Hello all. I hope you'll forgive the non-modeling question, but are any of you familiar with the components of real number boards, circa EMD first-generation diesels? Through the magic of eBay, I acquired what I believe to be parts of a number board from MILW F7 108-A, and am curious about a couple of things.
The steel frame has separate channels for two inserts, one in front of the other. Would the front one have been a clear protective cover?
There are two small holed drilled vertically down through the center of the flat top of the frame, and small free-rotating rollers protrude from the bottom of both left and right corners. So it appears that removing pins or screws or something from the top would have allowed the frame to tip outward, rotating on those rollers, so number boards could be changed more easily. I assume the outer sheet metal around the number board was removable.
The material of the board itself seems to be relatively modern translucent plastic of some sort. What would they have originally been made of, in the 40s and early 50s?
Thanks for any and all information!
Dean
The frame would likely be rotated out in order to change the light bulbs when they burned out.
30 years 1:1 Canadian Pacific.....now switching in HO
I've seen several methods used on MLW (Alco subsidiary in Canada) diesels. The oldest was on an RS-3. That has translucent glass (known as opal glass) on the back, clear glass in front, with a black sheet of paper with the numbers cut out sandwiched between. A more modern number board uses two sheets of plastic, the numbers done using black paint on a translucent sheet, with a clear plastic sheet on top as a protective cover.
Thanks, gentlemen. Dean, good point about changing the bulbs rather than the number... that was one of those blinding-flash-of-the-obvious moments for me when I read your comment. :)
cx500, your description of the translucent sheet with black paint sounds like what I've got. I believe it's a relatively modern replacement for the fireman's side number board from F7 108A. After I bought it I paged through a couple of Milwaukee Road books and noticed that in all the photos, the number board digits were very squared off in shape, like rectangles with rounded corners--while the 0 and 8 in my board are much more oval shaped. There were even a couple of photos of 108A from the 1950s and 60s, always with the squared-off digits. So I wondered about the authenticity of what I'd just bought, although the steel frame is sufficiently complex and substantial that I was sure it was at least a real frame. But then I ran across a photo of a well-weathered 108A taken in 1976, from the front but on the left side, so both number boards are visible but the one on the left side is almost directly facing the camera--and it looks like a dead-on match for what I've got. The board on the engineer's side still has the squared-off digits seen in all the other photos. So I presume the original left-side board got broken and was replaced in the 70s with more modern materials. One of the books says 108A was sold in 1980 and then scrapped... wonder where this board has been since then?
I used to listen to and watch Milwaukee trains while visiting grandparents north of Chicago in the 60s and early 70s. Really fun to imagine 108A on the point of one of those heavy freights 40-some years ago. I'm working on a lighted frame on which to mount this little gem...
On EMD F and E units the number board sat in a box like structure with glass on the outside that had a seal around the perimeter to keep water out. On the inside (in the nose) there was a hinged lid that lifted so you could access the three light bulbs in porcelain sockets. Some roads (notably UP and SP) displyed the train numbers in the number boards so each numeral had to be removable. I don't know if the MILW ever went that route, but after 1955 (or '56?) when the UP passenger trains started running over the MILW and MILW passenger units operated west of Omaha the MILW units would have to have been able to display train numbers the same as UP units, so that might explain the slots you are talking about.
Thanks, rrboomer.
108-A was a freight-only F7, as far as I can tell from the books, so I can't imagine it would have had train numbers displayed UP-style. The MILW FP7s and E9s did, I know.
And of course, makes sense now that I think about it that the hinge would have been to the inside rather than the outside for purposes of changing bulbs. That way the external structure could be sealed much more reliably.
I made a nice oak frame with a small fluorescent lamp inside, and the 108-A number board now serves as the backstop on my dresser.
Then, on a whim, I checked Google Images for photos of 108-A in service and found this nice shot, taken (where else?) at Rondout, Illinois--one of the exact spots my grandfather used to take me to watch trains. Pretty cool.