What are road names?
What are road numbers? A company is offering railroad cars with “new road numbers”. What does that mean, why is it significant and why should I be interested?
I tried Googling but no answer there.
Thanks
Road names is the name of the railroad who owns them or company who built the car. For example BNSF, Sante Fe, Union Pacific, TTX Trailer Train, etc.
Road numbers are the unique numbers on the locos and cars. For identification, management purposes for the railroads. For us modelers, you want to have unique roadnumbers so you can keep track of your cars, it you’re running any type of operations, or a computer inventory system.
Are you sure you did a Google search?
http://www.google.com/search?q=rolling+stock+road+numbers&hl=en
Rich
Road name is the name of the railROAD.
Road numbers are the number of the car.
So for the UP 123345, the road name is Union Pacific (UP) and the number is 123345.
Since people actually track the movements of cars by there number people want multiple cars of the same type with the same number. The UP might have 1000 of the type of car in the series UP123000 to UP123999. So if they offer multiple road numbers in the series I can use multiple cars of that type with different numbers So if I want to send UP123345 to Johnson Hardware and UP123576 to United Metals, I will be able to tell the cars apart by the road numbers.
Thanks all. I figured the road name was the “railroad name”, and road numbers could be the numbers seen on the cars, but I wasn’t sure how they were significant to model railroaders. Being new to the hobby, I never thought about having a whole LOT of cars that should have different numbers.
Now I know. thanks
More questions coming…
Every engine, car, chassis, container, trailer, EOTD on every interchanging railroad in N America has a unique combination of a initials and number since shortly after WW1. Depending on how many cars a model railroad has and whether the owner is routing individual cars, having duplicate car and engine ID’s (initial and number) can be a problem. If you have 250 cars on the layout and 4 cars with the same ID, that’s probably not a big problem. If you have 25 cars on your layout and 4 of them have the same ID and they aren’t in a unit train, that could be more of a problem.
If you have 3 engines with the same ID and you aren’t using a formal dispatching system, that’s not a problem. If you have 3 engines with the same ID and you are dispatching using timetable and train orders (TT&TO) then that could be a problem.
If you are operating with a conventional DC power pack and have 3 engines with the same number that’s not a problem. If you are operating with DCC and have 3 engines with the same number that’s a small problem.
The more you operate your model like a real railroad, the more unique equipment ID’s becomes important.
I would say different road numbers is important for engines when using DCC as noted above but some people dont really care if they have several cars of the same number but I have one hopper car with the same number and it bugs me to no end. Call me crazy [%-)] But how you run your railroad is your choice and if you want a set of cars and the manufacturer has a limited run of numbers you might be stuck with duplicates
I have to correct myself. Between around WW1 when reporting marks were standardized to 4 characters and numbers to 6 or less digits and the mid to late 1980’s when the majority of railroads computerized, within each equipment type, each piece of equipment would have a unique initial and number. So the MKT might have a car number 100, an engine number 100 and a passenger car number 100, but wouldn’t have 2 engines numbered 100, etc. (OBTW the MKT did have both a car and engine numbered 100).
The duplication didn’t present a problem since the uses of the various equipment didn’t overlap. You woulnd’t issue train orders on a freight or passenger car. You wouldn’t (normally) issue a waybill on a engine or passenger car. You wouldn’t seat a ticket to ride a freight car or engine…
After computerization, everything had to be unique (the MKT engine 100 had to be renumbered to avoid the covered hopper MKT 100 after the UP acquired the MKT and computerized the records).
Furthermore, if you get into trying to reproduce specific prototype locomotives and cars, the number helps you identify a particular piece of real railroad equipment.
Here is a real Santa Fe covered hopper, ATSF#182045, Santa Fe class GA-52
at Glen Flora,TX 1981
I researched that car, and used it as a basis to paint and letter a V-Line kit.
