New Buses & Numbering

[sw4400]

This seems like the best place to discuss this....

With Nova soon-to-be delivering it's third(perhaps final) batch of LFS buses to Chicago, the thought about how the numbers reach Chicago is again in my mind. Going back to production, lets use four completely made up VIN #'s for them

• NB6DL5B18RT507301
• NB6DL5B18RT507302
• NB6DL5B18RT507303
• NB6DL5B18RT507304

Now these four buses are built and on Plattsburgh's lot ready to roll. NB6DL5B18RT507301 came off the assembly line first, so shouldn't Nova brand that bus #8100, being the first one off the line? I know buses do come out of order, but NB6DL5B18RT507301 should be #8100, not #8149. If there was a issue with #8100 that needed to be worked out before it was driven to Chicago, I can see. But that bus that first rolled off the line shouldn't be nothing more than #8100, and 507301 should be #8101 and so on. They should be rolling off numerically in order and be delivered as close to order as possible, though issues with the bus may require them staying at Plattsburgh longer and other buses going out ahead of them.

[strictures]

This seems like the best place to discuss this....

With Nova soon-to-be delivering it's third(perhaps final) batch of LFS buses to Chicago, the thought about how the numbers reach Chicago is again in my mind. Going back to production, lets use four completely made up VIN #'s for them

• NB6DL5B18RT507301
• NB6DL5B18RT507302
• NB6DL5B18RT507303
• NB6DL5B18RT507304

Now these four buses are built and on Plattsburgh's lot ready to roll. NB6DL5B18RT507301 came off the assembly line first, so shouldn't Nova brand that bus #8100, being the first one off the line? I know buses do come out of order, but NB6DL5B18RT507301 should be #8100, not #8149. If there was a issue with #8100 that needed to be worked out before it was driven to Chicago, I can see. But that bus that first rolled off the line shouldn't be nothing more than #8100, and 507301 should be #8101 and so on. They should be rolling off numerically in order and be delivered as close to order as possible, though issues with the bus may require them staying at Plattsburgh longer and other buses going out ahead of them.

​I'm guessing that they get numbered after passing final inspection, so the VINs & the bus number aren't in order of building.

[Busjack]

​I'm guessing that they get numbered after passing final inspection, so the VINs & the bus number aren't in order of building.

​That's undoubtedly wrong. The shells get a VIN. Otherwise, you don't have an explanation for the delivery lists where the VINs are in fleet order. Instead, the fleet numbers would be random compared to VINs if some bus had to be held after inspection.

You also have to figure that until very recently, bus shells for NF, NABI, and Nova were imported,so there would need to be a way to identify them before they hit the assembly line.

[andrethebusman]

Bus numbers are "almost" always in VIN number order. There are exceptions, such as 3730-3875 Flxibles, where serials 53681-53726 with bus numbers 3730-3752, 3776-3800, 3753-3775, 3801-3875. Reason was that 3730-3775 were for 77th, and 3776-3875 for North Park and CTA wanted some North Park buses in service before all of 77th. Pittsburgh is also good for doing that. Occasionally, a system gets their buses delivered without numbers and figures out what to put on them later. Baltimore used to do this. But in 99% of cases, numbers are in sequence and you can pretty well say that RT507301 is 8100.

That said, there is a problem with the VIN's as shown. The 9th digit is a "check digit" which changes with each vin based on a formula involving the sum of the other 16 digits, and thus cannot be 8 for all four. There are check digit calculators on the web that will tell you what the check digit for each really is, though.

[ctrabs0114]

​That's undoubtedly wrong. The shells get a VIN. Otherwise, you don't have an explanation for the delivery lists where the VINs are in fleet order. Instead, the fleet numbers would be random compared to VINs if some bus had to be held after inspection.

You also have to figure that until very recently, bus shells for NF, NABI, and Nova were imported,so there would need to be a way to identify them before they hit the assembly line.

​Orion's orders were notorious for gaps in the VINs compared to the fleet number over the years.

[andrethebusman]

Orion assigned VIN's in the order they were to go down the assembly line, and apparently very early in the ordering process. The result was that if an order did not pan out, or was reduced in size, a vacant VIN was the result. later on they started assigning VIN's later in the process and vacants went down dramatically. Some builders, like New Flyer, assign VIN's when the order is finalized, and they bear little relationship to the order the buses are actually built. Nova seems to be somewhere in the middle. Rather late in the process, but still based on actual order built. By the way, shells frequently do not have a "VIN" per se, as they are considered "parts", but some sort of a lot number is assigned. Let's say the 8000's were lot L537. There would be 100 shells built under lot 537, but which shell got which VIN would be unimportant and the final VIN determination is made by which shell comes down the final assembly line first, second, etc., not which shell was built first.

Edited May 18, 2015 by andrethebusman

[tvliquidator]

is anybody post the pics of these buses

[Busjack]

Reading electric bus stories in Mass Transit, including one showing a New Jersey Transit NF Charge, it looks like NJT is using a system similar to Pace's. CPTDB roster shows that starting in 2016, yy000 series consist of motor coaches, 20800 series are articulateds, and the electric bus is 22901. It doesn't appear that NJT has any recent 40-footers. Each year series may have more than 100 buses.