Serial numbers: How are/were locomotives numbered in India?
Prior to 1940 or so, each railway company had its own system of numbering different classes of locomotives. Beginning in the early 1940s, the state began taking over several of the railway companies, and newer locomotives acquired thereafter were allotted numbers based on the ‘IRS’ (and later ‘IGR’) classes; but numbers were duplicated across the different railways well into the 1950s. Some effort was made (especially by NR and WR) after 1952, when the zonal railways were set up, to avoid duplication of locomotive numbers across the zonal railways. In 1957, new ‘all-India’ numbers were issued for most working locomotives in all the zonal railways to establish unique numbers throughout the country. The all-Indian numbers had blocks for each class of locomotive: e.g., numbers 22301 – 22500 were reserved for the BG XD class locos, and numbers 1000-1500 were reserved for MG diesel shunters. Some locos, such as the WCG-1 shunters, continued to be numbered with their old numbers together wit
