1. Yes, and what an Agreement! About the time that BLH ceased manufacture of locomotives we negotiated a License (Licence) Agreement with Cockerill. It had an initial term of five years (which would be normal) but then no expiration date: it would renew, automatically, unless cancelled by either party (very unusual). It continued on after BLH closed, and we inherited the Agreement at the Baldwin-Hamilton Company (BH). Royalties flowed in for years, and I mean large dollars. In 1991, when BH was closed, I wrote Cockerill to tell them about our demise and, in return, received a wonderful letter thanking us for all our help for over 35 years.
2. DESIGN CHANGES: The Baldwin engineers (BLW) did a lousy job of converting the A-Frame (cylinder block) from a casting to a welded design. The casting had greater strength in the sides, and rounded corners at stressed areas. The welded version started with thin side plates, mild steel, (1-4") later increased to 3-8" and finally using chrome-moly steel. That basically did the trick, but cracks still occurred at the sharp corners (see the great photos on the earlier posting). Cracking was especially severe around the camshaft box prominently shown in the photos. Cockerill's design was a great improvement and the locomotives and engines gave excellent service for decades in Morocco.
3. RENEWAL PARTS: After a while Cockerill ceased production and no longer supported the locomotives with renewal parts. However, they knew we (Baldwin Hamilton Company) could furnish this vital support and worked with us to provide all the needed parts to keep these locomotives running smoothly (Rabat and Casablanca) Parts were sold with a "Confirmed, Irrevocable Letter of Credit on a major US Bank, in US Dollars) Oh, my was it profitable!
So here we have it, a little history that has not been elucidated elsewhere. Best to All, HAR
Henry A. Rentschler
