Car Number Assignments

[Fred W. Schneider III]

There were a variety of reasons why car numbers were swapped.  Here are
a few that come to my mind:

1.  To avoid bad public reactions.  For example, the Lehigh Valley
Transit Co. freight motor which collided with car 1004 north of
Norristown in the early 1940s was renumbered C-19 to avoid having the
public point at the car and remember the accident that killed so many
people.

2.  Renumbering was cheaper than changing the cars listed on an
insurance policy.  That for example was given as the reason why West
Penn renumbered 204 to third 212 in late 1949, when 2nd 212 was
retired.  There was no reason to fix 2nd 212 because it would be surplus
within 90 days anyway.  So the air-brake 204 went back into service for
less than a dozen Saturdays.  Orange and black paint was an easy way to
handle the problem.

3.  Many cities had car taxes.  Interurban cars would often be
semi-permanently assigned to specific routes because the taxes had been
paid for those cars to be used in certain suburban boroughs.  Again,
this sounds like a wonderful reason to renumber a car if another car was
permanently lost in an accident.