Why are trains numbered?

Question

This is probably due in part to the fact that I am an American living in a semi-rural town outside of any major public transportation, but I have no real idea why trains are numbered. Any trainspotters out there that can help a guy out?

Answer 1

10 points for chefgrill.  The number on any given piece of equipment, also called "reporting" marks, are just like a finger print.

Well done.

Answer 2

It's for tracking.  Every car number is important.  Companies have to know when a certain car left, and when it arrived at the destination.  My husband was a foreman at a railway company and they know by the number and letters where it came from, what it was, what was in it, and reported it to the head office.



It's just all tracking info.

Answer 3

It similar to that we have our individual  names.

Answer 4

So they are easier to "keep track" of!

Answer 5

Simply put

it is so that the engineer doesn't take the wrong train back to Baltimore !!!

Answer 6

They are numbered because all trains belonging to the same company are generally painted with the same color scheme, so in order to distinguish one care from another for repairs, trainset assemblies, and various other things, they number the cars, rather than naming them or painting each one a different color.

Answer 7

Very basically the same reason cars, trucks etc. have numbers. In the very early days of railways trains only carried names, but as the numbers grew the railways started numbering them.

Locomotives usually belong to a class, all with numbers in the same series, so the number helps identify the engine. Railway carriages and wagons have numbers for the same reason.

Trains themselves have numbers known as reporting numbers which used to be displayed on the front of the engine, where they were also known as headcodes. These help signallers and other rail staff identify the train class, route etc.

Answer 8

How would you know which engines and cars you had maintained unless you put an identifying number on them?

Answer 9

Essentially for tracking. The digits also signify the train direction ( up train or down train).