This one's for Hot Water . . .
Did EMD at one time list replacement builder plates in the parts catalog? Surely, some were damaged or destroyed in wrecks. Nonetheless, I never saw an EMD locomotive in service with a builder plate missing until the 1970's, and those were old locomotives by then.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
No they didn't, Tom. However, "model designation" plates, such as "F7", "GP9", "E8", etc. stainless steel plates where listed on the Number 90 catalog.
In later years, when UP and BN had the E8s and F7s completely remanufactured into Executive Train Service, EMD provided builder/serial plate drawings and an engraving company started producing exact reproduction plates for both the UP & BN. Even the "reproduction" builder plates wound up being stolen, as soon as the UP Executive E units ventured out to California. The UP now uses "stickers" of the builder plates, which used to be offered for sale in the souvenir car, Reed Jackson.
Thanks, Hot. There was not much theft of builder plates until the 1980's, when it began to be noticeable. I recall almost-new Santa Fe rednose GP60M units missing builder plates, with the stubs of rivets still intact. in 1991. I wonder what enjoyment a person could get from having a stolen builder plate from an in-service locomotive.
When I was a kid, I would ride my bike to the Fullerton depot, where I examined the builders plate of every rednose that stopped at the station. By the time I was 13, I could tell you the month and year of construction of just about any Santa Fe passenger diesel that was in service on the Coast Lines. This fueled my interest in railroading, and, particularly in my home road. I never thought that I would later sit at the throttle of some of those same rednoses.
This pastime was possible, because railroad enthusiasts of the 1950's obviously did not think that they needed to personally possess the railroad's air horns and builder plates like they do today. (Yes, some people steal air horns too, off of locomotives tied up at outlying points. The honest horn blowers buy theirs from railroads or scrappers/rebuilders, but there are probably at least a couple of "hot" ones at any big horn-blow, and some are also mounted upon some highway trucks.)
I just noticed Andrew's photos of the UPRR E9 builder plates taken at El Reno, Oklahoma. They don't have any rivets to chisel off.
10 merits to Hot Water for knowing and revealing that they are stickers.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
