Did You Know?

DID YOU KNOW? Locomotive Numbers

YOU CAN’T MISS THEM – 3099, 1564, 567 – NUMBERS THAT STAND OUT ON THE FRONT OF A LOCOMOTIVE. BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY MEAN?

Number of cars in the train?

Weight of the train’s load? Horsepower of the engine? Locomotive’s ID?

If you guessed horsepower of the locomotive, you’re correct!

According to Andy Chunko, G&W senior vice president of operations support, “The numbers (for example 1500 to 1599) stand for the horsepower of the unit. So, the 1500 series would be assigned to units with 1500HP (SW1500). The 2000 series would be units (GP38-2) that have 2000HP and so on.”

Take a look at the photos to determine the horsepower of each locomotive. For example, in the top photo, each locomotive in this group is in the 3000 series, so they are all 3000 horsepower. n