Sorry to be so slow to react, but I wasn't paying attention the last week. These are great photos!
I recently studied some photos I took of these locos around 1960, one of which is a closeup of the builder's plate of KBF 40/340, ex DRG 400/DRGW 340. According to "Steam in the Rockies", its builder's number is 5571. My photo clearly shows that the number on the builder's plate is 5655.
Again referring to "Steam in the Rockies", builder's number 5655 is listed as the correct number for DRGW C-16 number 240, which was dismantled March 1926.
I've been told that the builder's plates on these locos are KBF reproductions, but I have to ask, what was it that they reproduced?
Either they somehow managed to acquire the builder's plate of a locomotive scrapped in the mid-1920's, or else the plate that they reproduced came to them on one or the other of these locos at the time of purchase.
The likely answer is that there was a boiler swap along the way. Can anyone shed any light on this?
Maurie Walker
nconut