldwin Passenger Shark.
I was always interested in Baldwin built locomotives, because my grandfather worked for Baldwin Locomotive, Baldwin power was quite common around where i grew up, and once on the railroad, I ran them. The Sharks, both passenger an freight were gone by the time i hired on the PRR, but I do remember seeing the freight versions on occasion.
They were designed by Raymond Lowey (sp), the passenger version at 2000 HP was the competition to the EMD E7, and Alco PA/PB. The freight Sharks were competitors to the FA1/FA2 F3 and F7. Baldwins could out pull anything on the road due to the use of Westinghouse Traction motors, but were flawed, in that no two were alike internally, and they all leaked water excessively, among other things.
The BP20’s last stand (like the K4 4-6-2; was the NY&LB between South Amboy and Bay Head, in NJ.
The BF15 and BF16’s last satnd was in the Coal fields of Western PA, and on the Delmarva beetween Wilmington, DE and Little Creek, VA.
It is my hope that BLI will do a BP20, as well as the anounced, but not produced BF16.
Joe
Just to keep the designations clear I believe what the Pennsy classified as a BP20 is what Baldwin actually classed as a DR-6-4-2000 of which the Pennsy had the only ones with the “Sharknose” carbody. Eighteen units IIRC.
The same classification was given to the NYC “Babyface” Baldwins with essentially the same guts under the hood. Baldwin had quite a few one-of-a-kind locomotives back then.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_DR-6-4-20
Pretty interesting stuff… And YES I too want to see a decent model of the RF-16! It would fill a long awaited void!
Happy modelling! Ed
Between the beginning of this thread and its resurrection, I believe Bachmann brought out a Baldlwin Shark RF-16. Don’t know anything about it, but they are available.
I seen a A-B-A set of the Bachmann Sharks and they appeared to be smooth runners.
While this post has not been commented in for well over 5 years, I just acquired 3 Pennsylvania Railroad Baldwin RF-16 Shark Nose DC Diesel engines / locomotives distributed by Model Power but made by Roco. The Model Power item numbers are as follows:
721 - Pennsylvana #5772 Powered A-Unit
721 - Pennsylvana #5772 Powered A-Unit
741 - Pennsylvana (Unnumbered) Powered B-Unit
I acquired these from an antique mall in my town for a reasonable fee. Individually, the engines run very well but are a bit noisy when using a Bachmann DC HO-scale power transformer. When I add a second engine to the track, the speed of both engines decreases drammatically. When I add the third engine, the 3 of them crawl even at full power and are not able to make it up any grade when all 3 are in a consist.
I did some research and discovered that PRR purchased 72 A units and 31 B units, making their purchases the majority of the 160 RF-16’s that Baldwin built. I have several other types of PRR engines and rolling stock but am in a quandary as to whether or not I should keep these engines or not. So, I thought I would chime in here and propose the question to you folks and ask what you would do if you were me? Would you keep these 3 engines or get rid of them?
Additional info: I have lots of DC and DCC equipped engines and lots of PRR rolling stock including quite a few with the same hornhook couplers that are on the Shark Nose diesels and just as many upgraded items with knuckle couplers on them. My layouts can operate in DC or DCC mode. I prefer DCC but at the same time haven’t rid myself over many of the non-DCC engines yet. If I could get all 3 of these engines to run simultaneously without the dramatic power loss, then I would keep them. But since all 3 will not run well together, I’m thinking of getting rid of 1 of the A units or all of 3 of them.
Any ideas or suggestions?
As I a
If this is one of the Bachmann trainset type power packs they really do not put out a lot of Amps so it very well could be the power pack. To convert to DCC they each should run less than 1.25 amps at stall. (When they stall under load- hold it till they stall) This can be checked with a multi meter- you can get one cheap at Harbor Freight (If you luck out a lot of times there is even a coupon for one free with purchase.) You are right in these being a rare locomotive only Pensy, New York Central, B&O, EJ&E and second hand Delaware and Hudson had them. A few months ago at an estate sale I found an operators manual for one from the B&O- that must have been rare as they only had 19 A’s and 12 B’s.
Jim
Hobbytown is still in business .The new owner bought the line from Bear locomotive. He is doing a very nice job with the line although I don’t see a specific mention of the Sharks I would guess the FA Chassis drive would work. You can contact the owner for guidance. These are very nice running units ,I have quite a few.They are fun to build and really not difficult .
https://hobbytownofboston.com/?page_id=61
Ron High
[#welcome] to the forum. Your first 10 posts are moderated but there is no reason why you can’t post pictures. Well, people who refuse to follow the directions in the sticky can’t post pictures.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/249194.aspx
While you are new here, you don’t sound new to MR. Can you run 3 other engines with that power pack? If so, it doesn’t sound like a power pack problem. MRC power packs are pretty sturdy and available inexpensively on Ebay, if that is your problem.
Newer engines draw less power than some of the older engines. I have no specific knowledge about Bachmann and their motor draw. Some Bachmann engines had pancake motors, but I did see a reference to Roco motors in some shark noses. Also some HO Bachmann’s engines, like the GP30 had split frames.
I have converted old (80’'s) Stewart and Atlas engines. It is doable, but changing to led’s is recommended, and find space for a speaker can be a problem. You could remotor the engines, but now you are getting to even more expense.
I don’t see a Bachmann shark nose, but the ones I do see on ebay have no add on details other than horns, which is typical of locos 30 years ago, where all details were molded on.
Still if shark noses float your boat, you could consider doing some or all of the above.
[#welcome] to the Model Railroader forums. Your first few posts are delayed by the moderators, but please stick it out and join us. The moderation will end soon enough.
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It sounds like you have some locomotives with a pretty heavy thirst for electrical current. Some power packs just are not up to that kind of amperage load.
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The best choice is to replace the drives on these locmotives. I have heard of people using the Proto 2,000 FA drive under Shark shells, but I have no experience with this conversion, so I will leave any comment on that to those with experience.
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You might also need to upgrade your power supply.
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-Kevin
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I have a one and a dummy it runs great on a MRC 9500.
Sounds like you have three power hogs there for some reason. Since those engines have been around for some time, you might want to break them down and check for any stiffness or binding in the trucks and drive. Old grease in the trucks can get pretty stiff over the years (even harden) which would place an excessive load on the motor(s).
A good cleaning and some fresh lubrication would probably do wonders.
Mark.
Whoa. Topic started 11 years ago has been necroed multiple times; only on MR forums! [:o)]
HJR (his first post BTW) acknowledges that on his revival post.
Mark.