Locomotive identification

[wolfie27265]

Is it posssible to identify a locomotive by the number on the front?  Manufacturer, year built and/or road worked.  Thanks for your reply.

[tomikawaTT]

It is possible to identify many North American steam locomotives from a head-on photo by the design of the front end, including the number, the design of the number plate and any other unique characteristics.  However, if the loco was a 'stock design' Baldwin built for a shortline, and carried the number 1, you would have to add in consideration of lineside buildings, terrain...  Baldwin 'stock design' locos had a pretty generic front end, and there were a lot of railroads with a #1 that was a stock Baldwin 2-6-0 or 2-8-0.

Elsewhere, the locomotive number included the class designation.  I wouldn't need a photo of any kind to pinpoint a post-1925 Japan National Railways locomotive.  The first two numbers, plus the prefix letter(s), nail down the class, and a class roster would nail down the builder and construction date.

So, the short answer is a positive, "Maybe."  If you can post the photo, or a link, I and others will be happy to give it a try.

Chuck

[Deggesty]

Welcome to the forum, wolfie 27265! We are glad to have more participants, and we trust that you, too, will have knowledge to share with all of us.

The only road ownership identification that I have known to be given by engine numbers was that used by the Southern Railway System to show which road in the system owned an engine. Particularly for diesel engines, each of the roads had its own series of numbers. Offhand, I remember that an engine in the 2900 series was a Southern Railroad engine. I think that an engine in the 6900 series was a CNO&TP engine, but I may be misremembering.

As Tomikawa said, engines in the USA could be identified as to class of engine if you knew what road owned it, as usually all engines of one class belonging to a particular road were numbered in a certain series (as all N&W J's were in the series 700-713).

[wjstix]

The manufacturer's ID number for the engine would often be on the builders plate, but normally would have no relation to the road number the engine was assigned by the railroad. However, you could use the road number to look the engine up in a roster of the railroad's engines to see who built it and when.

[henry6]

There used to be guys who could identify a locomotive on sight!  Steam locomotives often had unique features attributable to one railroad or one class on one railroad.  The Hard  Core knew them all!  Even first generation diesels had features which would give away thier identity.  Certain models were usually classified under one number sequence on a given road.  Thus a GP7 could be identified by builder, builder class, road ownership, road use based on color scheme and number for instance.  The same continues in that the Hard Core can but there are fewer of them doing it.  Many bailed out at the sight of the first diesel. Others, like me, started trailing off with the coming of the second generation diesels.  Basically, know your railroad, its color schemes and numbering system, and your builders and their designs, and you should be able to tell all you want about a locomotive.  Except when it is sold and new owner keep color scheme and changes only the number!

[AgentKid]

henry6

Steam locomotives often had unique features attributable to one railroad or one class on one railroad.

There was talk on another group once about how CPR steam engines had a certain "look". As it turned out what gave that look was the number of interchangeable appliances and other bolt on features that were used on a significant number of different classes of locomotives. It was done for maintenance efficiency, but it had the effect of producing a number of locos that could easily be identified as CP. Significant details like boiler size and the number of driving axles changed, but you could still spot CP units without seeing the road name.

On the other hand there used to be a joke that on the CNR, because it was formed out of many bankrupt railroads, the only common component on their steam engines was the number plate under the headlight!.

Bruce