Re: Australian National loco number check letters.

Tell (telljb@ozemail.com.au)
Mon, 02 Feb 1998 03:16:46 GMT

I remember it well. For a long period after, rail
magazines both proto and model, drove some of their
readers mad by insisting on using the check numbers in
photo captions and articles.
The check number was strictly for "administrative"
purposes and for example, was NEVER used by Train
Control to identify loco's on train orders.

----Tell
Alice Springs NT

>"Roderick Smith" <rodsmith@werple.net.au> wrote:
>The check characters match an Australia-wide standard, and are used as a
>crosscheck when information is entered into a computer. They are
>calculated on a modular arithmetic formula, in which all codes are padded
>out to four letters and five digits (using zeros if necessary). This was
>published in Newsrail and Railway Digest at the time the system was adopted
>(mid 1980s).
>--
>Regards
>Roderick Smith
>Rail News Victoria Editor