A SHORT HISTORY OF EMC/EMD ORDER NUMBERS
When EMC sold their first gas-electric motorcar in 1924 (CGW #M300), nobody probably realized the need to designate orders by anything more formal than "CGW Order", "NP Order", "Alton Order", etc. By the time about 40 cars had been sold in early 1926, however, a more formal system was needed. Therefore an "order number", later a "sales inquiry", number was added to each order. First in this series was #10000, for five gas-electrics for the Great Northern Railway (#2300-2303,2315,2316) built under serials 142 thru 147 by St Louis Car Co, and delivered in April of 1926.
This series continues thru number 10118 (UP #M10000 of February 1934. At this point the form changes, to "E119", with the last three digits continuing sequentially. This "E" series was used for many years, until late 1949, when E1315 (F7A's for Missouri Pacific #611-614 10/49) was reached.
An item to consider: All numbers in any order number series are not associated with delivered locomotives! The reason for this is that a "sales
inquiry" file is started whenever EMD received a communication fro a railroad or industry pertaining to a possible locomotive purchase. Many of these files reach dead ends without a formal order being placed for any numberof reasons. Railroads frequently put out "feelers" to all existing builders that they might be interested in doing business with and pick the one with the best terms, most generous financial terms, best delivery projections, or any other variable. Sometimes, a customer who might be firmly committed to buying say Alco RS3's would still inquire at EMD, just to see what EMD's sales rep has to say. In any case, a file is started and assigned a number. If no sales result, this number never appears on any locomotive, but it still exists within the sales department.
By late 1949, a decision was made to separate the ever-increasing variety of sales into separate numerical sequences based on type of locomotive. Previously, all types, be they switchers, passenger units, freight units, or road switchers, went into a common sequence.
In the new scheme, nine categories were assigned:
+ 2000's - Passenger (E) Units
+ 3000's - Freight (F) Units
+ 4000's - Switchers
+ 5000's - Road Switchers
+ 6000's - Locos purchased thru "conditional sales agreements", where financing was thru GMAC, the financial arm of General Motors. This series contained all types of locomotives, freight, passenger, switcher, and road switcher.
+ 7000's - Export - either complete locos built at LaGrange for non-US customers, or "component sets" (motor, generator, high-voltage cabinet, etc) shipped to an overseas licensee who then built the body and installed the equipment.
+ 7500's - Locomotives built with trade-ins. This was a brand-new idea, the first order being for AT&SF, rebuilding E1's into E8m's.
+ 8000's - Rebuild jobs of wrecked units. Previously, factory rebuild jobs apparently had rder numbers in the "WO45000" series. Only confirmed numbers are WO45251 and WO45252, rebuild two SW1's to SW8's for the DT&I (#900, 901) in June 1952.
+ 8500's - Re-engining of non-EMD locos with EMD motors. Another new business, first example being the rebuilding of Rock Island DL109 #624 in June of 1951. Here again, two units have the old "WO" series numbers: Bamberger RS1 #570 (WO45216 in 12/51) and NC&SL VO1000 #60 (WO 45149 in 07/51)
The first change in this scheme occurred in late 1954, when export orders were moved to a new "1000" series. The last deliveries in the 7000 series were F9's for National Railways of Mexico (#7006A,B-7009A,B) in 11-12/54, order number 7030. Several orders for component sets in this series were actually redesignated into the 1000 series, examples being 7029 and 7031 (AA16's built by SAFB for Belgian State Railways) were redesignated 1007 and 1008, and 7032, the highest known number in this series (G8B's built by Clyde for Victorian Railways), became order 1005. After a couple of new orders in the 1000's, the series had a "70" prefic added. Apparently the duplication of earlier E1000 order numbers caused some problem. Also at his time, in a change affecting ONLY export orders, a policy change was made to apply a separate order number to each individual locomotive. Initially component set orders continued to se one order number for each batch, but soon this changed, with each set of components getting a separare number.
With each unit or set having ts own number, the series was eaten up rather quickly, with 702999 reached by 1961. Numbers then jumped back to 700000, but were up to 700999 by 1964, bumping into the beginning of the original series. Another jump, to 710000, plus a decline in overseas sales, gave this sequence some breathing room, with the series cotinuing to 713735 (a DDM45 for Cia Vale Do Rio Doce in Brasil, #873, delivered 11/75)
As equipment purchasing patterns changed in the 1950's, several series disappeared. The last 2000 number, 2075, covered Milwaukee Road E9's #200ABC-205ABC in 02-05/56. Almost simultaneously, the 3000 series also ended, with 3195, Northern Pacific F9's 6702A-6704A in 12/56. While substantial numbers of E9's and F9's were built later, they were all built using trade-ins (7500 numbers), or as wreck replacements (8000 series).
Next series to disappear was the 6000's, the conditional sale agreement series. Last number used is 6535, an SW900 originally built as a demonstrator #6535, but destined for and eventually sold to the Waterloo Railroad in Iowa as their #4 in September of 1958. Apparently a policy change was made that designating a series based on financing was not necessary, and all further orders went into the switcher (4000), road switcher (5000), or trade-in series (7500).
In about 1956, EMD was tinkering with super-lightweight trains and developed the LWT12 locomotive to power them. While the first (Rock Island #1) was built under a Passenger series number (2073), the other two units, demos 1000 and 1001, occupied the only number used in a new series for these locos, #9002. While at least two other inquiries were recived, one being from the New Haven, the series nevr saw another completed order.
Next to peter out was the re-engining business, with order 8578 (re-engine Baldwins #618 and 622 of the Union RR in March 1964). Railroads figured out that these "mongrels" were frequently more trouble than they were worth, and since EMD began accepting non-EMD's as trade-ins in the early 1960's, most older Alcos and Baldwins were traded-in instead.
So by the mid-1970's, only four series were still active: 4000's for switchers, 5000's for GP's and SD's, 7500's for trade-in deals, and an occasional 8000 factory rebuild. The last known rebuild was a GP40 for the Illinois Central, #3057, done in January of 1970. After this, contract shops like MK took the rebuild business away from EMD completely.
Meanwhile, the ever-growing popularity of trade-ins meant that the 7500 series had reached 7999 in 1968, so a jump back to 7050 (to avoid the early export series in the low 7000's) was made.
In 1972, no doubt influenced by the coming of the computer age, EMD totally changed the order number format. The old series were closed out as follows:
4000: 4630 SW1500 Angelina & Neches River #1500 11/72
5000: 5819 SD40-2 Union Pacific 3173-322 06-07/72
7500: 7396 SD40-2 Milwaukee Road 3000-3040 07-08/72
Take note that these were not necessarily the last units built with old order numbers, but that these were the highest order numbers used.
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