Take a good, close look at the number plate on the front of your favorite steam locomotive and tell me what you see. Is it a flat and lifeless metal plate with painted (or decaled) numbers and trim?
Now, take a look at the builders plate on the side of the boiler somewhere and tell me what you see. Is it a beautiful miniature polished jewel? A work of art etched out in 3D with all of the correct writing just waiting to be read under a magnifying glass?
Then why can't manufacturers make a simple number plate etched in 3D and polished brass numbers and trim (granted UP Painted their number plates/shields, but, they were still in 3D). In putting one's best face forward, what could be better than a proper number plate? It seems to me that after all of the trouble they go through to produce those tiny builder's plates, doing the same for the number plate should be a piece of cake!
