Gidday, I know I must be over thinking the issue of how to realistically number my mid 1950s freelanced RR locomotive roster because the more I research the more I’m confusing myself.[*-)]
Some Railroads appear to number sequentially as the individual locomotives arrived; others sequentially but in type/model blocks; others also appear to number sequentially but don’t, for example, the Clinchfield appears to have issued diesels with earlier unallocated steam roster numbers; and yet others reuse locomotive numbers, for example, D&H 422 was a 4-4-0 camelback and later an Alco C420.
I’m not sure if my opinion is valid or not (likely not) but I will throw in my [2c] worth.
First, how big is the railroad? If it is huge then I would use a numbering scheme that follows something like this:
first number indicates the class,
second number indicates which batch the locomotive was in if there were several purchases of the same style of locomotive over several years,
third and fourth numbers indicate the order of acquisition within the batch,
Alternately, you could just number the whole bunch of them in sequence of acquistion.
Lots of possibilities!
There! I’ve spouted off again without any knowledge of what the prototype railroads actually did, and I make no apologies. After all, this is modeling and we can do what we want.
I myself because I have more than one of some types of loco if I was to number them (truth is just can’t be bothered to renumber some of them that should be).
I would number them by class in sequence A class 01 to 20 B class 21 to 31 Wab class 32 to 42 and so on.
Give each class a sequence of numbers and pull a random number or numbers from that sequence to number each loco you have in that class.
Just copy and adapt what NZR does it will look right for a freelance railway.
Set as a default for a freelance layout copy what the local railway does.
Its a freelance layout it can’t be wrong[:D] .
Just remember steam loco’s are black with nice brass work [:)] and you can’t go wrong, better still if it is the right scale and looks a lot like a big J?? class[:D]
Gidday Dave and John, thanks for your replies but as it’s been a long day I’ll have to think about them tomorrow. Here’s what I’ve been mulling over as far as the size of the roster, 43 steam and 109 diesel locomotives.
Cheers, the Bear.
Bear,SSRy SW1500 is numbered 615. It reflects the engine was bought new in 1966 and its a 1500hp switcher.
Not so fast.
Ahh,but look here. SSRy SW1500 number 150 reflects its old road number-exC&HV 150 which was bought use from the C&HV.
SSRy SW1500 number 2638 is exSP SW1500 2638 and still wears its former SP paint scheme with SSR under the cab number…
Most shortlines and terminal switching railroads doesn’t bother to change numbers just the paint scheme and in some rare cases the old road name is patched out and the new owners ititials on the cab or on the patch.
My C&HV roster is based on model type a example GP38-2 would be number 380-385 or SW1000 would be number 100 and of course SW1500 would be 150-155. GP40-2s would be 400-405 and GP50 would be 500-501.
The SIW has two GE 70 Tonners numbered 1 and 2 Any “foreign” Locos such as CSX have their numbers as assigned by the home railroad (Whatever it came with) The only renumbering I am planning is to the Tropicana Juice Cars.
There is (right now, anyway) only one locomotive, an SW9 (and two cabooses) on the TEC RR. It has been stripped from it’s old Santa Fe paint and repainted into the old black and yellow of the Erie (nee Erie), as if it was purchased from the Erie. It was, however “renumbered” to number 25. Why? Dunno, just looked right for a loco on a short line. I’m planning on acquiring another switcher, and if it is another SW9 I’ll number it somewhere in the 20-29 range. If it is another model of switcher, say, an Alco S2 it’ll be in another number sequence.
When I numbered my GNOR roster. It started with F3 and F7 locomotives. I forgot why I chose these numbers, but it no longer matters. The consist of A-B-A set, the F3B’s were even assigned. F7B’s were assigned odd numbers, with a matching A unit.
F3- 3000-3049
F7- 3121-3188
My RS1 were numbered to be 110-135 but when I saw an Illinois Terminal 756 I thought it would be easier to keep the IT number than the one I assign.
RS1- 740-765 than renumbered in 1964 with 110-135.
The E7 are the only locomotives to have low numbers. To follow real railroad prototype. It’s a A-B-A with the same number.
E7- 40-43
Passenger switchers
SW9- 174-182
I hope my examples helped you to understand my numbering system.
My GP20s are in the 3100 series (3101 is a pink & green tribute engine for my late maternal Grandmother. She passed March 1, 2001-3101. Secondly, orginally the third digit determined if it was a powered (0) or a dummy (1). I later decided to power those dummy units making that moot.
My SW1000 carries 108. That comes from the fact that the railroad traded two SW7 Phase IIs in on it that carried the numbers 8 and 10. (Those numbers come from the fact that my birthday is October 8 - 10/8) It also used the Flex-i-coil trucks from one of those units.
Large railroads seem to have some scheme. So if you freelance is of a large railroad then you should probably follow some scheme, even though you only actually have some lesser number of locomotives.
Small railroads seems wide open.
As an example the Maryland and Pennsylvania sort of numbered in the order in which they acquired them, except they skipped numbers. As of 1951 they had used these numbers: 1-6 followed by 20-30, then 41-43, then 61-62, 70, 80-82.
#1-6 were mostly 4-4-0’s with one 2-6-0 (#2)
#20-30 were assorted 4-6-0’s, 2-8-0’s and 0-6-0’s
#41-43 were their largest steam locomotives all 2-8-0’s from Baldwin and the last steam locomotives acquired.
Hi, as all diesels mine go by first horsepower, number of axles, then number as acquired. In example; GP38-2 would be 2401, GP40-2 3401, SD40-2 3601,ect… With juat a few switchers an MP15 would be 1541. For a small roster it works pretty well.
Thanks Gentlemen for your replies.
Your varied answers seem to back the little research I’ve done that there is no really incorrect way of numbering a locomotive roster; though not to say there weren’t any, I haven’t seen any North American Railroad that combines class letters with numbers, as in the lead locomotive in my avatar, Ja1267.
So while freelancing can give freedom that a prototypical modeller doesn’t have, my personal thoughts are that I must maintain a reasonable amount of plausibility, so I won’t be adopting the NZR method.[:)]