Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-10-26
SOME
CARS TO
NUMBER


care of its nearly quarter of mil
lion freight and passenger cars, the
Pennsylvania Railroad is having
them all remembered. 1t is gigan-
tic task, one that will take fully a
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 Of
flee and car accountants of other
roads
Troubles arose from the fact that
every one of the individual COM
panies which go to make up the
Pennsylvania system had its own
car numbers. In addition to that,
the similarity of the legends, Penn
sylvania" and Pennsylvania Com
Dany," 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 num-
Der, and of the small initials of indi-
vidual ownership were left out of
report there was no way of telling
what car was really meant.
How Confusion Arose.
For example, take the number
.2015. 1t was a gondola car on the
Northern General, the Buffalo and
Allegheny Valley, the West Jersey
and Seashore; 1t was a boxcar on
the Philadelphia, Baltimore & Wash
ington, the p, c., c. & L., and the
Erie and Pittsburg; and it was a
coke car on the Pennsylvania Rail-
road proper. If some agent sent in
a report on Pennsylvania, 2O15,"
neglecting to mention the smaller
initials, he might be reporting on
any one of the seven.
When a Pennsylvania Railroad
car was reported as a Pennsylvania
Company car, or when any car was
not reported with all the lesser de-
tails, 1t caused vast deal of trouble
and expense. AS a matter of fact,
the small initials of individual own
ership were overlooked and not re-
ported in a majority of cases.
To do away with the confusion it
was decided to renumber the entire
car equipment, both east and west,
assigning to each lesser company in
cluded in the system certain series
of consecutive numbers, this series
being further divided so as to indi-
cate kind. class and capacity. The
result Is that the number alone will
tell all there about car to know,
as it can he identified by reference
to the official list.
II Is a very intricate and complex
job to get the new numerals on the
cars. The size of 1t can be realized
only when one considers that the
cars of a big railroad system are
scattered over half the whole coun-
try, many of them staying away
from "home" months, even years.
Before such one can be renumber-
ed. of course. 1t has to return to
the Pennsylvania system.
scheme Working Rapidly.
The work is now progressing very
rapidly The general plan for re-
numbering was mapped out in the
PENNSYLVANIA offices at Altoona. A
table was made, showing the origi-
nal number of every car and the
number il was to receive, besides the
kind, class and capacity. Then copies
OF this table were sent TO agents all
over the system. every one being di-
rected 10 look out for unchanged
cars coming into his territory and
change them at once. The result of
this scheme has been that the new
numbers have been put on with
great despatch.
To the passenger cars belonging
To the lines east of Pittsburg are
given the numbers l To 1000 and to
those belonging to the lines west OF
Pittsburg the numbers 1901 to TO-
00O, The freight cars are numbered
from lO.O0l TO 100000 on the east
ern lines and from OO,OOl to 9s9.-
999 on the western lines.
To make the task as easy as pos
sible II was arranged that the largest
ownership, 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,
The cars are TO be repainted. too.
but that is. OF necessity, much slow
or work than the renumbering.