I'm attempting to return to the world of HO trains after a 40yr absence. I'm confused by all the letters used to describe a loco.
For example a CSX #8036 is also described by: EMD, SD40-2, Motive Power, RTR.
Can anyone interpret for me? Thanks
K-
Most of the letters or letter-number combinations you will encounter relate to either the manufacturer or the model identification of the prototype (original, full size) locomotive. For example, "EMD" stands for the ElectroMotive Division, General Motors' company which manufactured diesel locos. "SD-40-2" tells you which EMD loco this is. "Motive Power" pretty much relates to any locomotive, regardless of the fuel type or engineering which went into the unit (diesel, steam, electric, oil, coal, distillate, gasoline, etc.). "RTR" stands for Ready-to-Run,"MLW" (Montreal Locomotive Works, ALCO's Canadian operation), "GP" (General Purpose), "SW" (switcher), and a bunch of others. Usually the abbreviations make sense so you'll be able to figure them out. Oh, yes. "CSX" stands for Chessie System, the mega-railroad which was derived from (primarily) the Chesapeake and Ohio, or C&O.
-- D
csx is actually the merger of chessie and seaboard system, hence the first two letters. the x stands for the other companies owned by the predecessor railroads.
btw. on freight cars the initials denote the owner of the car, and are called reporting marks. the letter x on the end of a reporting mark denotes a privately owned car, one owner by a shipper or leasing company not a railroad. for this reason, csx uses csxt as their reporting mark, for csx transportation.
on emd locomotives, gp is for general purpose, and used on 4 axle locomotives. sd is special duty (the original sd units were used mainly for specific situations where a gp wasn't suited) and 40 denotes the series of locomotives. the -2 is an improved version of an existing design, thus an sd40-2 is an improved version of the original sd40. all sd locomotives are 6 axle, and offer increased pulling power over their gp equivalents.
Use the below link to search out terminology. You will have many links you can store in Favorites for future reading. I do that a lot.
http://www.google.com/
Rich