A friend of mine told me that he saw a lease locomotive with a five digit reporting number. It was an ex-CP SD40-2, and the "fifth" digit was just the old number's last digit, and hadn't been erased properly when the new numbers were applied. I really don't have any more info on the unit, as there was no picture to confirm the encounter. I might suspect that if the re-numbering was done so sloppy, the opposite side of the cab might have been decalled better than the side seen by my friend.

I know that the UP, upon the merger of CNW and SP, was a little tight on keeping it's new roster all in three and four digit numbers. Was there any reason that there isn't a five digit locomotive number on American and Canadian railroads? Has there ever been?

Mexico has had five digits on some of thier motive power for some time now. Have any of those crossed the border as lease power?

almo