Does anyone have a source for a foundry or company that makes reproduction Baldwin builder's plates? As you know, the Fla RR Museum just acquired SLSF 0-6-0 3749 from Church Street Station in Orlando. It has builder's plates but they are wrong for this loco so we'd like to find someone who can make repo plates. We have the info but not the real plates.

Also, if anyone is interested, the engine came with the headlight from DM&IR 2-8-8-4 223.
We'd be interested in selling it to buy a correct Pyle National headlight for the engine. Trades also considered.

Thanks,

Jim Herron

If you have a pattern there's a place here in the St. Louis area that I have used for reproduction 1522 Baldwin plates. Gotta have a pattern tho.

You too can make your own reproductions......and in sufficient volume to sell replicas in your gift shop.

Casting resin in a flexible silicon mold, not iron or bronze - I'd wager you know some model railroaders doing this in small scale already.

All you need is a Baldwin plate to borrow for the first impression - from which you will make a wax casting on which you will alter the serial number and date correctly. On this wax mold, you will form the silicon mold for the resin casting. Once that final silicon mold is finished, you can generate them as you see fit.

One caveat - I made a BAD error doing my first one, and neglected to use a parting agent between the original plate and the silicon. Superman would have had trouble tearing them apart.

dave

Google "Wayne James, Gettysburg, PA". Wayne makes reproduction plates on a regular basis as well as doing lots of other useful pattern and foundry work for tourist railroads and museums.

pm me if you have trouble making contact.

Alan Maples

Pennsylvania Trolley Museum would be interested to learn of anyone capable of making a replica H. K. Porter plate of 1940s style. Our 43 ton Porter centercab, b/n 7384, has been missing its plates for decades.

Of course if someone has one of the original plates, we'd like to know that too......

PM me on that latter issue, should you have information.

Try Jim King at Smoky Mountain Model Works for urethane/resin castings... He's done some builders plates for promos at the NC Transportation Museum in Spencer and cast several reproduction parts for our restoration..

www.smokymountainmodelworks.com

Very fast and reasonable (but on vacation until mid-next week).

Matt Bumgarner

For my Porter I used a guy in Ohio who made aluminum reproductions. They were very inexpensive but did require some clean up on my part. In the end I was quite happy with them and if one was stolen it was no big deal. Send me an email to jrmay@monmouth.com and I can pass his contact information to you.
J.R.

Wayne is a fantastic artist, pattern maker and foundry man, I can't say enough good things about him. He made some Baldwin style "XO" plates for me a few years back. They were cast bronze and formed to fit a smokebox. The font was dead-on Baldwin from the period at the end of the 19th century.

I've commissioned three different Baldwin builder's plates from Wayne. He's simply tops in his field. He can cast them in brass or aluminum, and his prices are very reasonable.

Jim:
I am possibly interested in the headlight from the DM&IR. Could you send me an offline message of the terms ?

Kevin K.

How many do you want, what year was the loco made (that determines the specific plate drawing) and what were you budgeting for the piece price?

I can make you a plate that would be impossible to tell from the original, but you should not make just one or its going to be a very expensive part.

Make about 8-10 and they will be a real bargain.

PM me.

Wayne James has done some great work for me and the Rochester & Genesee Valley Railroad Museum. One of the things he did for me was reproduction ALCO builder's plates in aluminum for our three different ALCOs including ex-Lehigh Valley Railroad 'Hammerhead' RS-3m #211 shown here. The plate here is held on with magnets to allow it to be applied for special events and then removed.

-Chris Hauf
R&GVRRM on Facebook

I made my own pattern for the plates for my locomotive (porter 1909). I did a resin copy of a plate, removed the date and builder's number, then added the right digits. The original I copied was not the best (I have yet to see a really great porter builder's plate, they were a budget builder after all), but the end result will be more than adequate and in keeping with what originals from the era were like. It is not difficult and I had my cast at a Portland foundry for less than $50 a piece in silicon bronze.

If the builders plate from the Washington & Lincolnton 203 is still in your possession, I know there is an interest in re-acquiring it for the operation in Knoxville.

Ive also had builders plates and a number board pattern made by Wayne James. I highly recommend his work. Take a look at the Reading and Northern 425 for the finished product.