with the Santa Fe 2542 2-8-0 steam locomotive at Wilson Park.
Nice pictures, cool backdrop.
But, why does the wrench have the Whitman and Barnes logo on the handle?? Is it from the era when Williams bought out W&B?
Interesting piece.
Aaron that is a good question of which I do not have an answer for. The head or upper jaw is stamped: Railroad Special, J H Williams & Co., Warranted, Made In U.S.A.. As you have noted the handle has the Diamond W&B logo. Hopefully some one will have the answer.
Aaron after prowling around Alloy Artifacts this is what I found. In 1920 the drop-forge and wrench operations of Whitman & Barnes were acquired by the J.H. Williams company. Some of the W&B product lines (e.g. monkey wrenches and alligator wrenches) continued in production by Williams.
The only remaining detail being that the last date stamped on the Valve gear plaque seems to be 1853....
Great pictures :)
I would say you have a true "transitional" wrench, David, based on the double markings.
Looks like Williams used remaining pieces already marked by W&B to finish out wrenches, after the acquisition.
That, or they didn't deem it necessary to change perfectly good forging dies picked up when they bought W&B.
Either way, a definite cool factor is added by the double markings on it!!