After 40 years in hiding, Ex-D&H 1216 has been moved from Escanaba to Wells, MI. Rumor has it both will be donated to an unspecified museum. Almost 40 Years Being Hidden Away, This Rare Baldwin RF-16 "Sharknose" Appears! | Jason Asselin - YouTube Looks like it was kind of a chaotic day. Lots of interesting old E&LS equipment shows in this video.
That brought back memories of the past. Those old engines and cars. I've been on those fine roads many times. Motorcycles and snowmobiling. Thanks for the show. Rich
It would be fantastic if the pair of Sharks were completely restored. What I recall is that one of them had a major mechanical (engine) failure. But Baldwin parts can still be found, so IF someone had the money and desire....
This is good news. Hoping for restoration. Added the video to my Shark Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/434017868133469 Dave
Broken crankshaft (!) on one I think, but the E&LS has a substantial inventory Baldwin parts on hand.
D&H 1216 in better days. Greenwich Junction, New York, 9 September 1976. Original Kodachrome slide by Paul Hunnell. Slide from my collection. Dave
WOW -- there ya go! Such a beautiful machine from such a neat era on the D&H with their PA's, C-628s, other assorted Alcos and U-Boats too. Carl Sterzing was quite the CEO.
That's great to see one again in this day. The RF-16 is an engine that particularly pulls some strings in my heart, since it was the very first locomotive I had, back at Christmas 1973, in B&O colors, and that I still have (one of the two survivors of that time) and cherish. And it still runs! But I'd love to see and hear a Shark one of these days, restored not just cosmetically but mechanically. Any other item on my bucket list would be trivial compared to that experience.
From July 1983 at the D&H Shops at Colonie, NY, I found a lot of U-Boats, an Alco RS-36 and a former LV GP-38-2.
Wonderful video. I'd forgotten the deep-throated horn of the Sharks. Also, the pulsating prime mover. Great memories. Thanks.
There are one or two sequences where one does hear that Baldwin throbbing sound, faintly. Hearing a lashup of those beasts in person must be an impressive experience. The large-bore engines made a very deep throbbing at lower rpms, and at higher throttle settings, some describe it as thrashing. But they pulled like nobody's business, and a lot of engineers loved them for their ability to get any train going.
A late friend was a locomotive engineer and once told me that Baldwins combined with their Westinghouse electrical systems "could have moved the world if a chain could have been gotten around it". Excellent video @Point353 ! Thanks for posting.
I've had my shark from the last Bachmann run packed away since the Blue Water club dissolved. Right now, it's D&H 1216, but will eventually get the patchout sceme that it wore on the old Michigan Northern (and still wears the remains of). I'll hopefully be starting benchwork soon, so mine will hopefully see the light of day soon, too.
You might also like this video, taken at Rahway NJ in 1966, of an engine swap, on a train headed down the NY&LB, between a PRR GG1 and a pair of passenger sharks plus an E7. Due to the incompatible electrical systems, there's a second crew running the E7 - double headed rather than mu'ed.
Nice video! The GG1's horn sounds exactly like the one on the train that runs over the Coyote that's waiting for the Road Runner...
