I guess these are a lasting advertisement of where a given locomotive came from. They are traded and collected within antique and train groups, some going for high prices. This one came in for a copy to be made. It's from a sugar mill loco that used to be common around here and are now all diesel powered for a Fowler No.2 along with a photo of a Fowler No.6 loco. This is a Fowler No.2 made in Leeds, England so maybe the Bundaberg Foundry version is license built or a copy. You can see the red oval where the name plate would be mounted:
So, how do folks handle making copies of an original? How does a collector know if they have a vintage original or a modern copy? Denis
all of my pieces have my touch-mark maker stamped or cast into the rear, reproduction or not, if the piece is mou8nted it gets a sticky label on the rear of the mount. so if a collector is even vaguely experienced he should be able to know originals did not get stamped HT1 V/r HT1
I've often wondered that myself, I scribe a date and initials on the back of any reproduction etched brass data plates I've made for antique farm motors. They are the first thing that gets souvenired on old equipment. That makes sense, something in relief that can't be ground off and would take a determined forger some effort to hide. For all I know this may be going on to a loco restoration, they were used extensively locally to transport the sugar cane harvest to the mills on a network of 2' gauge light rail still in use today.
