[Attachment(s) from William Barber included below]
We just found a photo of 5621 that leads to some questions. Attached are three photos of this first O-5 of the third group, 5621 - 5635. The first photo shows the locomotive either as it was completed at West Burlington Shop or shortly thereafter with a bar stock or boiler tube pilot and a pilot deck mounted feed water pump shield similar to those on the second group of O-5s, 5608 - 5620 This is the only photo that I have ever seen of one of the third group O-5s with this arrangement. The second photo, which appeared in Bernard Corbin’s SL of the BR and possibly other publications, shows the locomotive in West B. shop without a pilot or the deck shield, apparently after having been in service: note the full load of coal in the tender. The third photo shows the same locomotive a year later in 1939 with the normal solid Commonwealth pilot and the later more streamlined pilot deck shield. I have found no other photos of a third group O-5 with a boiler tube or bar stock pilot.
The questions that come to mind are:
1. Was the bar stock or boiler tube pilot the original plan for this group of locomotives?
2. Was it possibly due to a shortage of the solid pilot?
3. Was it a change in design by Q management possibly influenced by the use of solid pilots on other contemporary locomotives such as the Milwaukee Road?
Does anybody have any information on why 5621 was so equipped initially and then changed apparently shortly afterwards?
