Railroads many times kept their numbering system consistent over time, and if
you look at the final Q roster you can get a good feel where "new" locomotives
would end up on a modern Q roster.
First, let's look at the overall scheme, then we will break it down as to where
modern power could/should fall:
For freight motors, the Q used a 3-digit numbering system. So your modern
freight motors would use 3 digits numbers.
Switchers were 4-digit numbers, in the 9100 to 9400 series.
Finally, all passenger units were in the 9900 series.
Remember that as older equipment is retired, those number slots open up. A
common prototype practice is to renumber older locomotives to a single "new"
block of numbers so as to free up entire blocks of numbers. Our "new" Q roster
will look at the potential of doing this.
To make it simple, let's start with passenger units. The Q passenger units
could be broken into these groups:
E5 - 9909-9915B (A, B, and no suffixes)
E7 - 9916A-9937A (A and B suffixes)
E8 - 9937B-9949A (A and B suffixes)
E7 - 9949B
Open - 9950-9963
E8 - 9964-9977 (No suffixes)
E9 - 9985A-9989B (A and B suffixes)
E9 - 9990-9995 (No Suffixes)
By the BNSF merger the E5's were gone and 9950-9963 were still open. Assuming
that the Q had dropped the letter suffixes, which they had on the last E9's
9990-9905, and that the E7's were all being retired as new passenger equipment
came in, that would have opened up 9900-9937, as well as 9950-9963 for new
passenger equipment. So you have open numbers for 52 new passenger locomotives
right there. Since the FP45's pre-date the Dash 8-40BWH's, I would have put the
first order in 9900-9915 series. (BTW, how many FP45's did your new Q buy?) I
would have then put subsequent orders in the 9916-9963 range as the E7's and
E8's were retired (you said you only had E9's). If I were the Q CMO, 14 of the
best running E8's of the 9937B-9949A series would have been renumbered to
4-digit no-suffix numbers in the 9950-9963 slot, just below the 9964-9977 E8's,
to free up the entire 9900-9949 number slots for the new FP45's and Dash
8-40BWH's. The worst of the E8's would be retired with the new power coming in.
So there you have your passenger roster.
To keep the post from getting too long I will do switchers and freight motors
separate.
Tom Mack
Cincinnati, OH
--- In CBQ@yahoogroups.com, "Dwight" wrote:
>
> Has anyone developed a modern day locomotive roster and what the possible
> numbering systme might be? I saw one for the Milwaukee Road and found it very
> interesting. I am modelling the Q in a modern day setting with AC4400's and
> the like but have yet to develope a locomotive numbering scheme.
>
> I also have the Q running passenger trains and I am using E-9's, FP-45's and
> 8-40BWH's.
>
> If anyone has already made one or can assist me, I would appreciate it. I am
> not the smartest cookie when it comes to trying to keep true to the Q way of
> doing things.
>
> Thanks,
> Dwight
>
------------------------------------
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