Formerly, referred to as the UIC/ERA's European Vehicle Number (EVN) and Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM) classification system, to provide a unique international railway vehicle identifier. The EU/OTIF organisation serves to provide a unified railway law and standards to connect Europe, Asia, and Africa international rail transport.
The above classification
system structure comprises a numeric EVN , e.g. "91 81 1044 246-7" and an
alpha VKM (e.g. "A-OBB").
How Railway Modellers can use this Motive Power identifier tool
This Web interface can generate a VKM identifier for motive power only (e.g. diesel, electric, steam locos, DMUs and EMUs). To start, let's create a VKM for an Austrian OBB electric loco numbered 1044 246, as show above. Ignore the '-7' after the 246 for now; it is a check-digit and this tool will show how the check digit is calculated.
1. First, use list boxes a to c, to select the vehicle Interoperability (Tractive) Mode (a), Country (b), and Keeper (Operator)
(c). You will see them populated in the corresponding VKM List box Input fields, a, b, f & g.
2. Next, select the Country's Power Type from (d), e.g. for an Austrian electric, select 'Austrian: Electric Loco = 1' from the 'Power Type' list box.
NB: This VKM Motive Power Identifier tool covers the principle railway countries only. If the list boxes do not show the relevant data item, you should refer to the EU/OTIF Vehicle Keeper Marking register (VKM) Web site, to obtain the required data - for your manual input.
3. Now, enter the locomotive class (1044) and the serial no. (246) in the Input fields (d) & (e). NB: for any 4-digit class (e.g. 1044), put
the 1st digit in field (c). The vehicle serial no. (e) field should be 3 digits. If you have a loco with less than 3, e.g. 74, add a leading zero (074).
4. Finally, click the 'Generate VKM ID' button; it will create the full VKM alpa/numeric identifier (including check-digit). The last (white) panel simply displays the VKM check-digit algorithm.