Some time ago there was a passionate flurry here about the builders plates for the NRHS owned Reading FP7's. What was the outcome? Did the plates get back to the locomotives? Any legal action?

This generally is a friendly hobby but its amazing about the passions that can be aroused by some of the subject matter.

Jeff,

According to info on p.16 of the August 2003 Railpace, "Legal action by the NRHS is contemplated if the seller cannot document the legal purchase of the plates". That's where things are at this juncture.

You're right about the flurry of opinions on both sides of this issue. IMHO its one thing to be in possession of what some consider "historical artifacts" for long gone, scrapped equipment and quite another to be purveying them for cash to the public when the historic pieces they are part of still exist either operational or static.

Yes, duplications of them can and probably will be acquired by various restoration groups like ours as replacements, but I and others consider them, at least to some degree, historic industrial pieces in EITHER case, whether they might be from currently non-existent OR acitve equipment.

Dave McGuire
NRHS Joint Lancaster/Phila FP-7 Committee

dave.mcguire@juno.com

Were the builders plates removed after the NRHS got the locomotives or were they removed before they got them? If they were removed prior to their acquisition then they legally don't own the plates, since they may have been removed long ago under the Reading. How can they claim something if it was removed before they became owners of this engine?

> Were the builders plates removed after the
> NRHS got the locomotives or were they
> removed before they got them? If they were
> removed prior to their acquisition then they
> legally don't own the plates, since they may
> have been removed long ago under the
> Reading. How can they claim something if it
> was removed before they became owners of
> this engine?

This massive "gray area" was explored at length during the original discussion here. As near as anyone is able to discern (via photographic evidence), the plates were apparently removed from the locomotives in the final days/hours of the Reading RR in March 1976, and ended up in the hands of a VERY well-known Reading RR employee/enthusiast. Draw your own conclusions.

It's generally agreed that the three FP7 owners ended up with the FP7s "as is, where is" and that the purchase did NOT include the plates. The question remains how the plates ended up in the employee's hands, and even if the plate had been sold to the employee with a bill of sale (which this is apparently not a case of), then there is still the conjecture of whether the loco owners owe the current owner/holder the "going rate" or a token payment.

It's my personal opinion that an non-interchangeable original artifact from a preserved locomotive, ESPECIALLY an item as unique as a builders plate or number plate, "belongs" to said preserved locomotive, and that barring scrapping of said locomotive, the "fair market value" of the artifact should be nil or the current scrap value. The "crime" is not in the old railroader selling the plates; the crime is anyone besides the locomotives' owners being willing to pay inflated prices for something that "belongs" on the locomotive.

But, of course, that's just my opinion, and I am not a lawyer or ethicist. <:-)

lner4472@bcpl.net