Baldwin RF-16 Operators Manual on ebay

Mike LaBouliere · **Posted:** Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:23 am

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 58859&rd=1

Take a look at which Shark is in the photo on this auction. Could this be one of the manuals that was taken from the Sharks in Escanaba back in the 80's? Seems odd that a photo of that particular engine is in the auction.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:18 pm

For the record...

1) there weren't that many Sharks built, so the pool of photos to choose from is kind of small. We can sort of assume that the seller is something of a railfan, so he probably searched one of the photo sites for the first available picture.

2) unless the book has some kind of identification stamped in it on several pages (not just one that can conveniently be "lost"--and how would you know whether that title page was missing?), there would be no way to conclusively prove one way or the other that this was stolen from Wells. Or, for that matter, the Monongahela Railway, or the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, or......

3) Consider that, in a manner of speaking, virtually every such manual out there either on the market or in private hands was either "stolen" or "liberated", even if only from a trash can when the railroad junked all the locos. Show me one enthusiast that has a manual that they legally purchased from the manufacturer. Just one.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV, checking in from down the street from the Gold Coast RR Museum.......

p51 · **Posted:** Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:10 pm

Alexander D. Mitchell IV wrote:

Show me one enthusiast that has a manual that they legally purchased from the manufacturer. Just one.

Me.
I just picked up an F-3 manual, and it still has the written reciept from EMD to a private address inside!
Most EMD manuals I've seen have an address and price for ordering from the company, but I agree that 99.999999% of all of them around today will pilferred in some way...

Alex Huff · **Joined:** Tue Aug 24, 2004 6:51 pm **Posts:** 148

Baldwin-Hamilton, a subsidiary of Ecolair and the source for Baldwin parts, offered its remaining stock of Baldwin operating and maintenance manuals to the railfan community via ads in Trains, etc. twenty years (+/-)ago.

Not a manufacturer, but another legitimate source are railroad surplus auctions. I bought more manuals and wiring diagrams than I could put in a pickup at a UP auction. The price - $1.00, my kind of price!

Alex Huff