Repeating numbers

I don't let it bother me. On a shelf display it might be noticed if it's a toy train guy looking, but on a moving train who reads the numbers?

quote:

What do you do to differentiate your trains when the manufacturer sends you several cars with identical numbers?

 

Do you mean for purposes of keeping track of what you own?

If so, I assign every piece an inventory number, and put a tag or sticker on each item, even the unique ones.

Hey C.W, thank you for your response, my question was not based on inventory but mainly for appearance sake where you might have 8-10 reefers in your consist and 4 of them have the same numbers.  I was wondering what forum members did to remedy this problem.  And Jim, thank you also for commenting - MARSHELANGELO

In trains, I don't worry about it.

 

For collection purposes, I add a sticker with the car number plus a "-1", "-2", etc and that goes in the records.

 

In one isolated instance, (the Menards' 24-flatcar set, which does not have road numbers), I culled some plausible-sounding numbers from historical rosters of the railroads represented, and made up stickers with those numbers for collection purposes.

 

---PCJ

I don't buy duplicate numbers, just my thing.

Remedy differs with everyone. Some may like the freight car and just buy a lot of them with the same number. Myself for some reason I do not like all the same numbers. Among the manufacturers with weaver gone now MTH offers 6 car add ons with different numbers. Menards probably has the best deal for car numbers for box cars and flat cars. Lionel does this to a small degree with 2 or three car add ons. I myself when I buy a car when it comes out I hope that the next catalog will have it in a different number.................Paul

I try not to buy duplicate numbered cars, but I have ended up with a bunch anyway. When you get into operating with car cards, you want the numbers to be unique. In my case, the fleet is so large that it will be possible to keep the duplicates away from each other. I have also considered renumbering.

Saw this after my post. If I can, I try to keep duplicate numbers separate, like so. On trains of traditional-size equipment (like the MPC autoracks), I may not bother.

 

---PCJ

As laidoffsick stated I don't buy duplicate numbers unless it's to be bashed into a multi-unit car such as a 5 unit ttux car or a 5unit dttx.

It really doesn't bother me.

Greg,

 

I have several six-cars sets of similar cars with different numbers, and mix them up with cars with identical numbers. I try not to put two cars with the same number next to each other, but sometimes I miss. Yet, not one out of the close to 300 guests I have had has ever bother to look at those numbers, so I don't even think about it.

 

No worry!

 

Alex

sometimes you just can't help getting duplicates.  I have four cars in my collection that have a twin.  Some I bought in a lot and didn't have a choice because the deal was too good to turn down.  Another couple are because I didn't update my list.  I started to concentrate on UP rolling stock and bought a couple for decient prices and discovered when I got hom I already owned the same car.  I just space them out in the consist or put them on seperate trains.  maybe one day i will thin the herd and replace them with differnt numbered cars.

I can't see the numbers unless I take my glasses off and stand within 24 inches so it doesn't matter!

With O gauge trains I try to buy MTH because some of their freight cars have more then one road number. Also I buy an Atlas or Lionel freight car to keep a little number variety. RMT is another source of freight cars and they have different numbers also.

 

In H.O. I bought a set of stencils and re-numbered some FEC 100 ton hoppers.

 

Lee Fritz

It might be difficult NOT to have duplicate numbers if you are modeling come consists like coal drags on the C&O and N&W.......Eventually the manufacturer will do another run of cars at which time you can pull out the duplicates and sell them to help defray the cost of the new cars...... 

Gentlemen, thank you all for your input, the video provided by RailRide illustrated my point perfectly; a consist of approximately 30 plus cylindrical hoppers would have to have duplicate numbers but the idea behind not letting the train with the same number ride next to each other sits well with me instead of trying to renumber the individual train.  I don't believe anyone purchases duplicates with the intention of having them but it seems inevitable when you have large consists of rolling stock from the same flag carrier.  However I like your ways of getting the duplicated numbers to appear simultaneously but individually.  Thanks - MARSHELANGELO

I don't care, because it is Toy Trains, if I worry about it, I put the car in a different box/train

The easiest way, if one is that concerned, is to simply change the numbers on the cars. I have a 60+ C&O two bay hopper car coal train, with all MTH cars. Naturally, not all of which were different road numbers. Thus, those cars just received different ending numerals from Champ Decals, and when weathered, the "change" can not be detected. Otherwise, I generally do NOT purchase identical road number freight cars.

Makes NO DIFFERENCE to me.

It's probably odd, but I don't purchase cars with duplicate numbers. That might be the only thing I actually do that is prototypical and can tell the difference. Everything else I usually don't know the difference. Others are correct about mixing them up so they are not noticed when there are duplicates, but so far I don't have any duplicates. 

 

MTH offers all their individual cars in Premier rolling stock in two road numbers. In addition to that in each catalog they offer at least two 6 car sets of several different types of rolling stock. Each car of each set having a different road number.

 

As far as I know Lionel only offers one road number in each type of rolling stock. They sometimes have sets of cars with different road numbers. I am not sure they have a certain number of cars in their sets like MTH does, they may vary in quantity per set?

I wanted a concist of the same type of cars, my choice was cars with the same number, I like it, my Railroad.

 

Brent

 

I'm not really a numbers guy, however, some groups of my C&O open 50 ton hoppers have different numbers, others have duplicate numbers.   I guess my remedy is not to have a remedy and just roll with what I purchase.  ( if given the opportunity when purchasing new rolling stock of the same kind of car,  I would buy the cars with different numbers ) 

One of my early projects was with Atlas and Weaver undecorated hoppers.  This was before either Atlas or Weaver did Pittsburg and Shawmut, 50 ton, and 70 ton, two bay hoppers.  I was using dry transfers at the time and was able to do a different number for each hopper.  Add what eventually, Atlas and Weaver did out of the box, and I still have each hopper with a different number.  The one with a yellow dot is out of the box from Weaver.  Most of the other two bay hoppers are Weaver that I applied the Dry transfers. Both Atlas and Weaver, when they would produces second, or third runs of cars, appeared to be careful about new/different numbers. 

While I try not to purchase duplicate numbers, I occasionally do by accident (three times that I can remember), and twice I did on purpose (couldn't resist a good deal ).

 

If I have duplicates in the same consist, I just spread them out.  I can see how it would be a real problem with operators, though, but that kind of problem is easily sorted out by an owner that has his act together.

 

Andy

I try not to buy duplicate numbers, but there are some items that were made in only limited quantities. 

 

I do have one pair of identical engines with the same number and may but another engine today that is identical to one I already own.  One engine from each of these sets, I have plans to renumber.  I also have several K-Line die-cast coal hoppers with the same number.  I plan to renumber some of these as well, but for the time being, I simply place them so the repeated numbers are not close together.

 

Jim

 

 

only once. I have duplicate SD-45 , Rio Grande from Williams, both same number. It doesn't bother me. and when they are pulling 60 grain hoppers no has ever noticed

I look at something besides the number after the first car passes.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Funny, but no visitors ever have mentioned the duplicate numbers.

 

 

 

 

What, me worry? 

A number of years ago I bought the K-Line C&O Alleghney.  It is undersized for O gauge, similar to the compressed Lionel Hudsons (2046, 2056)  I began buying Lionel's coal hoppers for a unit train.  I have about 20 of them in various colors and most have the same reporting marks but that doesn't bother me.  I just love the way the train looks snaking its' way around the layout.

 

Rolland