Looking For Reference Of Car Inventory by Road

[TrainCat2]

Without going to the car manf, is there a reference (like the car encyclopedias of old) listing what roads have what cars and there reporting marks, #'s, etc??

[Hyperion]

Yeah, what you're looking for is the Official Railway Equipment Register. 

It used to be that you could only buy in bulk, so only large companies and the railroads had copies on hand, but the company is selling individual copies now for $99.  There's actual a thread about it here:

http://therailwire.net/smf/index.php/topic,17101.0.html

You can also often find older ones on Ebay.

If you'd like I might be able to find copies of slightly outdated versions somewhere around the office that missed getting thrown out, if you can deal with one that's a year or two out-of-date.  I'll send you a PM on Monday if I can find one.

[Frank Amato]

eBay is a great place to find ORER's.  I have a 1975 and a 1960 copy, both at reasonable prices (I was patient).

I have also seen vendors selling older ones at some of the larger train shows.

  Frank

[Andrew Hutchinson]

Al Westerfield sells CDs 5 years apart. I was lucky in that I model late 64 as he had a Jan 65 copy. I think the price was about 30 USD. At the last trains show I went to I got a 66 hardcopy for 15CDN so it just depends. Either works, though I think the Westerfield CDs omit the ORER intro which is sometimes useful to have on hand.

Andrew Hutchinson

[asarge]

The ORER's are an excellent resource for thing other than car roster's. Occasionally they do make a mistake though but there is nothing better for a GENERAL roster.

If you want specific detailed info such as make an model (i.e. PS2CD 4750) then that is a whole different ballgame. There is no one single resource. A few manufacturers have told me they use a whole lot of materials to verify that info.

[TrainCat2]

The ORER's are an excellent resource for thing other than car roster's. Occasionally they do make a mistake though but there is nothing better for a GENERAL roster.

If you want specific detailed info such as make an model (i.e. PS2CD 4750) then that is a whole different ballgame. There is no one single resource. A few manufacturers have told me they use a whole lot of materials to verify that info.

Andy, that is exactly what I want to do. I am trying to find out what roads have XYZ car from ABC manufacturer. I realized that there was no single source, so I decided to ask all the experts. At least the ORER is a starting point.

Hyperion, thanks for the offer. I will take you up on it if one is available.

[John]

The ORER's are an excellent resource for thing other than car roster's. Occasionally they do make a mistake though but there is nothing better for a GENERAL roster.

If you want specific detailed info such as make an model (i.e. PS2CD 4750) then that is a whole different ballgame. There is no one single resource. A few manufacturers have told me they use a whole lot of materials to verify that info.

Andy, that is exactly what I want to do. I am trying to find out what roads have XYZ car from ABC manufacturer. I realized that there was no single source, so I decided to ask all the experts. At least the ORER is a starting point.

Hyperion, thanks for the offer. I will take you up on it if one is available.

The ORER will not exactly tell you who manufactured it .. it will tell you car characteristics .. from that you can deduce ..

[asarge]

Andy, that is exactly what I want to do. I am trying to find out what roads have XYZ car from ABC manufacturer. I realized that there was no single source, so I decided to ask all the experts. At least the ORER is a starting point.

Hyperion, thanks for the offer. I will take you up on it if one is available.

The Kaminski books are a great resource. While you won't necessairly get orders by the numbers. You will get lot's of pictures with lot numbers. I have his Pullman Standard book and have borrowed a couple more. Wish there was more like that. You see lots of references in books like Morning Sun and magazine articles saying something like "C&O 123456 was part of an order of 1000 cars built by ACF in late 1960" It makes me think that the best source of info available to the public is thru the various historical society's. I mean guys like Dave Casdorph can't have all that info stored in there deviant brains can they? ;D