Please help with this builder's plate

Arnold, I take a wild guess MTH made those B B rats. Maybe, the plate came off one of those.

That "No. 31139" is most likely the unit's Serial Number. There may be a website listing Serial Numbers, as I know ALCO has such a site. Also, the "B-B" would be the wheel arrangement, such as a switcher for something similar.

Serial 31139, GE requisition #XN-176272 built 7-29-1952.  96 ton electric for Niagara Junction Ry as their number 17.  4 GE number 731 traction motors.

The PRR B class box cab electric was going to be my guess, but the 1952 date, to me, does not seem consistent with what I suspect the manufacture dates of those locomotive may have been.

I removed the table you copied and pasted here because it contained html code that was destroying the page formatting of this thread.

Rich Melvin

Per above , a Niagara Junction electric.

See above General Electric records page from Erie.

@NHVRYGray posted:

Serial 31139, GE requisition #XN-176272 built 7-29-1952.  96 ton electric for Niagara Junction Ry as their number 17.  4 GE number 731 traction motors.

Holy Cow Gray!  Your response has to be a world record!!  On my own I got as far as "thatguy" did but didn't see any build dates.  Anyway, thanks so much for the quick reply and solving my "mystery".  Now I need to know how you did it!!!!

The GE list known as the Moser List (the lady that kept it up) circulates among locomotive history groups.  Have no idea if GE, now Wabtec, even has records that old anymore.  I have heard that a lot of records were cleaned out some twenty years ago and perished in a fire in an Erie plant outbuilding. 

Impressive detective work Gray and nice find Alan!

I research builder's plates all the time for my consulting work, but never to the level of detail of figuring out a serial number.  I wouldn't hazard a guess of the cost to put the correct serial number on every builder's plate of locomotives we have offered. 

Wonderful history, and fun to see. Long before computers, a reminder of how records were kept. In this case, an lone employee named Rose Moser sitting in some office, manually and diligently keeping track of locomotive construction and logging her entries.

@NHVRYGray posted:

Serial 31139, GE requisition #XN-176272 built 7-29-1952.  96 ton electric for Niagara Junction Ry as their number 17.  4 GE number 731 traction motors.

My research shows the 31140 as the 17 and the 31139 as the 16. Your details are much deeper than mine though and I’ve seen mistakes many times so I’m definitely not saying you’re wrong, just that I found different.

Niagara Junction #15 is in the WNYRHS museum collection, currently stored, awaiting restoration…

http://www.trainweb.org/wnyrhs/nj15.htm

Tom

@John A posted:

Picture of #17 at Niagara Falls yard. JohnA

Thank you!

Really cool info here....thank to all!!!!!

Peter

@Krieglok posted:

Niagara Junction #15 is in the WNYRHS museum collection, currently stored, awaiting restoration…

http://www.trainweb.org/wnyrhs/nj15.htm

Tom

They just called, they want their plate back!….🤣🤣🤣

Pat

Great detective work. I'll have to pop back on the laptop for dinner as some things are not easy to read on the phone.

So going by the photo.... the local mad scientist,  @M. Mitchell Marmel is not far off sticking a pantograph on top of a 44 tonner.

Great detective work gents. Looks like you've got a rare piece there Alan. Very cool find.

Bob

It is a 4 axle (4 powered axles = B+b) 600 VDC electric. Its weight on drivers was 192,000 lb and its total engine weight was 192,000 lb. It used qty 4 GE Model GE731 traction motors.

Rose Mosier, a Secretary in Locomotive Engineering, kept the B/N (builders number) records while I was at GE. Rose was about 30 years older than I, and a real character. The original loco serial numbers were assigned from a large ledger.

Most of these records survived. The fire referred to above occurred in a separate building on the GE campus originally known as the GE Community Center, and it later housed the local GE museum. After I retired, one of my former Managers called and asked me to be a "GE Docent" there. I did not know what a "docent" was, so I declined.

@GG1 4877 posted:

Impressive detective work Gray and nice find Alan!

I research builder's plates all the time for my consulting work, but never to the level of detail of figuring out a serial number.  I wouldn't hazard a guess of the cost to put the correct serial number on every builder's plate of locomotives we have offered. 

Funny thing is I found this plate at a local oil, gas, and automotive memorabilia meet this past weekend.  Not one other railroad items was at the meet!  The guy that sold it to me ($50) said he had owned it for years but really didn't remember where he got it.

@mwb posted:

Thank you!

The picture was removed because it is copyrighted from the site John used.

Thanks to all of you for your assistance!  Got my answer PDQ which is a hallmark of this forum.  You all make this the best place to be!