Number Location on ATSF B Unit?

The number was very small, and was painted on each side of the locomotive, just above the frame, at the rear.  This was also done on the cab units.

Thanks Tom,

I was considering mixing 3rd rail powered A units with Atlas dummy B units, but since there are numbers on the bodies that plan is out the window.

 

thanks again!

Anytime after about 1955 Santa Fe mixed them up all over the place.

The numbers are very small and hard to see unless you put your face right up next to them. When running, you cant even read them so. Eventually they got all mixed up anyway.

I have noticed when looking at pictures of the various prototypes that sometimes the letter designation is shown on the large number board on the front of the A unit locomotive ( like 347C which shows up a lot on searches) and sometimes it is just the number i.e. 16 or 45 or 315.

 

Any particular reason for this? 

The "C" was there to distinguish the difference from the "L" unit. The set was a 37LABC, which L and C were both A units. The L (or Lead) only carried the number ..37. You can't have to locomotives with the same number so the C was put on the number board so you knew whether it was 37, or 37C.   

thanks

Here's a shot of LaidOffSick's B units; that show the "F" on the front of the right B unit side, and the road number on the back of the left B unit.

 

So the left B unit would be 19A, and the right B unit is 19B...

 

 

 

Thanks,

Mario

 

Yes.  As others have pointed out, you could not have two engines displaying the same number, because, in the days of train orders, the engine number was used to identify trains running extra, as well as when changing meeting points of regular trains.

 

So, for example, if the 205L-A-B-C was at Argentine, and they had to split it up into two Cab and Booster units to run a couple of short turnarounds to Topeka, engine 205 could not meet engine 205 somewhere on the First District, but engine 205 and engine 205C could meet each other. 

So would the L ever have been displayed on the number board? I could swear I recall seeing pictures with that as well but I could be wrong.

Not to my knowledge. I never saw, nor have I ever seen photos of, any "F" type unit on the Santa Fe with an "L" letter added to the road number.

 

In fact, I can not recall any other railroad, other than the Santa Fe, that used the Lead or "L" designation on the "F" type units, i.e. the LABC road number designations. Virtually all other railroads used ABCD for road number designations.

 

As a side note, the Santa Fe system of using no letter designation along with their road number caused quite an accounting problem at EMD, many years later when the Santa Fe was trading-in their old "F" units for orders of GP35s and GP40s. It seemed that the Receiving Inspectors monitoring the old traded-in units knew that an "A Unit" had a cab with a speed-recorder, which allowed for an additional $500 trade-in value, while a "B Unit" was just a cables "F Unit". Thus the in-bound paper work (Bills of Lading) from the Santa Fe Rwy. caused great confusion with-in the EMD Accounting Dept. when the Santa Fe protested over NOT receiving the proper quantity of "$500 additional lead unit speed recorder allotments". It took many weeks to figure out what, and why, mistakes occurred.