I thought the story Tom is telling about #4268 sounded familiar, so I tracked down a trainorders.com thread from 2004. Here's a picture of him removing the builder's plate, er superheater plate, which was included in that thread.

Boy, do I owe you a big thanks Dave. I just pulled that slide and another and was going to have them scanned.

That was taken with my camera by my friend Greg Brahms in May of 1972 IIRC.

All those tools were loaned to me by Glenn Oviatt, owner of the mill. I just kept
moving the wrench back and forth until the bolts snapped off. Glenn said he didn't
worry about the holes hurting the draft at all.

Not too many people can say that they removed a builders plate from an
SP Cab Forward while it was still under steam. And with permission!

The 4300 boiler is in the shed behind me.

Thanks again.

At least the plates went to someone who appreciated the paths they had traveled. Thanks for the photo, too! I do wish more than one cab-forward had been preserved. So it goes.

There were a lot of opportunities for adventures back then and I'm glad that I took advantage of a lot of them. You can always look back though and rue the ones that you let go by and I did my share of those too. I asked Glenn for the whistle that day and he countered with "how would I get the people to work?" Good point, but I had to try.

Dar Es Salaam - Tanzania. August 2016.

"Steam: 2927 was being used as a stationary boiler for steam-cleaning in the carriage workshops in 2013 and 2015. It was not visited this time, but it is visible and hasn't moved since 2015."

TH