Wobbling E-R Shark unit -FIXED!!

[peteski]

Being catty, Peteski?

 

[rail_nut]

Non E-R Shark models. I have an undec set of JnJ RF-16A shells. Also have a pair of D&H Sharks with moulded hand rails installed split frames. E-R models have separate hand rails per Spookshow. Photo of frame doesn't look like what I have. My records show these as JnJ/Atlas/Kato and bought around 2010. Is it possible that JnJ had shells commercially painted and mounted on Atlas drives?

[thomasjmdavis]

Non E-R Shark models. I have an undec set of JnJ RF-16A shells. Also have a pair of D&H Sharks with moulded hand rails installed split frames. E-R models have separate hand rails per Spookshow. Photo of frame doesn't look like what I have. My records show these as JnJ/Atlas/Kato and bought around 2010. Is it possible that JnJ had shells commercially painted and mounted on Atlas drives?

IIRC, the JnJ shells were designed to ride on Atlas/Kato RS-3 frames (and had separate etched steps)- I have a pair myself- and the RS- frames are a good fit.  There were also other casters out there making sharks (with molded steps).
Back in the 90s, there were several custom painters who offered completed and decorated models, but AFAIK, JnJ did not offer completed units, although I would not be surprised if they offered some decorated shells- they did limited run painting of freight cars, so would have had the capability.

Every once in a while, the folks who owned JnJ find a few more shells and/or step etchings, and put them up on eBay.

[rail_nut]

Thanks Tom for ebay suggestion. Bought set of JnJ RF-16 stirrups for my shells.

[brokemoto]

There were shark shells out there that would fit onto the Mehano FA chassis.  They even had cuts in the shell to snap onto the chassis.  Some people put them onto LL plastic frame chassis.  I did this with an A-A pair.  Others did put them onto Atlas/Kato RS-3/RS-11 chassis.  I am not aware of anyone's putting them onto an LL metal split frame FA-2 chassis, although I am sure that someone has done it.  I would expect that the LL chassis would require substantial modification. 

One of those shells is actually the first version of the sharks, the DR-4-4-15, or a"babyface in shark's clothing".  The numbers built were somewhere around thirty of forty.  Penn had most of them and one of the Chicago area roads, EJ&E(?) pr C&WI(?) bought the two demonstrators which subsequently were sold to the B&O.  As I understand it, the only spotting difference is the fuel filler. 

E-R's are RF-16s.

[thomasjmdavis]

The  EJ&E were Sharks- I do believe they were also demonstrators.  An ABBA set.
https://www.pinterest.es/pin/the-elgin-joliet-easterns-baldwin-dr441500-sharknose-diesels-nos-701a-and-701b--857232110294643906/

Someone was doing the babyface on shapeways- don't recall if it was a B-B or an A1A-A1A. 

It's too bad that we've lost so many of the folks who were doing resin castings and etched sides. 

Here's a JnJ shell I'm working on.  Or was.  Attempts to get a decal stripe to curve to match the orange-green separation have failed so far.

[mmagliaro]

...

They do have that wonderful ozone smell like the early N locos had -- is that what it smells like when a (real) GG1 goes by?

Or what it smells like when an ARNOLD GG1 goes by?

[brokemoto]

The  EJ&E were Sharks- I do believe they were also demonstrators.  An ABBA set.

They were Sharks in that they had the body style.  Their mechanicals were DR-4-4-15, which were the Babyfaces.  This is why I call them "Babyfaces in Sharks' Clothing"  Their mechancials were not the RF-16, which is what most usually associate with the Sharks.  There were something like forty or forty five A-B pairs of the DR-4-4-15s built with shark bodies.  There were something like thirty five or forty units total of the Babyface.  There were about one hundred fifty (or perhaps a few more) of the RF-16s built.  The ratio of As to Bs was about two to one. 

Penn and EJ&E got all of the DR-4-4-15s with Shark bodies.  Penn had the overwhelming majority of them.

Baldwin sold RF-16s only to B&O, NYCS and Penn.  Penn had something like just over one hundred units total.  B&O had about thirty units total, perhaps a few over thirty.  NYCS had just under thirty units total.  Penn's lasted into the late 1960s, just before the PC merger. Some of them were still in five stripes when they were retired. Penn did re-engine one or two of them with ALCo 251s.  It must not have been successful, as Penn did not do any more.  I do not know if any of the  Penn's made it to PC.   B&O and NYCS retired theirs in the mid-1960s.  A former NYCS A-A pair, that ran also on the Monongahela and D&H are all that survive of these.

Here's a JnJ shell I'm working on.  Attempts to get a decal stripe to curve to match the orange-green separation have failed so far.

That is  pretty good job, so far.  Would the gold striping on the Penn's single strips or D&H's fit the pattern?

[thomasjmdavis]

They were Sharks in that they had the body style.  Their mechanicals were DR-4-4-15, which were the Babyfaces.  This is why I call them "Babyfaces in Sharks' Clothing"  Their mechancials were not the RF-16, which is what most usually associate with the Sharks.  There were something like forty or forty five A-B pairs of the DR-4-4-15s built with shark bodies.  There were something like thirty five or forty units total of the Babyface.  There were about one hundred fifty (or perhaps a few more) of the RF-16s built.  The ratio of As to Bs was about two to one. 

Penn and EJ&E got all of the DR-4-4-15s with Shark bodies.  Penn had the overwhelming majority of them.

Baldwin sold RF-16s only to B&O, NYCS and Penn.  Penn had something like just over one hundred units total.  B&O had about thirty units total, perhaps a few over thirty.  NYCS had just under thirty units total.  Penn's lasted into the late 1960s, just before the PC merger. Some of them were still in five stripes when they were retired. Penn did re-engine one or two of them with ALCo 251s.  It must not have been successful, as Penn did not do any more.  I do not know if any of the  Penn's made it to PC.   B&O and NYCS retired theirs in the mid-1960s.  A former NYCS A-A pair, that ran also on the Monongahela and D&H are all that survive of these.


That is  pretty good job, so far.  Would the gold striping on the Penn's single strips or D&H's fit the pattern?

I misunderstood what you were saying. Since the "Baby face"  style (in various lengths) was used on several different locos (Centipedes, DR-6-4-20, DR-6-4-15 as well as DR 4-4-15) I am not used to associating it as "the" DR-4-4-15.  But I don't want to grumble over nomenclature. Yes, I know that the EJ&E units were DR 4-4-15, and that the shark shells I have were RF-16, although the differences are minor at 1/160, and (a) I had the shells and (b) I want to represent EJ&E in my collection, and (c) they are Baldwin road diesels- a rarity in N scale.