When was the renumbering to six digits

[peggyrothschild]

I have a renumbering set showing the four and five digit number going to six digits but there’s no date. I thought it was 1962 Can anyone confirm the official date or year. Thanks

[Mike Vana]

I think it was 1967 for freight cars; 1962 was locomotives and passenger cars.

Jim Ogden

[princessclyne69]

I have an ORER from January 1965, from one of the Westerfield CDs. It shows a number of series of six-digit numbers, mostly new cars that were recently delivered. Several of the series are denoted as ‘additions’, meaning the first time the series was listed in the ORER.

At first glance it’s not obvious that any cars from existing series were actually renumbered yet. A number of series of cars, about twenty, had evidently already been delivered and were listed in the ORER from previous quarters, but they seem to be mostly complete series (every number in a block is accounted for) and at least one where the number series is assigned but no cars are listed, which was common for a series of cars expected to be delivered in that quarter.

Interestingly enough, there were a handful of auto cars (50′ double door cars) numbered in the 188000 series, which is a series that did not survive. Standard 50′ boxcars with no special equipment later ended up in the 350000 series.

Somewhere deeply buried I have a copy of the renumbering plan for passenger cars, but I’ve never actually seen the renumbering plan for freight cars, which I assume Charlie is referring to. I understood it to run around 300 pages.

RG7

[peggyrothschild]

Ed Hawkins verified between September and December 1963. I had some builders photos going in the M-I book built in 1962 with five digit numbers so that’s why the inquiry.

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