The BLH RF-16 is a

cab unit In North American railroad terminology, a cab unit is a railroad "locomotive" with its own cab and controls. "Carbody unit" is a related term, which may be either a cabless booster unit controlled from a linked cab unit, or a cab unit that cont ...

-type

diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

built for freight service by the Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton Corporation between 1950 and 1953. All RF-16s were configured with a B-B wheel arrangement and ran on two

AAR AAR or Aar may refer to: Geography * Aar, a river in Switzerland, tributary of the Rhine *Aar (Lahn), a tributary of Lahn river in Germany, descending from the Taunus mountains * Aar (Dill), a tributary of Dill river in Germany, also in the bas ...

Type B two-axle road

trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

, with all axles powered. A total of 109 cab-equipped

A unit A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

s were built, along with 51 cabless booster

B unit B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It re ...

s, for a total of 160 locomotives built. As was the case with most passenger locomotives of its day, the RF-16s came equipped with a retractable, nose-mounted drop coupler

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. Unlike competing units from EMD and

Alco The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

, the RF-16 used an air-powered throttle, meaning that it could not be run in MU operation with EMD or Alco diesels without special MU equipment.

History

In 1948, Baldwin began to apply a new "

Sharknose :''Sharknose is also the nickname of the Ferrari 156 F1'' Sharknose is a term applied by railfans to the styling of several cab unit diesel locomotives built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works to the specifications of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The ...

" body style to its

s. The goal of the new style was partly to differentiate Baldwin locomotives from competitors, and partly to distance the new locomotives from early Baldwin diesels that were plagued with mechanical problems. The style was inspired by the Pennsylvania Railroad's T1 class duplex

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

, some of which were built by Baldwin. The first locomotives to receive the new styling was the DR-6-4-2000. When the RF-16 (essentially a "debugged" DR-4-4-1500 freight locomotive with a new

prime mover Prime mover may refer to: Philosophy *Unmoved mover, a concept in Aristotle's writings Engineering * Prime mover (engine), motor, a machine that converts various other forms of energy (chemical, electrical, fluid pressure/flow, etc) into energy o ...

) was introduced in 1950, it was given the new "Sharknose" styling. The RF-16 quickly gained a reputation as a reliable and rugged locomotive with tough "lugging power." Many of the units saw service hauling

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...

drags, where these characteristics were put to best use. A pair of Pennsylvania Railroad RF-16s were repowered with

ALCO The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

prime movers in December 1959, with mixed results. The Baltimore and Ohio retired its Sharknoses as a class in 1962. In 1966, the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

, the largest single owner of RF-16s, ceased use of the distinctive locomotives. In 1967, the

Monongahela Railway The Monongahela Railway was a coal-hauling short line railroad in Pennsylvania and West Virginia in the United States. It was jointly controlled originally by the Pennsylvania Railroad, New York Central subsidiary Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Rail ...

purchased seven A-units and two cabless B-units, the last remaining units from the

New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

Sharknose fleet.

Delaware and Hudson 1205 and 1216

By August 1974, all but two of the Monongahela Railway units, what were to become 1205 and 1216, had been sold for

scrap Scrap consists of Recycling, recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap Waste valorization, has monetary ...

. The final pair were to be scrapped by GE, but were saved when the

Delaware and Hudson Railroad The Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) is a railroad that operates in the Northeastern United States. In 1991, after more than 150 years as an independent railroad, the D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). CP operates D&H ...

purchased both units from the scrap dealer in exchange for an equal value of scrap steel. They were used in freight service and in passenger excursion service on the D&H until April 1978. In April they were purchased by Castolite Corporation, a locomotive leasing firm. The pair was leased for use on the

Michigan Northern Railway The Michigan Northern Railway was a railroad that provided service to the northern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan from 1976 to 1986. At the beginning of service on April 1, 1976, the MIGN operated the former Grand Rapids and Indiana Railr ...

in 1979 before being moved to the

Escanaba and Lake Superior Railroad The Escanaba & Lake Superior Railroad is a Class III shortline railroad that operates of track in Northeastern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Its main line runs from Rockland, Michigan, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and it also own ...

(ELS). The E&LS used #1216 for a short time in mid-1979, and a photo exists of it operating near Turner, Michigan. It was used in freight service again in the fall of 1982, but its

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting ...

broke not long after. Both #1216 and #1205 have been stored since that time on E&LS property in Escanaba and Wells, Michigan, inaccessible to the public. On January 10, 2020, ''Trains'' Magazine reported that the two surviving units will be going to a museum for preservation, but subsequent 2021 reporting revealed that a full restoration was economically unfeasible at that time. On December 2, 2021, the E&LS 1216 was moved from storage in Escanaba, Michigan to a shop at the railroad's headquarters in Wells, Michigan to free up space for freight car cleaning at the Escanaba car shop.

Original buyers

References

External links

Preserved Baldwin Box and Cab Units

* ttp://prr.railfan.net/diagrams/PRRdiagrams.html?diag=bf-16-b.gif&sel=die&sz=sm&fr= PRR Diesel Locomotive diagrams: Baldwin RF16 "B" (freight shark)
Riding the D&H Sharks
article by Jay Winn a
The Bridgeline Historical Society
official website.
D&H 1205 Delaware & Hudson RF-16's at Wells, Michigan. Photo by NS4Ever in July, 1982
{{Baldwin diesels Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States B-B locomotives RF-16 Railway locomotives introduced in 1950 Locomotives with cabless variants Freight locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Streamlined diesel locomotives

History

Delaware and Hudson 1205 and 1216

Original buyers

See also

References

External links