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Well another month another MOC! This is actually my first non-steam loco MOC, and, as far as I know, the first Lego model of this loco as well.

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Produced between 1950 and 1953, the RF-16 was an early diesel electric locomotive built by the soon to be extinct Baldwin Locomotive Works. While the RF-16 is typically synonymous with Baldwin's awesome "sharknose" trim (the main reason I wanted to model this loco), the styling had already been used on the earlier DR-6-4-20 and DR 4-4-15. 160 RF-16s served on the B&O, NYC, and PRR for about 10 to 15 years, though two units were running on the D&H up into the late 70s, and I believe the pair are still stored on some shortline in the boonies today.

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I've ordered parts to build at least one unit in a PRR black with pinstripe livery (the pinstripe and livery will probably be a sticker) - I would have really liked to do dark red with pinstripes, but dark red doesn't come on nearly enough parts.

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The part I'm least happy about is the windshield; Lego just doesn't have the resolution and doesn't make anything in the right shape to capture that funny windshield shape.

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From the start this unit was designed to run on PF unlike my T1 tender where the PF was kind of an afterthough. I've got two M motors geared 1:1 powered by the big battery box. The grate at the rear of the loco is a ladder such that you can shoot PF signals to the receiver behind it.

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And finally you can see some of the shenanigans used in the sharknose.

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Since I didn't have to mess with a complicated articulated chassis as in a steam loco, I haven't actually built any of this in brick, so it'll be interesting to see what happens when parts come.

EDIT: Instructions for this model are now for sale on Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-47470/NonsenseWars/148-baldwin-rf-16-sharknose

Edited by Commander Wolf

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That is insane! The nose job is fantastic. It looks like one of the D&H pair wandered west and is now in storage in Michigan... at least if the caption here is correct. You are going to be hard pressed to do better with the windshields, what you've already done is very good and it is only the fact that you've been staring at it for a long time that you even notice anything out of place. As for A-B vs A-A, I'd go for the latter, after all, two noses are better than one.

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Nice complex snot design in front. Can you show gearing in the bogies a bit?

I was too lazy to turn the gears and make them work in LDD, but here is my mockup in brick. Nothing too fancy since it's 1:1 in two-axle bogies:

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That is insane! The nose job is fantastic. It looks like one of the D&H pair wandered west and is now in storage in Michigan... at least if the caption here is correct. You are going to be hard pressed to do better with the windshields, what you've already done is very good and it is only the fact that you've been staring at it for a long time that you even notice anything out of place. As for A-B vs A-A, I'd go for the latter, after all, two noses are better than one.

Thanks mate! I'm leaning toward an A-A set as well, but I did get around to making the B unit in LDD:

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... and here is an A-B-A!

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Very nice engine set. It will be good to see it finally built, like you say lets hope it holds together well. Persoanally I'd like to see a A-B set up as we do not get much of that sort of thing in the south off England, we just get two engines joined together if we are lucky. Not even that very often.

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Well, it took a while for all the orders to arrive this time, but I finally got one unit together and ran it for a while at the local LUG meeting.

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There were some shenanigans in the trucks, but for the most part the LDD design worked(!) without any big modifications. It definitely feels more massive in person than LDD would suggest.

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I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about the pinstriping along the nose... even if I continued forward from where it currently ends (after the door), I can't go past the edge of the tiled surface, so it'd be weird either way.

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Now that I look at it, it could use some number boards too.

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With the big battery box there's plenty of low-end torque and traction, but the top speed isn't that high with the 1:1 gearing. Admittedly the RF-16s were mainly freight locomotives, so a low top speed is relatively appropriate.

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I think the ideal ratio might be something like 1:1.5... not that there's any room to add more gearing in the thing. There's a lot of wasted volume in the 1-2 stud gap in the sides of the locomotive though.

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Full gallery.

... and of course if anyone lives in the greater Bay Area, myself and jtlan will be displaying stuff with BayLTC at the Great Train Show in Pleasanton on the 22nd, so come see us and our trains!

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<snip>

... and of course if anyone lives in the greater Bay Area, myself and jtlan will be displaying stuff with BayLTC at the Great Train Show in Pleasanton on the 22nd, so come see us and our trains!

Cool! I'll see if I can make it. Martinez is a bit far away from Pleasanton, though.

Edited by detjensrobert

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That locomotive looks even better in real bricks. Could you cheat the striping and have it curve to the lower front corner of the tiles? As for the trucks, I'd suggest you put a pair of half bushings on the axles for the wheels, it will help keep the bevel gear on the central axle (in my experience they really love to slip off if given the opportunity).

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That locomotive looks even better in real bricks. Could you cheat the striping and have it curve to the lower front corner of the tiles? As for the trucks, I'd suggest you put a pair of half bushings on the axles for the wheels, it will help keep the bevel gear on the central axle (in my experience they really love to slip off if given the opportunity).

Thanks Zephyr, always good to hear your thoughts. I put a bushing on the longitudinal axle, but I think it does make sense to put them at all the joints. I considered curving and terminating the stripe early, but it doesn't seem that good in my mind... I'll try it out though - once I can figure out how to make the curve in my graphics editor or find someone else's graphic from which to lift it. Otherwise I might just suck it up and cover those two studs with tile.

Cool! I'll see if I can make it. Martinez is a bit far away from Pleasanton, though.

Pshaw, I'm driving around the bottom of the bay from the boonies of Silicon Valley... it'll be like an hour and a half for me :classic:

I'll try to take some video of the thing pulling lots of stuff very slowly.

Edited by Commander Wolf

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... and finally video!

I was originally thinking the 1:1 gearing was a little slow, but with fully charged batteries and a long train, it's actually pretty appropriate for freight speed. Overall I was quite happy with the performance; there were practically no running issues, and with the the AA battery box (the net weight is almost 2lbs) the loco could pull just about anything.

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This was why I actually made an account. Respect for you and your RF-16! I wished i had the skills to make it! Its the Mona Lisa of the lego trains!

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