Is it important to you to have unique numbers on all your cars?

It's nice to have different numbers, but I do not consider it important at all. My coal train only has 3 different car numbers in total. 

As far as I'm concerned, anyone visiting who  complains about this can go and play trains somewhere else. 

No, I have 2814 on all my Tinplate Box Cars.

No for me as well.    I can't even tell you what numbers are on any of my rolling stock.

Oh My Gosh - My cars have numbers?

Pete

Not important to me.  I have accumulated 57 MTH Premier freight cars and only one duplicate in the bunch.  The duplicate was part of a batch I bought at a train show for a decent price.  Now I'm thinking about trading off the odd fallen flag road names and concentrating on Union Pacific since all three of my locomotives are UP.

I'm a little surprised at how strong some of the negative feelings are.  

I haven't tried it, but it seems like it should be fairly easy to add a number at the end of a string of numbers if you can get the correct size, type, and color.  Or another option might be to paint a colored patch over the existing numbers and repaint or decal over it.  I have seen that done on real cars.

Art

Yup ... its important to me. 

I like to be up-close to my yards/industries ... so I guess its more noticeable to me.

And, we don't have the very large layout and trains that many other folks have. Its been manageable with Lionel, Atlas, Weaver and the auction site. So far.

I wish there was a way for unrelated modelers to come together to get custom runs done from Weaver, etc

Jim

Yes, I prefer unique numbers with my scale rolling stock.  It actually stands out like a sore thumb to me.  I only have 2 cars with duplicate numbers, and they are an Atlas O and a Lionel silver PFE car.  The Lionel car I'm planning to sell.

Not for me.

That's how I feel about it, too.

Yup ... its important to me. 

I too prefer different numbers. I have a collection of various Weaver cars from the past six years, some are three number sets and some are six numbers. Another six car set will be produced this fall. All my other rolling stock and locomotives from various makers are single units, therefore no duplicates in my collection yet!

Don

It is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY!!!

The cars are routed to their individual destinations.   If 2 cars have the same number, how does the guy running the train know which one to set out at the destination?   

How could you possibly operate without individual car numbers?

 Doesn't bother me a bit, if I like the car I might buy several. But I do have 60 K-line Santa Fe ore cars that I gave consecutive numbers to.

 Yes....well, sure.... definitely! when I can....or not?

So here's the problem for me. The more I learn about trains, the more accuracy becomes important. I remember seeing a smaller scale club RR years ago, with a very long unit coal train running and the guy bragged about having different numbers on all the cars. Hmmm. Seemed a little boring at the time.

 When I first went into O scale, I asked a dealer what the difference was between 2 two rail trucks by MTH. They had two different models and I couldn't see a difference in the store looking at the catalog. The dealer couldn't describe any difference? So I knew there must be some reason to have two model #s. Finally I spotted Bettendorf or roller bearing? So I had to learn what in the world they were talking about.

 I like modern equipment. It must have roller bearings now on modern cars. So yes, I too must have different car numbers now..... butttt..... I still buy duplicates, with the intention of renumbering down the road.

Interesting variety of attitudes.  For me, my cars must have different numbers if they are part of the same series and RR identity.  I'm sure that none of my visitors have ever checked to see that my cars all have their own numbers.  But it matters to me.   

Many manufacturers offer varying car numbers within  one series.  I think that this is great and helps me keep my numbers unique.  I've always intended to operate my railroad with car orders but that has just not happened to date.  But the individual car numbers would make train order operation possible.

Paul Fischer

I very much prefer different numbers but not absolutely necessary if I like a particular car.

But with that said I recall a fellow forum member's story from some time ago.  He was showing off his trains to some non-toy train friends.  After a while of running the trains the friends young lad asked him why do some cars have the same number. So I guess just maybe it does matter.

Ron

Too late to matter, as I accumulated most of my freight rolling stock before different numbers were made available.  Early preference for a more obvious touch of realism did me in.

I prefer to have unique car numbers, but I'm not fanatical about it. If I want two of a particular car and it only comes in one number, that won't keep me from buying two. Sometimes I get around to renumbering duplicates, more often not. It's actually a pretty big hassle to change one digit - you have to remove enough of the old one that it won't show, then find a decal or transfer with the right size and font, get it positioned perfectly, then clear coat it without messing up the original paint job. Once in a while you can get away with changing a number with a paintbrush or fine marker, like a 1 to a 4, but that isn't easy either, especially for someone of my (very) limited artistic talent. (Sidebar - years ago I caught an employee of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi ripping off petty cash by changing the numbers on receipts, like a 1 to a 4. He wasn't hard to catch since he neglected to use the same color ink as the original receipt.)

I like Weaver and MTH for making a variety of different car numbers available. MTH makes all their Premier cars with two numbers, plus six or twelve more if they are offering sets. I have a whole bunch of MTH Milwaukee Road reefers with different numbers, plus a few duplicates. It isn't well known, but Weaver also does a variety of numbers - usually six for each car, if I remember correctly. I believe Lionel has also started to offer different numbers on some of their high-end scale-size cars. Atlas has always offered most of their cars with two or more numbers, except in cases where there was only one prototype. 

My passenger cars all have unique numbers, but not the freight cars. Weathering and dirt help hide numbers. Running long coal trains it's hard to have different numbers, unless you re numbering them yourself. Maybe one day I'll have time, but not yet!