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These are Trust Plates, showing the actual owner of the car or locomotive. Normally found on the side of the car or locomotive, visible at eye level. When the car was paid off, the or the lease had expired, the plates would come off.
Don't know about collectors value, but these have been on diesels since they first came out. You can probably still see them today, on modern engines and many cars.
thx for the reply, I did a quick search after posting the value question & see they may be worth 25.00 at best.
EDIT: I've tried searching for clubs of people that buy railroad items but all searches bring me to model railroading. Along with these trust plates I have number boards, lanterns & misc goodies.
The top plate is probably from a locomotive and the larger bottom plate from a car. I have a trust plate that came off of an
ex-Norfolk Southern (the original) GP18, and its the same size as the top plate.