| B&O DR-4-4-1500 4201, La Grange, Illinois, November 15, 1964, photo by Chuck Zeiler. This locomotive was built by Baldwin as the trailing cab of demonstrator 6001. Previous to October 1948, the styling of the DR-4-4-1500 was known as Babyface to the casual observer, and was first ordered by the CNJ in September 1945, not delivered (because of post-war material and labor shortages) until mid-1947. The only other Babyface DR-4-4-1500's ordered were for the NYC and MP, with no orders from May 1947 to October 1948, when the PRR ordered 26 cabs and 26 boosters. However, the PRR specified a cab units matching their Raymond Loewy-styled Baldwin passenger DR-6-4-2000 units delivered in 1947, which took their styling from the T-1 steam locomotive, a design which earned the diesels the nickname Sharknose. In November 1949, the PRR followed up with an order for eight more cabs and eight more boosters.With no more orders for the DR-4-4-1500 on the books, in June 1949 Baldwin built demonstrator 6001, an A-B-B-A set, and sent it out on tour. Competing against EMD's F3 and Alco's FA1, no sales were forthcoming, although the tour may have influenced sales in the DR-4-4-1500's sucessor, the RF-16. The demonstrator was sold to the EJ&E December 22, 1950 under a lease-purchase agreement, the cabs were renumbered 700A and 701A (the pictured unit), and the boosters were 700B and 701B. They did not work out well on the EJ&E, and the poorly maintained units were transferred to the EJ&E's sister US Steel owned railroad, the DM&IR. On the DM&IR only two units (a cab and a booster) were found operable, and were renumbered 728-729, but not repainted from the EJ&E orange and green. Because of poor maintenance on the EJ&E, although the DR-4-4-1500's could out-perform matching sets of EMD F-units, their maintenance costs were three times as much. At the end of the EJ&E's lease-purchase agreement in 1955, all four units were sold to the B&O. Delivered to the B&O on March 11, 1955, the DR-4-4-1500's were renumbered 847-847X-849X-849 (the pictured unit was 849), refurbished at the Glenwood Shops (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) during April 1955, and put to work with the Baldwin RF-16's the B&O already had on the property. During 1957, the B&O renumbered the units to 4200-5200-5201-4201, and during 1961 number 4201 was equpipped with a snowplow pilot. It was retired January 31, 1963, traded to EMD on July 3, 1964 for new SD35's, and is pictured here on the Pielet Brothers (scrap yard) setout track across the IHB tracks from EMD's plant. |