The red Plymouth is pictured in the August 1993 issue of Railpace. It is shown at Lake Erie Railcar, and according to the caption, it was formerly owned by Cleveland Steel Container.

Nothing in the Plymouth list for Cleveland Steel Container or Erie Railcar.

There was at one time a place in Collinwood that worked on passenger cars. Wonder if that might be the place they were speaking about. I have some slides in my collection from that location I shot in the late 80's. I'll have a look see this coming week to see if they had such a critter there at that time.

John T -

You seem to have some info on Plymouth construction numbers. For quite some time, we had a 4-wheel end cab Plymouth at the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum. It was privately owned and the owner eventually reclaimed it. I didn't know about builders plates possibly being above windows on the inside of the cab, or I would have looked for something when it was at the museum. The only thing I ever found was a number that had one time been painted on outside of the cab; number 1881. From some of the numbers mentioned in this thread, perhaps that could have been the serial (construction) number. From photos of similar Plymouth's, I believe the one at HVRM as an 18-ton JLB model. I wonder what you might have on Plymouth # s/n 1881? Somewhere I have a photo of the locomotive, but can't lay my hands on it right now.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

Les Beckman (HVRM/North Judson, Indiana)

Long shots: I’ve sent requests for info to Cleveland Steel Container and to Plymouth Locomotive Service. We’ll see if I get anywhere but I'm not holding my breath.

Rob - That could be a possibility. It fits with the passenger car facility scenario. Let us know what you find out if anything.

1881 11/13/1924 36” CL-2 Buda KTU 35hp B 4T G/Friction
Ocala Lime Rock Co, Santos, Fla.
H. E. Murphy, Jacksonville, Fla - 9/3/1929

I heard back from David Egner at Plymouth Services. They can't trace it without a serial number.

Interestingly, he said on a cast frame, from behind the engine, look at the rear bumper, upper right area. There should be a number stamped there if it hasn't been obliterated somehow or completely filled with paint. We'll check it out the next time we can get to it.

He also said that when the move was made to Bucyrus, they didn't have room for all the records and documentation so a lot of it was left behind. (Sigh...)

John T -

Thanks for looking this up for me. Since serial number 1881 was apparently a 36" gauge locomotive, I guess the number painted on the cab, was NOT the s/n. Well, at least now I know!

Les

jayrod,

I had a chance to look at the slides I mentioned and did not see any critter in my shots. Not saying that it wasn't there, but I was more interested in the passenger cars on the property at that time. They used the old part of the shops where the transfer table once was, so they would have needed some sort of power to move cars on and off of the table.
Rob

Folks,
You people seem to have access to a list of construction numbers for these Plumouth locomotives.

Is there such a list on-line someplace?

I would love to fill in information about some of those little narrow gauge Dinkys that I have heard about!

They even made a 24" gauge 1.5 ton loxomotive for use in the Massachusetts cranberry farms! Tiny!

Ted Miles, narrow gauge fan

In an earlier thread viewtopic.php?f=1&t=37902 Randy Hees mentions a resource:

"Bob Lehmuth has a list available... more commonly sold as two volumes, one for 1914-1939, the second for 1939 to 2002...

He sells on ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Railroad-Data-B ... 1c50c005aa as well as direct rhlehmuth at sign Hotmail etc...

Second owners are listed where known... but many are unknown...

Randy"

The closest to an online source I could find is this list of preserved "critters":

http://www.sonic.net/~jayreed/preserved.html

We had a chance to go over it with a fine tooth comb looking for numbers. Nothing on the rear bumper or anywhere which is understandable considering decades of corrosion & paint. I believe the cab is a replacement as it's in beautiful condition and there are no mounting holes for the builder plate. The sleuthing goes on.

Rob - do you recall what the name of the company was? That could be useful as sometimes you know someone who knows someone....

Ted and others - I'd be be happy to format and host lists of Plymouths and other critters with their histories where known on my website along with the other preservation stuff for the time being though it really should all be someplace like RYPN. But that's another topic for another day.

I've seen Jay Reeds list. It doesn't have much in histories but it looks like it has some S/N's. Last updated in 2017?