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October 14th, 2009

While MSTS projects such as the 1935 Lincoln Zephyr and the Milwaukee EP-3 "Quills" have languished, work on "analog" modeling in N scale has made some progress. Trains are operating on the N scale Allegheny Eastern. The operation is limited to a loop, but it is a rather large loop. So far about it's about 80 odd feet of continuous running on the lower level. The upper level doesn't exist yet but it won't add much to the length of the horizontal run. Essentially half of the current loop will move about 18 inches vertically (if all goes as planned). In the meantime, the lower level makes a pretty sizable layout in itself. Running an A-B-B-A set of sharks and a 20 car train of empty hopper took about 9 minutes to complete the 2.6 mile circuit. According to my employee timetable (Middle Division, September 1954) that's a tad under 20 miles per hour. So far the main is only single track but that will change as more flextrack becomes available. I think first, however, I'll tackle the the eastbound yard and engine terminal. That's still a bit in the future. The current track and roadbed needs to be tidied up and made permanent.

I've also been looking about for more motive power and rolling stock. These searches have made me aware of a problem in N scale that's very similar to a common V scale issue. Both scales are plagued by what I call "lost models". In V scale these are modeling projects that look very promising but never actually see the light of day. Either the builder finds them technically impossible to complete or has lost interest or some other circumstance has occurred. I can recall a good number of "victims" of this phenomena. Among them are a really great looking Pioneer Zephyr, a Santa Fe 3000 class 2-10-10-2 articulated and Norfolk & Western's "Jawn Henry" turbine. Only the builders know what happened to these models and the community as a whole missed out. Even the screenshots that were on the Train-sim site are gone. Wish I had saved copies.

The hobbyist who works in 1:160 (and probably other scales) will run into a similar situation. On the work bench I currently have almost a half dozen diesel locomotive shells. There are Electro-Motive F-3 A and B units that fit F-7 or F-9 frames (not sure what manufacturer). There are also two Fairbanks-Morse "Erie built" A units that fit a ALCO PA chassis. Each A unit is a different "phase" of production. There is also a B unit that matches. All these units are waiting for a chassis and a paint job. While the F-3 is available from several manufacturers, the Erie builts have no commercial counterpart.

Ken-Ray models has produced a shell for a Baldwin DR-6-4-2000, better know as a Pennsylvania class BP-20 "passenger shark". I had a chance to purchase a set of these, A and B units, but balked at paying $35 for two locomotive shells. I was recently reminded of these units by a photo of a HO scale BP-20 set. When I went to the Ken-Ray site to check, I found that the big Baldwin's were out of stock. I'm hoping that another batch is in production, but there is no guarantee. The point here is that many of small companies that make these sort of "odd ball" units go in and out of business. The molds for these models may be purchased by another company, but only if they were permanent (and expensive) metal. The temporary molds used to produce the typical resin model don't last. The manufacturer must produce a new mold for each production run. Because of this, these rarely modeled units are rare indeed...

Companies like Athearn, Atlas, and Kato are only going to invest money producing models of VERY popular units. That's why we have so many models of the RS-3, later GP units, F and E units and all those newer diesels I am not familiar with. They are pretty sure they will sell thousands, if not tens of thousands of these products. There is no real money in modeling a BP-20 or Baldwin DR-6-4-1500 "babyface" (or for that matter most Baldwin car body diesels) because their numbers were limited to a few railroads. These locomotives were rare in the real world. The Baldwin passenger locomotive with the shark styling was only purchased by the Pennsylvania. The Baldwin DR-12-8-3000 "centipede" saw the same limited use with Pennsy, NdeM and Seaboard buying the units. These kinds of models are usually produced by the little mom and pop companies on shoe-string budgets or imported as expensive brass collectibles. They are definitely SIG specialties, unless of course you are modeling the Pennsylvania Railroad

The Pennsylvania is known for purchasing and building huge lots of equipment; but even the small lots were big compared to other railroads. These relatively obscure diesel units are not so obscure if you own dozens of them. PRR owned 48 Fairbanks-Morse "Erie builts" including 12 B units. Since only 82 A-units and 29 B-units were built, most of them went to the Pennsy. Historically the railroad purchased hundreds of steam locomotives from Baldwin. Among the diesel units Baldwin built for the PRR were twenty-four DR-12-8-3000 "centipedes" and twenty-seven DR-6-4-2000 "passenger sharks". The Pennsy also bought two models of Baldwin sharknosed freight units. Sixty-eight DR-4-4-1500 freight sharks and one hundred and two Baldwin RF-16 sharks. The two models are nearly identical...

The DR-4-4-1500 was originally produced with a "babyface" car body with the sharknose introduced in 1949 with the Baldwin 608SC prime mover. Note the fuel fillers mounted in a recess just above the "A" on the lead unit. It's the one of the only visual clues that this is a DR-4-4-1500. The Pennsylvania was the only railroad to own the shark bodied version. The only baby faced Baldwins the Pennsy purchased were all centipedes, the DR-12-8-3000.

The RF-16 was released in 1950 using the Baldwin 608A diesel. You can see the fuel filler notch below the herald. The Pennsylvania purchased both versions of the sharknose freighters. The New York Central and Baltimore & Ohio were the only other railroads to purchase RF-16's from Baldwin. The Monongahela, Delaware & Hudson, and Escanaba & Lake Superior all bought used units.

In both the DR-6 and the DR4 / RF-16 the shark style car bodies show the direct influence of the Pennsy. The shark styled car body of the DR-6-4-2000 also started out a babyface but was redesigned per Pennsy request.

The basic point here is that these units were regular visitors of Altoona and The Curve. The layout wouldn't be complete without some of these locomotives any more than the Northeast Corridor could do without GG-1's. There is also a bit of personal preference here. I have a penchant for these odd ball critters and that's probably why I tried to create V scale models of almost every type of babyface Baldwin produced.

I would think there was some light at the end of the tunnel, considering the mass produced RF-16 that ER released. Yet ER is no longer in business. I heard a rumor that Bachmann was picking up the dies and molds to produce these units, but I'm pretty sure it's an HO scale model and not the ER shark. I have also seen recent preproduction photos of a mass produced Baldwin centipede. Will it actually make it into production?

All of this makes me lean towards creating my own masters. For the cost of some of these models, I could buy the materials and learn to create resin shells in my own shop. I've done the same with cars, motorcycles, home repairs and modeling. I save money, I end up with the tools for the job, and even better, the knowledge of how these things work. Like Henry Ford, I try to be self sufficient and develop my own resources. That's why so many odd materials find their way onto the Allegheny Eastern. Cheaper substitutes are always welcome. This is true of raw materials as well as equipment. I have no problem with adding details or modifying parts to produce what I want. Isn't that what this hobby is about? I don't want to collect trains, I want to run them. I would never be comfortable with taking a perfectly good running train and displaying it on a shelf. That's what static models are for!

I'm currently working on several technologies that would enable me to use my V scale models as templates for N scale items. There is software that would allow me to take the digital information from my Baldwin babyface models and use it to control a computerized milling machine. A milling machine, incidentally, that I can build myself. There are some promising aspects to this. Not only could it produce body shells, it could also create parts for frames, motors, wheels, and any other shape required. Whether it actually works or not remains to be seen.

One final thought. Among the "oddball" diesels I like, the DL109 is definitely on the list. Unfortunately the Pennsylvania never owned any. Most of the DL109 production, 60 units, went to the New Haven. But the two N scale DL109's I have are marvelous performers and weigh enough to pull a good size train. While the Pennsy has none of these big ALCO's, the Allegheny Eastern took a cue from the New Haven and uses them as dual purpose units. That's one reason for freelancing a railroad like the AllEast. You can bend the rules a bit.

Now all I need is a decent paint scheme for Allegheny Eastern equipment. I'm kinda fond of teal and silver, and wanted something similar overall to the PRR. I wanted something with a bit of the refined conservative look...

New Haven-esque

Pennsyish

Arrowhead

Maybe all three can be applied, giving the locomotives a "history" of sorts.

While on the subject of bending rules I have to mention the Altoona Northern connection at Altoona. Abandoned in the real world, the shortline was intended to connect to the New York Central at Patton PA. On the layout the bankruptcy never occured and the Central interchanges with the Allegheny Eastern at Altoona. Since the Altoona Northern started out as a narrow guage it could have been an excuse to run some Nn3 trackage. I considered this for about four minutes. I like the NYC and wouldn't mind having a few lightning striped sharks wandering into East Altoona on occasion. It would also give me an excuse to build a few Baldwin DR-6-4-1500 "vest pocket" passenger units. These babyface units ran A-1-A trucks under an F-unit style car body. Only 12 were ever built, 9 for the NYC. We'll see how that works out.

Well I think that's about it for now...Thanks for listening.