Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-24
NEW NUMBERS FOR CARS.
Gigantic Task Being Carried Out by
Pennsylvania Railroad.

A dispatch from Philadelphia Pa. saws:
As one big facility in moving and taking
care of its nearly a quarter of a million
freight and passenger ears, the Pennsylva-
mia railroad is having them all REMEMBERED
1t is a gigantic task, one that will take
fully year to complete. but when the
work is done there will be none of the
confusion which has brought grief to the
Pennsylvania car record office and car
accountants of other roads.
Troubles arose from the fact that every
one of the individual companies which go
to make up the Pennsylvania system had
Its own car numbers. In addition to that,
the similarity of the legends, ''Pennsyl
vania' and PENNSYLVANIA Company
often caused one name to be reported
when the other should have been. In the
system there might be eight or ten cars
with the same number. and If the small
initials of individual ownership were left
out of report there was no way of tell
ing what car was really meant.
For example. take the number 2015. It
was a gondola car on the Northern Gem
trail. the Buffalo and Allegheny Valley the
West Jersey and Seashore: ii was box car
on the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Wash
ington, the p. c. c. & st. L., and the Erie
and Pittsburg; and it was a coke car Oh
the Pennsylvania railroad proper. If some
agent sent in report on pennsylvania,
lob" neglecting to mention the smaller
initials. he might be reporting any one
When a Pennsylvania railroad car was
reported a Pennsylvania Company car.
or when any car was not reported with
all the lesser details, it caused vast deal
of trouble and expense. AS matter of
fact, the small initials Of individual owner
ship Were overlooked and not reported
in a majority of cases
To do away with the confusion 1t was
decided to reminder the entire car equip
ment, both east and west, assigning to
each lesser company included in the sys-
TEN certain series of consecutive num-
bers this series being further divided so
as to indicate kind. class and capacity.
The result is that the number alone will
tell all there is about a car to know.
1t can be identified by reference to the
official list.
1t is very intricate and complex job
to get the new numerals on the cars The
size of it can be realized only when one
considers that the cars of big railroad
system are scattered over the whole coun-
try, many of them staying away from
home" months, even years Before such
a one can be REMEMBERED, of course, ii has
to return to the Pennsylvania system
The work is now proceeding very rapidly.
The general plan for REMEMBERING was
mapped out in the Pennsylvania offices at
Altoona. A table was made. showing the
original number of every car and the new
number IL was to receive, besides the kind,
class and capacity. Then copies of this
table were sent to agents all over the sys-
TEN, every one being directed to look out
for unchanged cars coming into mis- terri
tory and change them at once The result
of this scheme has been that the new num-
bers have been put on with great dispatch.
To the passenger cars belonging to the
lines east of Pittsburg are given the num-
bers / to 7O09-and to those belonging to
the lines west of Pittsburg the numbers
I 1901 to 10000 The freight cars num-
bered from 1OOO1 to 5o0,O0o on the eastern
lines and from 5OooO1 to 999.399 on the
western lines.
To make the task as easy as possible II
rod fhaf he a W. In
namely the Pennsylvania railroad proper,
should carry the lower numbers. This
meant that in the new scheme many cars
would fall into the proper class, without
having to be remembered.