Alfred W. Bruce, "The Steam Locomotive in America," (pp 46 & 56) identifies a Dickson Locomotive Works or Dickson Manufacturing Company of Scranton, PA. Between 1858 and 1901 they built 1370 steam locomotives. They merged with American Locomotive Company in 1901, but apparently continued to build a few locos at the Scranton plant. Bruce says an additional 30 locomotives were built after 1901 and that the plant ceased building locomotives in 1909. It could be that your Frisco 2-8-0 was among those 30 and that those engines retained the Dickson name.
Check out the following link for Doug Hughes' reprint of an old FMIG newsletter article on Frisco Consolidations (pictures, diagrams, dimensional tables, etc.). It, too, lists 964 as being built by Dickson in 1902. Ship IT on the Frisco! Consolidations
REAL BLUEPRINTS...I have half a dozen or so BPs of full size errection prints (3ft?x6ft?) of some Frisco steam engines. They were given to a deceased buddy and me by Jim Ryan ? at Frisco's Springfield Engineering Dept. in summer of 1942. They presently are folded (to 8-1/2xz11?) and I'm fearful of unfolding them without proper preparation. Should they be placed in water (distilled?), carefully unfolded then air dried? Anyone have helpful suggestions? John Mann jmannmanny@aol.com
Contact Nick Ohlman at the Museum of Transportation in St Louis. His email address is nohlman@stlouisco.com
