Steam & Excursion > Baldwin builder's number question

Shown here is Oregon & California 0-4-0 #43 at East Portland Oregon, near the location of the current Steel Bridge.

It was a singular model on the railroad, likely the first locomotive specifically designed to be a switch engine in the state. After the Oregon & California was purchased by the Southern Pacific, it was renumbered as O&C #1011. In 1905 it was sold to Independence and Monmouth Railroad (in Oregon's Willamette Valley). I do not know its ultimate fate.

I am researching the locomotives of the Oregon & California Railroad, before it came under Southern Pacific control in 1887. I have found on line, copies of the Baldwin order books that give me all sorts of info on the #43: it was ordered on March 7 1882, jacket iron was "planished"(?) bands were brass. Tires were made of Krupp steel held by shrinkage. It was delivered by vessel. Finish was #976. Painting style #125, olive green and color.

The order books give it a class and number: 4-24C #31.

From published rosters I also have a builders number: #6755, which does not appear in the order books.

My problem is this: The Baldwin order books in some cases do not conform with the information on published rosters or, at times, photographic evidence. When the custom of naming locomotives was still strong in the 1870s, the names appear in the order books, but differ in some cases from those in rosters or photographs. There are some locomotives in the order books listed for the O&C that have no corresponding matches in rosters or photos.

I feel that a lot of this ambiguity could be resolved by matching the builders number (in this case #6755) with the class and numbers that appear in the orderbooks (4-24C #31). As this was a singular locomotive, this is easy enough. In some cases the lack of both numbers can lead to a quagmire of contradictions. Does anyone know if there is a source that lists both the Baldwin builder number, and the class and number that appears in the order books?



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/17 15:03 by haneckow.

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Baldwin had 2 separate books that recorded the construction numbers in one and the class numbers in the other.

With both of these books you can identify most any Baldwin steam locomotive.


Martin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/17 15:55 by LoggerHogger.

Built in May of 1863. You can find several DVD's with that Baldwin info on Ebay. One is scanned to PDF "Baldwin Locomotive Rosters by Donald R Hensley Jr. at Taplines.net