BLI Shark announcements

[nstars]

Slightly off question, I would prefer a stealth A and B personally, i.e. not totally un DCC ready, but something that I can plug in the decoder of my choice and a good speaker.

On their website, the DCC ready version is called Stealth. Even the ad in Dave’s post mentions Stealth, so I expect them to be easily converted to DCC including sound.

Marc

[Pizzaparty]

EJ&E owned sharks, hopefully they make a few!

[btrain]

I do have a pair of ER Sharks waiting in the wings for a DCC conversion at the moment. Anyone know a remedy for the cracked white nylon gears, or if there’s a suitable replacement for them?

[High Hood]

The Baldwin Demonstrator scheme would’ve been nice.

[atsf_arizona]

I do have a pair of ER Sharks waiting in the wings for a DCC conversion at the moment. Anyone know a remedy for the cracked white nylon gears, or if there’s a suitable replacement for them?

I also have sets of the old ER Sharks.  I'd also like to know the best solution if I experience the cracked white nylon gears problem on the old ER Sharks.

That said, it's great to see modern N scale technology and road-specific details (such as "Trainphone antennas" on the PRR Sharks) applied to these Baldwin Shark models from BLI!

[brokemoto]

EJ&E owned sharks, hopefully they make a few!

Tbat was the Chicago area road that I was trying to remember.  EJ&E  and the Penn had the early versions, They were really DR-4-4-1500s or "Babyfaces in sharks' clothing" as opposed to RF-16s (which the Penn had as well) .  I forget how many EJ&E bought but they did sell theirs to the B&O in the mid or late 1950s.

I forget what the subtle spotting differences are between the DR-4-4-1500s and RF-16 sharks are.

The V-Line shells actually will go onto the E-R chassis for those of you who want to model the DR-4-4-1500 sharks (the V-Line shells are supposed to be the early version).  You do have to find a way to secure them, though.

Many modellers have used to CA in the cracks on those white gears.  I still have one pair where both units have the cracked gears.  The B-unit is locked up.  The A makes the clicking noise but still runs well.

I have one  pair in Penn that has white gears and has not shown this problem Y-E-T.  I have four B&O pairs; two with white gears, two with black.  None have shown the problem Y-E-T, although one of the A units with white gears emits a loud whine, worse than the usual coffee grinder noise that these things normally make.  I have two As with white gears lettered for my non-historic that have not shown the problem Y-E-T.

There were some who reported that the NWSL replacement wheelsets for the B-mann PLUS F-units would fit but I have yet to read anyone's report on the results.  The last that I looked, whoever revived NWSL did not re-issue that product.   If anyone finds the NWSL wheelsets as NOS and they do, in fact fit, and, I do not know if they do, you would think that the wheelsets for the SPECTRUM Fs (that fixed the gear cracking problems on the PLUS) as well as those from the DCC Fs also would fit.  I do not know if those wheelsets still are available from the B-mann parts department.

[thomasjmdavis]

The most obvious spotting features between DR-4-4-1500 and RF-16 are (per Second Diesel Spotters Guide) is "DR-4-4-15's have a prominent side fuel fill and the side panels extend down almost to the bottom edge of the cast frame."
This would be except for PRR 9700 A-9707A, which had DR-4-4-15 machinery in the later RF-16 body and were sometimes known as "RF-15's".

EJE bought a ABBA set of demonstrators from Baldwin. They were sold to B&O in 1955 if memory serves.  I've been slowly working on modeling these with a set of RF-16 shells from JnJ.  The JnJ shells had the advantage that the nose was made to take a MTL coupler, and the steps and grabs were separate etched parts.

[Jimbo]

If the wallet allowed, I'd end up picking up a A-B set plus two more A units, with the goal of putting the B shell on one of the powered A chassis, as I'd prefer a full powered A-B-A set.

It appears that BLI will be offering A-B sets with the B unpowered, and individual A and B unit, with the a la carte B unit powered.

So an A-B set, plus one each of an individual A and B unit would accomplish this.  And you wouldn’t need to worry about whether a B shell could fit on an A chassis!

Jim

[Maletrain]

From carefully reading the press release, it is not clear to me whether BLI will be offering any powered B units. 

I really hope they do, because these locos were typically used to lug heavy trains on steep grades, so I am not thinking that a couple of A units would pull an appropriate train with unpowered B units.  I would like to have an ABBA set, all powered.  That is what I have been running with the ER units I have been thinking about converting to DCC - as recently as discussing options with ESU and Soundtrax at Springfield over the weekend.

So, I am now hoping to keep my ER units on the Club's DC layout and spending even more money on a DCC set for the Club's DCC layout (and my future home DCC layout 🤞).

[dem34]

From carefully reading the press release, it is not clear to me whether BLI will be offering any powered B units. 

I really hope they do, because these locos were typically used to lug heavy trains on steep grades, so I am not thinking that a couple of A units would pull an appropriate train with unpowered B units.  I would like to have an ABBA set, all powered.  That is what I have been running with the ER units I have been thinking about converting to DCC - as recently as discussing options with ESU and Soundtrax at Springfield over the weekend.

So, I am now hoping to keep my ER units on the Club's DC layout and spending even more money on a DCC set for the Club's DCC layout (and my future home DCC layout 🤞).

Really depends on the railroad and time period. Once the honeymoon period ended you'd see as many As as needed to pull a train unless drawbarred to their Bs.

[reinhardtjh]

From carefully reading the press release, it is not clear to me whether BLI will be offering any powered B units. 

They are on the catalog page on their web site.  1 number for each road (PRR, B&O, NYC) for Paragon 4 and Stealth.  None for D&H, of course.

https://broadway-limited.com/collections/prr-sharknose-n-2025?q=

I would like to have an ABBA set, all powered.

To get that you will have to buy one Powered A/Unpowered B, two powered B (same #) and the single A unit and then swap the unpowered B schell to one of the powered B and put the unpowered B chassis in the scrap yard.

Not efficient, nor cheap, but the only way.

For what it's worth, they do the F3/F7/E7/E8/PA the same way.

[Maletrain]

Looking at the B&O roster, I see 7 ABA sets (odd#s 851-865 except #863) 1 AA set (#863). 

B&O numbered AA lashups as # and #A, with the "A" unit getting the next higher even number when separated.  Similarly, they numbered the B units with the A unit number followed by an "X".  So, for example, the Shark 3 unit #851 would consist of #851, 851X and #851A.  (In 4 unit lash-ups with 2 B units, it would also have an "AX" B unit, but there were none of those in Baldwin Sharks.)

However, looking through the few photos I have of Sharks in B&O trains, I see an AA set and an ABB set on real trains, but can't quite read the numbers.  That AA set might be 863, but looks more like 865.  But, that ABB set had to break up at least one AB set and put 2 "X" numbers on the same train with only one A unit.  (Not sure how they would number that, or if they would not bother to renumber a B unit by then.)

So, by the mid-50s, I can probably justify any combination of Sharks, and use whatever it takes to pull my train - which is what the B&O really did, anyway.

However, I would like to see an ABBA Shark photo if anybody has one.

[SkipGear]

I swear I have seen a B&O ABBA set photo, just no clue how to find it again. I have an ABBA set of the ER sharks that I never got around to DCC'ing, now I don't need to worry about it. The ER's didn't need sound because the created motor and gearbox actually made a pretty good growling diesel sound.  Guess it's time for another set from BLI.