Shapeways CNJ Baby-faced Baldwin A & B unit by Piperguy

[damrr]

 :)Has anyone out there ordered these units? How do they look (Good,Bad,average), how is the detail and are the curves smooth.
I am thinking about buying a set but you know how bad looking some of the shapeways stuff can be because of the printing orientation.
Would you recomend buying the item?

[LV LOU]

I'd kill for a set of these..They don't look too bad,and I already have ER chassis..I think I'll live with however they look,nobody will ever make them..

http://www.shapeways.com/search?q=n+baldwin+cnj

[damrr]

I think you are right Lou,may be the only way to obtain them.

[Scott Lupia]

I would so be in for these but they lost me at shapeways. I am just not a fan. What a shame.

Scott Lupia

[kornellred]

There were some (ostensible) printing difficulties with the A (cab) unit early on.  I ordered these units twice from Shapeways and my payment was returned both times.  PiperguyUMD had the files corrected and the units are now shipping, according to people who claim to have them in their possession.  My third order to Shapeways for these units has been accepted.

The designer of the Shapeways Baldwin freighters used the official Baldwin drawings obtained from the Pennsylvania State Archives, so the features of the bodies of the locos should be accurately placed and correctly proportioned.  I imagine that the nose curvatures which render the "baby face" can only be approximated in the 3D printing process.  It should be easy to modify, however.  I hope to discover if that is true in the very near future.

[sizemore]

Piperguy is a member of the forum, might want to ask him directly as I'm sure he's probably built the set post printing, and can share some photos.

The S.

[Scott Lupia]

OK, I bit the bullet and ordered the AB set.  I am skeptical of the whole Shapeways aspect but if there is a chance I can make it all work I will give it a shot.  I mean, they are baby face Baldwins for petes sake! 

scott lupia

[PiperguyUMD]

I'm glad you guys are finding my products, and I appreciate all of your feedback!  The baby faces were commissioned to ride one the ER chassis. I was not a fan of the decision, but the customer is always right. I'm sure they could be adapted to other drives with minimal work.  I designed these to use as many after market parts as possible. This way there are fewer delicate items for shapeways to mess up. This also makes them easier to clean/sand without worrying about fragile details.  I have to confess, I finished this project a week before I left on a 10 week tour with my band, and have not seen the printed A unit in person.  I was very pleased with the B unit I recieved and it was turning out well, I hope to have some pics up soon after I return.  There are some pics of the printed A B pair in my shapeways store that a customer was kind enough to send my way. Unfortunately until
I get of the road these will be the only pics I have.

There have been some printability issues that I can't quite figure out.  A few sets printed with no issues, then some problems turned up and where corrected. Shortly after that the commissioner ordered 11 pairs that printed without incident, then I heard through the forum that orders were being canceled with no notification from shapeways. I have done more work on the file and they are once again available.  Hopefully all issues have been sorted out.

[kornellred]

A slight digression in light of PiperguyUMD's comments:

The ER Models RF16 is the only 100 percent correct chassis to use with the Babyface Baldwin bodies.  Why?  Because the real Baldwin Shark Nose freight units were Babyface Baldwins with different bodies.  The Bolster spacing is exactly the same, and more importantly,  the axle spacing of the trucks, which was 9'10" for Baldwins as opposed to 9'4" for all other GSC 2 axle outside drop-equalized trucks, is correctly modeled in the ER units.  This issue may be a rivet counter's neurosis, but accurate is accurate.

[LV LOU]

I'm glad you guys are finding my products, and I appreciate all of your feedback!  The baby faces were commissioned to ride one the ER chassis. I was not a fan of the decision, but the customer is always right. I'm sure they could be adapted to other drives with minimal work.  I designed these to use as many after market parts as possible. This way there are fewer delicate items for shapeways to mess up. This also makes them easier to clean/sand without worrying about fragile details.  I have to confess, I finished this project a week before I left on a 10 week tour with my band, and have not seen the printed A unit in person.  I was very pleased with the B unit I recieved and it was turning out well, I hope to have some pics up soon after I return.  There are some pics of the printed A B pair in my shapeways store that a customer was kind enough to send my way. Unfortunately until
I get of the road these will be the only pics I have.

There have been some printability issues that I can't quite figure out.  A few sets printed with no issues, then some problems turned up and where corrected. Shortly after that the commissioner ordered 11 pairs that printed without incident, then I heard through the forum that orders were being canceled with no notification from shapeways. I have done more work on the file and they are once again available.  Hopefully all issues have been sorted out.

I'd really like to see at least the A unit,totally unmodified,in primer..I may actually consider doing a small run of these shells in green..

[Catt]

Being a somewhat regular buyer of Shapeways products I have come to the conclusion that "operator error" is the real deal with them.Stony Smith has a huge library of designs there and I have bought more than a few oif his extended vision cabeese in Z scale.The printing has ranged from absolutely flawless to ":What the hell is that?"

Sometimes I think they hire off the street and tell their new help this button starts the machine,that one stops it and that's all you need to know.

[Spikre]

 
  the RF16 was actually about 1' shorter than the Pennsy DRS-4-4-15 or RF15 Sharks,
  but that shouldnt matter in N.
  GSC Type B Swing Hanger,Double Equalized Road Trucks:
  9" WB,only 4 known,all used under the Westinghouse "Blue Goose" Turbine.
  9'4" Standard Alco,MLW and GE version.Adirondack version is interchangable.
  9'4" Non Standard version,used under Alco-GE and GE 4500 HP Turbines,and most GE U50 locos.
          extra springs and topcord of truck different,brake cylinders mounted differently.
  9"6" used under F-M,Lima and Ingalls B trucked units.later F-M switched to the Single Equalized 9'4" C-Line truck.
  9'10" standard Baldwin B truck.
  some 9'6" F-M trucks were used for awhile under NYC U25B and U30B locos until more 9'4" ex-Alco trucks could be procured from retired Alcos.
   Spikre
       

[mrp]

I have an A&B set. The castings look OK to me, but some comments I have seen on the ARHS yahoo site lead me to think they are not completely accurate, though I don’t know why. They are likely to be the only game in town for years to come.

There is a lot of drilling to do for grabs and so forth, but nothing really major.

The Bachman frames I have are DCC ready, and adding a decoder is easy.  ESU shows a couple of Baldwin sounds available. The Bachman’s have truck mounted Rapidos. The easy fix is just go with Unimates for all but the front pilot. The B unit shell fits nicely onto the Bachman; no frame modifications needed. The A unit will require some frame cutting, as the nose interferes with the gear tower. I found it worked better to cut the frame at the rear end of the A unit. The mechanism is a decent runner; probably will improve with a good decoder.

The shells have openings where the air filter screens go. It is up to the modeler to figure out what to use. I tried Gold Medal chain link fencing, but this looked too coarse to my eye. Clover House 100 mesh looked too fine. Waiting on some Clover House 80 & 60 mesh to arrive. For periods other than when the units were first delivered, a ladder support system is needed along the edge on one roof. I tried some PRR antenna supports; they are OK but could stand some improvement. There may be better options for the ladder supports. Many of the stirrups broke during all the drilling, which turned out to be for the best, as they are a bit coarse and fragile. Easy enough to replace with some metal ones.

I plan to paint the set in the late CNJ austerity green scheme. I likely will order another AB set and paint in the as delivered blue & tangerine. The designer / author of the shells says he will have decals available that fit the early scheme. The others can be pieced together from Microscale stuff.
The whole thing is just a garden variety project, though a bit time consuming.

Michael Pennie

[Spikre]

 
  didnt see it mentioned,but the CNJ units were at least 3' Shorter
  than the NYC and MP units that had Steam Generaters and were
  considered Dual Service locos.
   any plan on those versions being made,or the Passenger version
  that NYC and SAL had ?
      Spikre
       

[kornellred]

Each of the Babyface Baldwin units were customized according to the needs of each railroad that ordered them.  The CNJ DR4-4-1500 freighters were the first - and even cab units 70 and 71 were quite different from 72-79.  The CNJ units will not make easy kitbash fodder for MoPac or NYC units of the same stripe.