Interline Codes

What are they, and where can you find them?

Here’s an example page of the 1950 AAR Interline Accounting Codes from a document Tony Thompson has posted via his Blog, http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2012/08/railway-accounting-code-numbers.html

I refer you to his most excellent post on what they are, how they came about, and what the modeler can use them for.

What I offer in today’s post is an excel spreadsheet that makes them easy to find.  Tony was gracious to send me the complete 1950 list and I found a copy of the 1920 version in Google Docs.  That was great, but I model 1944, and there were some big differences between the two, with many roads added and others deleted.  A few even changed code numbers.  And there were also a couple of duplicate numbers.  All that is in the notes in my spread sheet.  It has a combined listing with the 1920 and 1950 numbers in columns on the left and other work sheets that show the 1920, 1950, and 1944 lists.  Whoa, 1944, how’d he get that you ask?  Well given that it doesn’t exist, but I needed it, I interpolated and combined the lists that do exist to come up with a reasonable list as it probably existed during the war.

Those roads and codes that appeared in both AAR lists were easy, they are in my 44 list.  But what about those that appear in one but not the other?    I used my 1943 and 1945 copies of the Official Railway Equipment Register.  If a new road was in the 50 list, I checked 43 to see if it existed in 1944.  In the 43 ORER and on the 50 list, it got included in my 44 list.  Then I looked at the ones that didn’t make it to 1950.  If they were in the 45 ORER, they too made the list for 44.  That left a surprisingly few number of discrepancies.  I made some arbitrary decisions; B&O Chicago Terminal retains 51, next to its parent B&O 50 rather than the 1950 code of 64.  109 is Clinchfield, rather than the older Carolina, Clinchfield and Gulf.  Reading is 623, from the 1920 Philadelphia  and Reading.  I might be wrong about those interpretations, so I welcome feedback.  There are a few other oddities that I documented.

And for my modeling, I need four different Santa Fe headers for my waybills.  Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, 22, ATSF, for lines east of Albuquerque; Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, Coast Lines 30, ATCL, for lines west of Albuquerque; Panhandle & Santa Fe, 617, PSF, for the lines in Texas on the Slaton and Plains Divisions (around Amarillo); and Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe, 315, GCSF, for the rest of the Texas lines.  In practical terms, I’ll originate all my traffic on ATCL, 30 headed waybills, as well as any perishable traffic from southern California.  Helium cars will arrive on PSF, 617 headed waybills, cars from Houston or Dallas will be on GCSF, 315 headers.  And the LCL cars out of Corwith for San Francisco will be on ATSF, 22 waybills. 

Enjoy making more accurate paperwork.  You can find the sheet in excel 2003 format here:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6Ussn0SB6pfSE5UZzVxa1VsMEU/edit?usp=sharing