Gentlemen, I'm trying to ID a 44 tonner that's come up in a slide on Ebay. I've never heard of the ANWX reporting mark, and a google search hasn't yielded any results. Does anyone have a record of reporting marks that could help ID who owned this engine?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/6DD886-RP-1984 ... kmuNbGJco4

According to this list of historical reporting marks ANWX has never been assigned:

http://www.pwrr.org/rrm/rrma.html

Could the person who posted the photo be mistaken?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this is ex-Grafton & Upton #10, now at the Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad.

The photo matches what Extra 2200 South called a "Phase IV" GE 44-ton style. G&U had a pair of these, built in 1946. G&U #10 was sold to West End Iron Works in West Cambridge, MA, in 1970 and reported sold again in 1984, which coincides with the stated date of the ebay photo. It would also account for the unit being in Massachusetts.

Another clue are the side poling pockets, very uncommon but match the G&U units.

The casual use of unregistered reporting marks was not unheard of in the past.

Alan Maples

Hi
The reporting marks for the Grafton & Upton RR are GRU, so it must be another unit, instead of the G&U. Pat.

The reporting marks are italicized stick-on black-on-gold house numbers, like EVERY hardware store in the nation had in abundance in that era, applied on the frame under the cab. This smacks entirely of unofficial or temporary reporting marks not even officially filed under UMLER.

Further, I'm not entirely uncertain the last digit isn't a "6".

Your better clue may be determining what's lurking in the background--something looks extremely distinctive about the fluting and very rounded windows on those passenger cars, complete with missing windows. Is this a shop where something is being built or rebuilt? Or are these unsuccessful experimentals (like New Haven's lightweight sets) en route to scrap or stored by some speculator?

I don't see an AEI tag on it, either.

It would have to be in UMLER to program one.

The windows on the cars in the background remind me of the ones on the GO Transit Hawker Siddeley built stock more than the NH lightweight trains.

There appears to be a "W" just below the window.

Hi
Let me give it another try, the slide was taken at East Fitchburg, Mass, so at that location, it would put the unit, the Boston & Maine RR./Guilford RR.
The slide was taken in1984, the reporting marks on the unit do read
ANWX - 10, once I enlarged the photo, and could see the reporting marks clearer.
I did a search also on the reporting marks, and came up with this,
could the ANW maybe could stand for this railroad, Austin & Northwestern RR?
Also on one of the posts the passenger cars in the background, it was suggested that maybe they are Go coaches. Well the MBTA did lease from Go Transit in coaches from 1984 to 1985, because of a coach shortage.
The reporting marks on the locomotive it looks like the Railroad used, Stick On MAILBOX LETTERS.
One of the posts suggested, that maybe the unit might be headed for the Newport & Narragansett RR and that the unit could be ex Grafton & Upton RR?
The current unit at the Newport & Narragansett RR did not come from the Grafton & Upton RR.
The engine was built new in 1951 for the Hampton & Branchville RR, in South Carolina. The engine was sold, no Date given to the Bradford Steam Railroad in Connecticut, the engine ran there for a number of years until it was sold in 2006 to the Newport & Narragansett Railroad.
So where was the locomotive headed for, the Stick on Mailbox letters were the Railroad reporting marks, where did she finally end up.
Some Railfan in New England must have the information, hopefully, we will have an answer?

The (1980's shortline) Austin & Northwestern was the AUNW.

Pat, Newport and Narragansett has two 44 tonners, the other being G&U #10. It's not stock though, as it was rengined with different Caterpillar prime movers shortly before moving off the G&U. The shop crew has it in the shop for reactivation as of a few days ago.

The danger you run into with the above discussion is whether or not the photo has been properly captioned or identified.

Work with other people's photos in archives for long enough, and you learn to reflexively mistrust any identification to some extent, unless the info brazenly matches landmarks, subjects, etc.

Rockville Bridge, Horse Shoe Curve, the test track at Erie, the throat of Chicago Union Station, the Burlington "racetrack," etc. are all readily unmistakeable. Ditto a SP Gs-4, a UP gas-turbine, or even a high-hood Alco. Not a yard track scene like in the photo above.

If I got handed that slide in an archive, I'd start with double checking that it's a 44-tonner and not a 65-tonner, then go to the side poling pockets and the background passenger shells.

Another possibility, given the temporary nature of the letters, is that that it is a gag photo and ANWX is a joke, perhaps related to someone with the initials ANW.

I accept the given information (Massachusetts, 1984) at face value and stick with my theory that this is ex-Grafton & Upton #10, in transit before its lease to New England Milling.

From various sources:

G&U #10 (GE, 1946, b/n 28498)
sold to West End Iron Works, Cambridge, MA circa 1970
sold 1983 to Bruce Hamilton, Northern Equipment Company
leased 1984-1985 New England Milling Company (NEMCO), Ayer, MA
to Seaview Transportation 1985
to Newport Dinner Train circa 2002 (now Newport & Narragansett Bay Railroad)
moved to shop for possible restoration, February 2019.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=317995

https://www.facebook.com/newportnarragansettbay/photos/a.1404379599852531/2087998914823926/?type=3&theater

Again, the unusual side poling pockets are the key identifying feature.

Alan Maples

Here's an image of the locomotive in Cambridge in 1976 when it was West End Iron Works #3 (or III, because it's Cambridge?). This company established a plant on Rindge Avenue Extension in 1946 and closed it in 1983.

Does anyone have information about other locomotives the firm might have owned?

Charles Sullivan
Cambridge Historical Commisssion