??? Numbering re-painted freight cars

[mikesmowers]

  I am re-painting some of my freight cars and would like some advice. I have 5 open coal hoppers I have painted black and am putting BN decals on them I got from Microscale. When I do the numbering is there any specifis numbers I should use on hoppers or just make some up, How many digits?

  I am also going to do some boxcars in BN green and would like to know about the numbering on them also.  Thanks for any help and suggestions.       Mike 

[Shilshole]

How prototypical do you want to be? If not at all, just put on any numbers you like, perhaps within a series, say, 19100-19200 for hoppers and 24700-24800 for XMs. On the other hand, there are several BN pictorials that show equipment by car type and including number series that they belong in.  An Official Equipment Register (OER) for your time period will list numbers for specific car series.

[jktrains]

You should do a little researching on the internet to find to pics of the cars you are modeling.  That will give you some insight into the prototypically correct numbers to be used.  Another option is to get the Color Guide to BN Freight Cars.  A very good and useful book for the BN modeler.

[Shilshole]

Another option is to get the Color Guide to BN Freight Cars.

aka Burlington Northern Color Guide to Freight & Passenger Equipment by David Casdorph, $49.95 + shipping at Karen's Books.

[dehusman]

What you need is an "ORER" Official Railway Equipment Register, a quarterly publication listing every freight car in N America that has been published since the early 1900's.  Copies are available from the NMRA(reprints), on CD from serveral vendors (Westerfield, the resin car maker is one)  and real ones from e-Bay.  They run from $20 on modern ones or CD, up to $50 for reprints and then the older rarer ones can fetch $50-100.

A cheap alternative is to go to the "Fallen Flags" site and look at your railroad's pictures and pick a number if they have pictures.

Dave H.