PC: Renumbering Costs

[Walter B Turner <lnrr@xxxxxxxx>]

I knew someone who served on the U.S.S. Iowa just after it was placed
back into service in the eighties. While it was being refurbished, the
Navy looked at renumbering the doors in the ship. In World War II, doors
were numbered on ships sequentially, similar to the manner used in
hotels. In the Sixities, a new numbering system was developed for ship
compartments; in the new system, the number gave the exact location of
the compartment and told what the compartment was used for. The plan to
renumber the compartments was dropped when it was discovered that the
cost for renumbering the doors on the four ships would run into the six
or seven figure range! Every engineering drawing in every port that would
service the ship would have to be modified.

The railroads have many hidden costs in renumbering. One example is the
employee timetable. Every ETT on large roads has locomotive info, and a
renumbering would require that all ETT's be updated. 

Bryan Turner











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