why patch units?

[wisandsouthernkid]

why patch the units if you know the railroad bought them and is using the name ?

[eolafan]

Hundreds of gallons of "surplus" paint or your brother in law sells decals?

[wjstix]

There are some practical reasons to at least put on the new railroad's name or initials. When the BN merger happened BN tried very quickly to add "BN" and the engine's new number (if there was a new number), even if the engine wouldn't get a complete repaint for many years. With a big merger / purchase, you have a LOT of equipment to repaint. 

Also let's say the A&B RR merges with the B&C RR and becomes the ABC RR, but sells some of their older engines to the XYZ RR. If you see an engine lettered for the A&B, you don't know if it's an ABC RR engine, or an XYZ RR engine. It should have at least "ABC 1234" somewhere to let you know who actually owns the engine now. ( I believe this is also a legal requirement, I know as a member of the Minnesota Transportation Museum that restrored engines and cars that are used on our Osceola and St.Croix RR are sublettered for the O&SC even though the engine is wearing a full Soo Line or whatever RR paint scheme.)

Plus there's kind of a "corporate pride" thing in getting the new name out there as soon as possible, reminding people that the A&B or B&C is gone, it's the ABC now.

[ndbprr]

What do you do if two railroads have three engines and they are both numbered 1,2,&3?  You have to renumber three of them.  There may also be some obscure law about showing ownership so you know who to sue or some other reason.

[EJE818]

They are trying to save money on paint and patching speeds is a lot quicker than repainting. A railroad needs engines to be in service, and patching them makes it a lot less intensive of a job. Painting a engine could take weeks, while patching one only takes a few hours.

[henry6]

Lots of reasons.  First is liability...its your unit, put your name on it.  Second, identity and pride...its you, put your name on it.  Third, for safety in operating:  all units on your road should be easily identifiable so that there is operating safety (othewise, units woudl have to be identified by unit name and number in all communications, written and oral). Then there are (or were) bondholders and lienholders who wanted to know they were looking at the unit they lent the money for. Etc., thus for insurance purposes (non liablility), too.  Of course these rulles do not apply to borrowed or short term lease units.  Yeah, if it don't get done, it don't get done but you have saved a gallon or two of paint, several days' wages to the painting crew, and you have had the unit in service making money.

[tree68]

What do you do if two railroads have three engines and they are both numbered 1,2,&3?  You have to renumber three of them.  There may also be some obscure law about showing ownership so you know who to sue or some other reason.

Yep - now you have 1, 2, 3, & 4, 5, 6...

[tomikawaTT]

Here's a non-railroad equivalent:

You just bought a pickup truck to carry whatever your wife won't let you haul in her nice, clean sedan.  Friendly Fred's Used Vehicle Emporium gives you a deal - on a truck with Jose's Landscaping Service and a phone number lettered on the doors.

A couple of reasons to attack those doors with a couple of rattle cans, NOW:

• The guy at the big-box home repair center who wants to punch Jose's lights out for the raw deal his sister got...
• The trooper who wants to know why you're driving a truck with private-owner plates and commercial markings...
• Jose is getting phone calls about the business he retired from just before you bought his truck, and he (and his buddies) are 'irritated'...

The same principles apply to a locomotive.  Only the reasons differ.  I'm not going to say that the insurance company would send a check for collision damage to a former owner (or refuse to pay if the locomotive wasn't clearly identified as belonging to the railroad they insure,) but why take chances.

Chuck

[tpatrick]

An interesting variation on this theme is the Conrail units patched with a small NYC or PRR. The former went to CSX and the latter to NS. But I always wondered why they didn't just use the CSXor NS initials rather than their previous owners. I'm not even sure that all of them were actually owned by the predecessor lines. They may have just operated in their territories or may have been arbitrarily assigned NYC/PRR regardless of thier history. Anybody know?

[tree68]

The CR->CSX/NS thing was simply expediency.  Rather than take the time to find out whether such and such a car had the same number as an existing CSX/NS car, they simply changed the reporting symbol to a fallen flag. 

I'm sure that you'll see those cars slowly "disappear" as they come due for a repainting, and emerge as a shiny CSX or NS car. 

[henry6]

Actually there was a reason.  Conrail Shared Assets Operation which is an entity owned by both CSX and NS to run terminal operations in Detroit, Philidelpha/NJ and North Jersey areas. To do that both roads set up dumm companies for the assignment of equipment like locomotives.  Thus, NS went with PRR and CSX with NYC for this purpose. So a PRR on a CR unit is a NS owned unit assigned to CSAO and NYC designates a CSX unit so assigned.  And they keep the CR blue to make a distinction of assignement from CSX or NS use.