A photo of a similar locomotive is pictured in "The Complete Book Of Model Railroading" by David Sutton, published in 1964. The caption states it was from 1890 and was a friction drive. The author refers to it as the "Hill Climber" and was in the Ward Kimball collection at the time the book was published. It is not identical, but it is very similar to the one you have. I don't know if this helps, but it might be a place to start.
Karl
Too bad you don't have a ruler alongside the piece to give an idea of scale.
A few questions: What's it made of, is it sheet metal mostly, or cast iron? It's hard to tell from the picture. How big is it? Is it a lightweight or a heavyweight?
Since the pilot wheels aren't on the same level as the drivers I'm going to assume it's not a toy, although it could be. I'm guessing it's a piece of folk art, and a pretty ingenious one at that.
Can anyone tell me what I have here
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