Oh frabjous day!
Got the plate identified! It's not a plate off an SP engine, but Northern Pacific 2-8-0 #36. Even better, I've got an 8x10 of the engine.
No need to contact the AHTS. Their website looked like a work in progress, anyhow.
Andre
Have you checked with the folks at the Alco Historic Photos site?
Maybe this should go on the Trains forum , but nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I'm helping Karl Koenig's widow catalog a number of items. Karl, at one time owned Chatham Publishing (Pacific News, and such books as "Southern Pacific Bay Area Steam", "Diesels Of The Espee, Volume1: ALCO PA's).
Per the title, the item in question is an 1898 builders plate serial 4906. I thought it might be from an SP TW-8. However, according to Steamlocomotive.com, the serial on 2914 (displayed in Bakersfield) is 4807. 2914 was the first of 10 engines. I've been pretty successful so far, but this one's got me stumped. It's supposed to be an SP engine, but according to "A Century of Southern Pacific Steam Locomotives", the only 1898 Schenectady built locos were the TW-8's. There were some M-4 2-6-0's, C-2 2-8-0's, and E-23 4-4-0's built in 1899 by Schenectady, so I don't know.