Re: Portland Company C/N 621
| July 25, 2014 09:55PM |
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Even if they don't have the right builder's plate, the Phillips Historical Society does have the real number plate from SR&RL 7/P&R 1 (Portland Company C/N 615), alongside what is apparently the original number plate from our beloved Sandy River 5/SR&RL 6/ KCRR 4/WW&F 9 (Portland Company C/N 622). Those Portland Company number plates were really elegant!
How do I know? Well we have the wonderful cover photo from Hazel Cushman Erickson's book to prove it! (The author's father was SR&RL engineer Dan Cushman.)
What I find really curious, however, is that the SR&RL boys were able to change the number on the plate from the original "1" to "7" after the consolidation, while keeping the outer part saying "Phillips & Rangeley R.R. 1890". Is the plate perhaps made of two pieces, something like a driver center and tire, or did they have to grind it down and re-engrave the number somehow? And why wasn't this done for other engines? (NB There was no P&R 7 to exchange plates with, and Eustis 7 as a Baldwin product of course carried a Baldwin number plate, while Sandy River RR 7 was another Baldwin but carried a star pattern number plate -- hence the nickname "Old Star" for the future SR&RL 16.)
Here's a picture of the engine at the Sanders tank around 1900 (pre-consolidation), carrying what I'm pretty sure is the same number plate (outer portion) but with her original number.
You know it's cold out when the engineer is wearing a bearskin hat!
-Philip Marshall
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2014 10:40PM by philip.marshall.
How do I know? Well we have the wonderful cover photo from Hazel Cushman Erickson's book to prove it! (The author's father was SR&RL engineer Dan Cushman.)
What I find really curious, however, is that the SR&RL boys were able to change the number on the plate from the original "1" to "7" after the consolidation, while keeping the outer part saying "Phillips & Rangeley R.R. 1890". Is the plate perhaps made of two pieces, something like a driver center and tire, or did they have to grind it down and re-engrave the number somehow? And why wasn't this done for other engines? (NB There was no P&R 7 to exchange plates with, and Eustis 7 as a Baldwin product of course carried a Baldwin number plate, while Sandy River RR 7 was another Baldwin but carried a star pattern number plate -- hence the nickname "Old Star" for the future SR&RL 16.)
Here's a picture of the engine at the Sanders tank around 1900 (pre-consolidation), carrying what I'm pretty sure is the same number plate (outer portion) but with her original number.
You know it's cold out when the engineer is wearing a bearskin hat!
-Philip Marshall
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2014 10:40PM by philip.marshall.
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
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