The photo below, taken by Martin Pitt is of a number plate on a Baldwin-built, 3 foot gauge 0-6-0 in the Philippines. I'd never seen one quite like this. I don't think this is a "builder's plate" as I've come to understand the term, since the Construction Number for this locomotive is 60677.



The locomotive is said to be operational and nothing in the photo below belies that assertion. I wonder if anyone has additional information about this locomotive, or the Baldwin plate in the photo above. The photos were taken July 28th, 2012 by Martin Pitt.

I have seen photos of such "extra order" plates attached to the side of the smoke box at the same position of the "construction" plates.

I suppose that these were applied by BLW when someone ordered a replacement boiler. Rosters of the locomotives on the Hawaiian sugar plantations show a number of XO-xxxx notations for replacement boilers.

First, this is a builder's plate, not a number plate. Brian is correct, the extra order plates were used when either Baldwin built replacement boilers, or when they built boilers for railroads that were building their own locomotives. The prime example is the GN 2-8-8-0 locomotives built in 1940 or so. You will see many Extra Order plates with the number 5880 or 6808 on them. Baldwin used those numbers when they built the boilers for GN. The boilers were then shipped out to Superior or Hillyard Shops and the locomotive was completed. I have never been able to find a roster of extra order plate numbers. Trust me, I would love to find one!!!

This brings up another question that was juuuuuust knocking around in my mind when this topic came up.

When Baldwin built the extension units for the ATSF 2-10-10-2s, what kind of plate did they have -- and were any of the plates photographed or recorded (including being identifiable from photographs)?


RME

Since this thread seems to have quickly evolved to replacement boilers, I wonder if there is (or was) a builders plate for the replacement boiler that Porter put on ex-Pennsylvania Railroad B-4a class 0-6-0 #643 that is now at Williams Grove, PA and that is currently letted for the PRR?

Thanks.

Les

The BLW "Extra Order" plate was applied when replacement boilers were furnished. However every "parts" order to BLW, no matter how small, got an "XO" number assigned. Obviously orders for small stuff didn't qualify for a cast bronze plate such as this boiler did. If more than one boiler was included in a given XO, they all got the same number on the plates.

Do the ledgers that recorded all these diverse orders still exist? Given that BLW's files have been scattered between a number of archives, some of which haven't a clue what they own, this could be a difficult question to answer.