Eastern Railroad Discussion > Southern 3005R

When Southern retired the SD35`s in the mid 1980`s they were all gathered together at Chattanooga and placed in storage in the recieving yard , there were Locomotives as far as the eye could see , here is the 3005 that was included in the lot. Photo by Scott Coffey.

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At the risk of seeming dumber than usual, what was the meaning of the letters that followed Southern unit numbers?

Again, you have given us another GREAT! picture.
Thanks again.

C.B.Moody
Wash. Dist.

Again, you have given us another GREAT! picture.
Thanks again.

C.B.Moody
Wash. Dist.

It was a check digit for their computer system. That way a locomotive wouldn't get confused with a car.

Ok then, but why did they use different letters? It would seem they could have used R or any other letter on all of them.

In October 1987, five Southern Locomotives,
#3018-3129-3142-3159-3185 along with a handful of N&W SD-45's, SD-35's, two ex: CR SDP-45's and two N&W four axle GE's, made their way over the P&WV to Rook Yard enroute to Youngstown, Ohio for scrapping.
This trip, over N&W's "Connellsville District", brought this scrap locomotive train with idler cars into Rook Yard, then down the West End Branch to the P&LE Interchange.
The P&LE moved this locomotive train to McKees Rocks before forwarding to Midwest Steel & Alloy in Youngstown.

I have a master list of SR road numbers with their check code letters if anybody needs to know a certain one for modeling purposes.

I remember in September '85 coming intoChattanooga behind the 611 on a BGRMtrip from Lexington seeing the long line of retired SD's sitting there.When I drove back through there in August '86 I photographed several ofthem.For the next few years when visiting family in Atlanta I'd alwayshave to swing by the dead line to seewhat was there.In April '88 the rareSD7 197 ex.C of G was in the line.

The small letter affixed next to the number was supposed to help eliminate wrong loco numbers being entered in the computer. For example if 3089 has check code letter X and the clerk tried to enter 3089 R in the computer, the computer would recognize it as being a wrong number. Correct reporting of loco numbers is pretty important and this was just a method SOU tried to help get the right numbers. There was a formula used to determine which check code letter would be applied - it was published in several RR magazines. As computer systems became more sophisticated, this check code letter was eliminated.