PRR BP 20 Balwin Passenger Shark build

[rschaffter]

In my mind and memory (until I'm convinced differently) these black shells were offered by V-Line.  I have no idea who- if anyone- currently owns V-line.

Last I heard the tooling was owned by Deluxe Innovations and sold as part of their "Vintage By Deluxe" line,  50001 .  I have a couple I bought about ten years back.  They are grey.  Not currently in stock at Walthers...

https://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/238-50001

[Blackout]

Such a beastly looking unit. I dont have the gonads to try that kind of conversion.

[Alwyn Cutmore]

That beastie looking unit is about 10 ft longer than a E8/9. They initially ran as A-B-B-A units. Could you imagine the racket they would have made in full flight.

Regards

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, all, I just came across this 11 year old thread, and thought I would repost here this N scale Baldwin Passenger Shark foobie contribution I made to TheRailwire "Weekend Update Jan 3, 2025"  thread back on January 3 2025.   

These are Father Nature shells on Con-Cor DL109 mechanisms, that someone (I don't know who), took a lot of time and care to paint up and assemble these quite reasonable foobies of the Pennsylvania Baldwin Passenger Sharks.

Great modeling above, and I hope this further discussion is of value to all us N scalers.

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Jan 3, 2025   https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=59024.msg813121#msg813121

Well, it's been FOREVER since I posted a contribution to "Weekend Update".   I'm still around (my PBase ATSF_Arizona album is still there: https://pbase.com/atsf_arizona , I am now retired since Nov 1, 2024;  lots to do with wife, traveling, golf, house, et. al.  But I am finally catching up on some long delayed model RR'ing projects.   Here's my first contribution in a while.... don't be afraid, I have not turned over to the Pennsy, I still focus on Santa Fe and Southern Pacific..... but I do enjoy modeling / collecting examples of both oddball Pennsy diesels, and old-but-classic-N-scale model train methods (such as:  models based on the Con-Cor PA1 mechanism http://www.spookshow.net/loco/ccpa.html ......  I know, I'm dating myself).    Hence....

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See here an A-B-A set of Baldwin Passenger Shark foobies in N Scale.  These were purchased from eBay in December 2024 from "DBK Hobby" (eBay ID) of Elmira, Oregon - I suspect they came from someone locally in Oregon who was passing on an item from their N scale collection.   









These are reasonable facsimiles, not 100% correct by any means, resin shells on Con-Cor DL-109 N scale chassis.   But given the absolute unavailability of anything in N scale of Baldwin Pennsylvania RR class BP-20 Passenger "Sharks", it's nice to have some reasonable, well-running stand-in's.  You can see in them running in this 20 second video on YouTube (the Youtube "jerks" but in real life they do run smooth albeit typical "Con-Cor PA1-noisy"): 

/>   

You can see some more details on them in this PBase model railroading album:  https://pbase.com/atsf_arizona/baldwin_passenger_shark_foobie_in_n_scale

Modeling comments:

- These are resin shells, on a standard, unaltered Con-Cor DL-109 chassis/mechanism.  I updated them to Unimate couplers (medium shank on the A unit rears, long shanks were required on the B unit and the pilot of the A unit).

- These are well executed considering what they are.  Someone took a lot of time to accurately paint and decal the rough resin shells, for what the prototype was:   https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/tpm/393-passenger-shark-article  The paint faithfully represents them as they looked when first delivered in 2H 1948.   These are very decent stand-in's, gives a good overall impression of these unusual PRR diesels.

- Now to be fair for us modelers,  let's document the prototype 'fidelity' issues that while present, are in fact evidence that someone took a lot of time and energy to do the best they could with what they had.    i.e.    The Father Time resin shell's masters were pieced together from Baldwin N scale RF-16 (B-B) freight Shark components.  Thus these models do not have the proper nose contour of the Passenger Sharks, whose nose was slightly longer.  The side grille patterns and roof details are approximations.  The wheelbase on the model is a bit shorter than the prototype; the Con-Cor DL-109 mechanism's wheelbase / length was used unaltered, and is slightly shorter than the Baldwin prototype; thus these models are slightly shorter than they should be (the A units scale out to about 74 scale feet, prototype was 80 feet long!).  The resin model details are OK at "3 feet" but would not be considered contest quality fidelity.  And of course per Pennsy standards, the models should have the PRR Trainphone antennas.

All that said, enjoy these photos/video of an unusual and well-running set of N Scale Baldwin Passenger Shark models!

[muktown128]

I'd love to see a more prototypically accurate version of a PRR passenger shark nose diesel in N scale.  Probably a long shot though since they were so unique. 

[Pizzaparty]

Well you just happen to be in luck

https://outoftheboxmodels.com/products/blw-dr-6-4-2000

(I am not plugging for OOTBM - they just happen to have the requested models)

He’s working on the side frames. I know they aren’t 100% correct but they are 95% correct. 

[chessie system fan]

Is it just me, or is the OOTBM nose short like the resin shells?

[Mark5]

Is it just me, or is the OOTBM nose short like the resin shells?

Looks that way to me.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/salpiro/11659077826

[atsf_arizona]

Yes, the "Out Of The Box" 3D shell, definitely looks like the person designing the shell doesn't yet know, that the Passenger Sharks had a noticeably longer nose.  See these pictures for comparison below. 

From my Pbase album:   https://pbase.com/atsf_arizona/baldwin_passenger_shark_foobie_in_n_scale



You can clearly see the difference.

Other photo from my album, showing the longer Passenger Shark nose:



vs. the Out of the Box drawing, you can see the nose looks short in his diagram:



If anyone knows the Out Of the Box author, pls pass this info to him, this would be something he could change in his 3D design.

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P.S.   He does have the wheelbase in the ballpark, as the SD70ace wheelbase is 48 ft range, and the Baldwin Passenger Shark wheelbase is 46 ft 3 inches ( according to "Hosam":   http://www.hosam.com/blw/whb.html  ).
Of the various locomotive mechanisms that could be used, the SD70ace locomotive length is pretty close:



It is certainly true that almost nobody is going to know what a Baldwin Passenger Shark's true dimensions really are supposed to be, thus foobies like this fit the "good enough for 3 foot viewing distance" modeling rule.

I trust this helps.

[atsf_arizona]

The Out of The Box author can see all the info needed to modify his 3D printed shell, by seeing this online article:

https://jbritton.pennsyrr.com/index.php/tpm/393-passenger-shark-article

It has diagrams of the correct longer Baldwin Passenger Shark nose:



It'd be great to have a Baldwin Passenger Shark 3D shell with the correct nose contours:



You can see the freight RF-16 shark has the shorter nose:



And you can really see it here on these HO models:




I hope this helps.