This morning, I was on train E-COBBTM0-09A. Those letters and numbers actually have a lot of information believe it or not, which is surprisingly easy to discipher. The first letter, in this case, an E, tells you what type of train it is. E indicates that this is an empty coal train. The next six letters are locations. COB stands for the origin of this train. I have no idea where it came from, but COB is the city or customer's abbreviation. BTM is the destination of the train. BTM stands for Black Thunder Mine, which is a coal mine located in Wyoming's Powder River Basin. At the mine, this train will load up on coal and then it will receive a new designation, beginning with the letter C, for loaded coal train. Even though this train is headed to Wyoming, we will only take it as far as Forsyth. From there a different crew will take it to Sheridan, WY and hand it off to another crew there.
The train numbers actually mean quite a lot. As I mentioned, the first letter is the type of train. There is a type for nearly every letter of the alphabet. The most common ones around here are C- and E- trains, loaded and empty coal trains respectively. We also get a lot of G- and X- trains, which are loaded and empty grain trains, repectively. We also get a few H- trains, which are "High Priority" freight, and M- trains, which are "Manifest Freight." A manifest freight is a mixed freight train basically, which usually has cars to drop off or pick up enroute. Occasionally we also see Z- trains. Those are top priority, but honestly, they are a little overrated I think. The dispatchers often regard them much higher than makes sense. I'll talk about that more at a later date though. The science, or chaos as it sometimes is, of dispatching could be a post of its own.
The last bunch of numbers on a train number are also important. The first number, on my train this morning it was a zero, is usually the section number. This was used more with passenger trains, but even there it is mostly a thing of the past. Most freight trains carry a one there because they are not divided into sections. Many years ago, popular passenger trains would fill up quickly. The railroads realized that they could make more money by selling more tickets on those trains. However they ran into a problem. They were limited in the number of cars they could add because of the size of station platforms. To get around this they would create additional sections to a train. Basically it was another train operating with the same name and number, but it had its own engines and crew and would follow the first part of the train. Freight trains do not usually operate in sections, so that number is almost always a zero. Amtrak trains operating on BNSF property get a one there, but I have never heard of Amtrak running more than one section on any of their trains either. That practice is mostly history now.
Now I said that the first numeric digit is usually the section number. Due to the large number of coal trains, things are done a little differently. The numbers are simply an annual numeric identifier. My train was the ninth one operating that route since the start of the year, so the first number is a zero. Later in the year we will start to see ones and twos in there, representing hundreds of trains.
The next bunch of numbers is usually the day of the month on which the train departed it's origin. On almost any other train, the 09 would indicate that the train departed on the ninth of this month from its origin. Once again, coal trains are done just a little differently, and this is simply the last two digits of an annual numeric identifier. Since this was the ninth train operating on the COBBTM route, the numbers together are 009. The next one will be 010, followed by 011, and so on. Again, that numeric identifier is unique to loaded and empty coal trains.
The last letter, an A on this train, is an arbitrary letter to make the train number unique basically. It is called the "train schedule identifier." Most of the time that is an A. But it is there just in case they happened to have two trains running the same route and leaving on the same day. Since they're two different trains, and not two sections of one train, they could assign the second one to leave a B instead of the letter A. That is the only purpose that number serves. There cannot be two trains with the same number operating at the same time.
That is how train numbers work. Now, let's look at a couple of common examples. Hopefully this will help everything make more sense. All trains have a similar identifying system, although there are a few trains where things are adjusted to make it work better.
E-COBBTM0-09-A
E: train type, in this case, empty coal train
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COB: origination location
BTM: destination location, Black Thunder Mine for this train
0-09: numeric identifier, assigned on an annual basis. This is the ninth train to run this schedule this year.
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A: a letter to make the number unique in the event that two identical trains are operating simultaneously.
M-DILLAU0-20-A
M: train type, a Manifest Freight, or mixed freight, most likely with some work to do en route.
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DIL: the origin of the train, in this case Dillworth, MN.
LAU: the destination of the train. This one was headed to Laurel, MT.
0: section number. basically, it is a freight train, and has no section number.
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20: the day of the month when the train left Dillworth, MN.
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A: a letter to make the identifier unique.
Now just to mix things up a little, we are going to look at a more unique train ID.
A-71-21-A
A: the train type. This one is an Amtrak train, specifically the westbound Empire Builder.
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7: the train number. With Amtrak trains, the origin and destination are replaced by the Amtrak train number.
1: the section number. Amtrak typically only operates one section on its trains, so this is usually a one.
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21: The day of the month when the train departed from its origin, in this case, Chicago.
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A: Once again, this is that letter just to make sure the train ID is unique.
Okay, that was an easy one. Now it is time for a quiz! Try to decipher this one. You probably do not know the origin and destination codes. I do not know most of them, but you can probably figure out what everything else means. Here it is:
Z-CHCPTL8-23-A
Clear as mud? One of these days I will talk about all the possible train types.
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