Like, I said on the last page, I purchased a book on the D&H, focusing on the 1968-1991 era, and it contained quite a bit of information that I had never known. Some of that was on the subject of the two Baldwin RF-16s that the D&H purchased in 1973. I had always assumed that their purchase had had to do with President Bruce Sterzing's railfan proclivities, but Sterzing himself said otherwise in his interview for the book. His reason that he gives for the purchase of the two Baldwin RF-16s was that the D&H was short on motive power and short on money, and the RF-16s were available and they were cheap. The Monongahela Railroad had purchased a number of secondhand RF-16s from the NYC and then ran them until they all nearly dropped dead, then sent them off to be scrapped. There were only two, the #1205 and the #1216, that were still operational when they were gotten rid off. The D&H caught wind that the two RF-16s were still operational, and the D&H also had some old rails and cars that needed to be scrapped anyway and traded them even for the two operational RF-16s, at a value of about $6000 each.
Once they were delivered, the D&H needed a livery for them, since the D&H had never purchased any brand-new cab units, let alone Baldwin RF-16s. They had used the ATSF "Warbonnet", with light blue in place of red, on the PA-1s that they had purchased, but ATSF had never owned any Baldwin RF-16s either. A local railfan ended up painting an O-scale RF-16 in the ATSF "Warbonnet", again with blue substituted for red, and presented it to the D&H to show that the livery would work, and so that was what the D&H painted them in. While the Colonie shops did a great job painting the RF-16s, it's pointed out in the book that no mechanical work was performed (Baldwin parts were already rare than hen's teeth, the D&H had never owned any Baldwins and so had no stockpile of parts, and the D&H also didn't have the money to perform a major overhaul) and the two RF-16s were really worn out. The #1205 was noted to have a cracked block that required welding every month or so while it was in service.
The RF-16s were of limited use, since they lacked dynamic braking and the weird Baldwin air throttle made them incompatible with other units, and so they often held down local jobs or were put in helper service over Belden Hill. The book has an account by the railfan that came up with the livery of riding in the cab of them while they were in helper service (his reward for coming up with the paint scheme) and as they were going up the grade, the engineer said "Watch this" and jammed the throttle wide open, sending the ammeter into the red. Not long after, the head end crew radioed back wondering what the hell was going on, because they had slack in the couplers at the front end. The Baldwin RF-16s were shoving the entire train up the grade all by themselves, cementing their renowned lugging power.
Their poor mechanical condition and oddball status meant they never ventured too far from the shops, and they were always held in poor regards by crews and were typically only sent out as a last resort. The dispatcher at Whitehall, where they held down the "Slatepicker" local run throughout most of their career, said that Bruce Sterzing did have a soft spot for the Baldwins and whenever he came to Whitehall would check the dispatch board to make sure they were out and about and being used. Since no one wanted to use them unless they had to, the dispatcher said there were many times where he would see Sterzing approaching the office and would have to hurriedly change the dispatch board to make it look like the Baldwins were in use, when they were really tucked away in the engine house.
When the D&H was on the verge of collapse in 1978, and management was trying to get another loan from the USRA, the USRA basically strongarmed Sterzing off the property by refusing to administer another loan unless he retired. As soon as Sterzing was off the property, the Baldwin's lost their champion and they were immediately put in storage and placed up for sale. By that point, they had fallen into such mechanical disrepair that the D&H actually rated the pair at 1600hp total when dispatching them.
