A couple weeks ago I visited the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum. It was great and I enjoyed myself even though the roundhouse was closed and there was no 1361 on the property yet.
Before I left I went thru the gift shop, and was dismayed to notice that nearly everything for sale was made in another country. When I found the builders plate below I couldn't believe it. Was I really standing in the center of the great PRR Altoona shop complex? I find it hard to believe that a local forge or blacksmith could not be found to make a few of these simple sand castings. It's no wonder our country has no money.
[img]http://www.flickr.com/photos/86756841@N04/7944752488/[/img]

Flickr doesn't like that image being shared. That took a lot of tries.

Q: Metal, plaster, plastic, or what? And how much were they asking?

I'm a little shocked that a Chinese foundry would make such a small run (or that the Museum would order a big enough run to be worth sending it to China).

I've personally done this type of foundry work, and indeed we still do such work at a couple rail museum shops with which I work. But we're doing it in either museum shops on a volunteer basis, or we're doing it at vocational training schools. My sincere guess is that the kind of "nasty" grunt work and the shops involved, on a commercial basis, has gone the way of old-fashioned playground equipment at schools, for the same reasons as everything else--OSHA, EPA, etc. I've cast replica plates with type metal used in Linotype machines, simply because it melted so fast, I could get it cheap, and the low melting point sped up my production--I hate to think what the EPA thinks of a mix of lead, tin, antimony, and zinc hanging in public.....

Throw that aside, get a modern shop in your area to crank out a commercial stack of good-looking plates like this, and then tell me what the unit cost is. I'd sincerely love to hear it, and the reaction of the gift shop manager at the price he'd have to charge and how many will actually sell at that price. Any discussion of US-versus-Chinese work conditions, wages, work quality, etc. becomes econo-political discussion of the sort we try to avoid in this forum...

Strictly an aside... but I'd be sincerely interested in hearing whether Norfolk Southern's Juniata Shops (basically within sight of the Museum) is 1) physically capable of such casting anymore, and 2) whether they'd do such a small job for the Museum. Imagine how fast those plates would sell, even at an inflated $250 or whatever price, if they came with a certificate and cast mark proving they were actually made in Altoona at a railroad shop!

Just to better inform the discussion:

The plate sells online from the Museum for $14.99. The description states that the plate is made of "ceramic." There is also a less-authentic metal plate that is made to attach to a vehicle, as in a license plate.

Also, by way of comparison, this gentleman sells aluminum reproductions of several builders plates and a number plate, including one of the K4s in question. Notice the price difference:

http://www.canteenbooks.com/reproduction_builders_plates_and_castings.htm

(I have no financial interest in this business)

Translation: plaster. Great for the wall, as long as it doesn't fall off. And easy to cast, too. Lousy for anything else.



One of the GG1 replica plates I made years ago was rolling around Wilmington, Del. on the front of a Volkswagen 412 "speedback" for several years, and then later (and perhaps quite ironically) on a VW diesel Golf the guy specially imported from Germany (when they wouldn't sell you a diesel Golf in the States). We had to drill mounting holes for it, which of course IDed it as a replica and kept it from getting stolen. The owner remarked on how many retired Wilmington Shops employees and railfans said something to him about the plate.

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I would like to find out who they are getting those plaster plates from. I have a plate that i would like to offer repros of and those look pretty good.

To bring this back to (or from) China a bit- My son and I were in the waiting room at one of the finest steam operations in the East last summer. The station was picture perfect, right down to the coal stove in the waiting room. Then I noticed 'CHINA' cast into the base of the stove in raised letters. Spoiled the image a little for me-

I suggested that someone from the shop come over with an angle grinder and some heat-resistant black paint. There is no need to advertise just how much we don't make here in the US anymore.