Numbers on engine sides

[atsf sp]

Is it a requirement to have numbers displayed on the side of an engine? I thought it was but I recently found photos of railroads without the numbers on the sides of their engines.

[Cascade Northern]

49 CFR 229.11, paragraph b - "The locomotive number shall be displayed in clearly legible numbers on each side of each locomotive."

Did the locomotive have any number boards?

[BR&P]

Were the locos without numbers on a regular railroad, or some industrial operation? Some in-plant switching operations have been known to have unlettered and unnumbered engines.

[DutchRailnut]

I have seen locomotives taken out of service , because they were so dirty , one could no longer see the numbers.
The same locomotive did have lit numberboards.
ofcourse this was a few years ago when there were still manned Block stations and towers on Metro North.

[atsf sp]

The engines are ex-CN units on the Georgia & Florida Railroad. But they do have numberboards and back numbers. Just they do not have numbers under the cab or on the side of the long hood like usual lines. But it is owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation.

[2nd trick op]

Until operating rules were revised in the mid-1980's, the glassed-in number boards on the front of diesel locomotives allowed their owners the option of displaying the train number, rather than the engine number, when operating under a timetable and train order system. These boards were changed to display train numbers, including multiple sections, by the use of a letter-card system. Steam locos also had number boards, but with the cards exposed to the weather with the exception of Espee's cab-forwards. In practice, only Union Pacific and Southern Pacific made extensive use of the train-number option.

[GSC]

Sets of CNJ F-units displayed the entire loco consist in the lighted number boards of the loco's nose. EMD F-A cab units were numbered in the teens, and B-units were given letters, so a number board on the lead loco of an A-B-A set would show [16-B-14] for instance, for all three units.