Vintage Baby face Baldwin or Erie - Built.... Fairbanks -Morse engine

It's not Baldwin or Fairbanks-Morse.  It's a primordial EMD E7.

Rusty

Certainly doesn't look like the CNJ "Baby Face" Baldwin diesels I remember, and photographed, as a kid growing up in New Jersey.

Think I found the source for the castings in the June 1946 Model Railroader:

Rusty

Wow!  $25 for that kit of castings, keyword is "castings" - this is not even a complete locomotive.  That must have been a fortune back then (1946).  Even if this was MSRP and the street price was 40% less, that is still expensive.  According to the link below, an average month's rent in 1946 was $35 and the average annual income was $2600.  And people say O scale is expensive today; however, in reality, they are practically giving away the O scale trains today .

https://www.afcea.org/content/...-states-1946-vs-2006

Scott K.

To me it has an Alco look, sort of like a DL109 bashed a bit.    

I vote for primordial E-7.  Emphasis on primordial.

Hello all thank you for your input ..... Rusty it is not a Adams & Son / Garrett / Siebers  etc ...  below is a EMC/D  Adams  piece ...  Adams provided the castings   and you bought the sides from Siebers or Garrett etc ... 

There are real  door stop era   Alco DL109's ..out there  and they really look like a DL 109 ......

Both FM and Baldwin were trying to look like EMC/D  ... as they were a poor RR's  copy ... 

As a copy of a EMC/D ...it lacks all the great lines that made the E-7 a classic ... 

So this engine will remain a wall flower in the looks department ...

Here we have a pair of Adams & Son ...casting sets ...both with sheet brass sides provided by Siebers etc ...  one more or less in one piece the other some assembly required ...Adams being made out of brass /bronze ... weigh in about 12 pounds for an A unit  ..double the weight of the  aluminum wall flower. 

Cheers Carey  

You tempt me.  Nah, if I post a photo, the thread often dies.

Interesting piece.  It definitely has the sides and top to be a primordial E unit.  However, the cab does have a Baldwin feel.  My vote is Krauss-Maffei. 

The slanted nose and side windows and door strongly suggest a EMD E3, E4, or E6.

If the nose were a little more blunt, it could be an E7, but lacks the vertical louver behind the cab door. So, E7 is much less likely.

But I should add that they did a pitiful job on the shape of the nose. And the side door might not actually be there (almost looks like they tried to have a door there), as it should with an E3,4, or 6.

Just a flash in the back of my worn-out brain pan; I recall reading aeons ago about the area around E and F unit windshields being very difficult and/or expensive to reproduce as a casting. (The American Flyer F9 is a really ugly example IMHO.) Any truth to this vague memory?

Oh, yes.  Even worse, the Alco PA.  Here is my photo essay on the topic:

Three Adams, one All Nation.  My opinion only - The B&O FT has the best.  Second is the GN.  Worst is the SP, followed closely by the AN UP F-3.  I carved the two on the left, and may yet carve a bit more on the GN.  Brass/bronze is fixable with solder - I think the AN would work with inserts surrounded by those silver strips.

Later plastic models have gotten much better - for instance, the Lionel PA is about as good as they get, and that includes Key, at least in the windshield and nose contours.  The MTH was quite good, but not as good as Lionel.  It compared well with the earlier Key.

I don't own a Key, although one was here when the MTH casting came back from the foundry, so I could compare shrinkage.

From left - early CLW, Lionel plastic, Overland late brass, and MTH in Nickel Silver.  Lionel wins in this group shot.  The Lionel now has the Overland trucks and gears; the Overland is an empty shell.  MTH can easily be fixed - I plan a repaint in the not so immediate future.

Hello  Bob nice colorful line up  of covered wagons .... who are on the makers ?

One nose shot deserves another .... l-r   Adams , perhaps Pomona, Baldwin, scratch built ..all heavy , all older than me ( scratch built has a modern paint job) 

Cheers Carey

For comparison purposes, courtesy of Railroad Paint Shop.

Alco DL109:

Alco PA1:

EMD E6:

EMD E7:

FM Erie-Built:

The O.P.'s model, while crude, has definite EMD parentage

Rusty

A bit of oil she screams alive ..and rolls to a stop ...here pulling the only Rock cars I have two Scale Craft  pieces . 

Any suggestions appreciated.

Run it and have fun with it!

Hello Bob   thank you for posting the colorful rainbow of your diesels ...very nice 

Rusty thank you for posting ......how they are suppose to look .......

Being a vintage collector ... I appreciate the "artist" (?) liberties that each  of the early manufactures took as they tried to enter the O scale world .  ....  some did a better job than others .... ..most had day jobs ...

Today with digital imaging and 3D printers the tables are leveled among the manufactures ....there is no reason for errors  or mistakes ........ everything is a mirror of reality ....     .... the artist flare  of the individual is removed...as everything needs to be exact to the rivet .... I paint with a broader  brush  .

as the man said  "run it and have fun" 

Cheers Carey