30-478: Cape May Seashore Lines ( reporting mark CMSL ) is a short line railroad in southern New Jersey that operates both freight trains and excursion trains . It offers two excursion services: a 30-mile (48 km) round trip between Richland and Tuckahoe along the Beesley's Point Secondary railroad line and a 14-mile (23 km) round trip between Rio Grande , Cold Spring Village , and Cape May City along
60-539: A 13-mile section of track between Lakehurst and Woodmansie in Woodland Township , where Clayton operates a sand mine. The line was initially intended to transport sand and gravel and serve other customers along the route. Originally owned by the Central Railroad of New Jersey , the line was part of the historic Blue Comet route. South of Woodmansie, the tracks are dormant, with no connection to
90-695: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of
120-464: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated
150-700: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on
180-669: A train or car, it is called speeder because it is faster than a human-powered vehicle such as a handcar . Motorized inspection cars date back to at least 1895, when the Kalamazoo Manufacturing Company started building gasoline-engined inspection cars. In the 1990s, many speeders were replaced by pickup trucks or sport utility vehicles with additional flanged wheels that could be lowered for travelling on rails, called " road–rail vehicles " or hi-rails for "highway-railroad". Speeders are collected by hobbyists , who refurbish them for excursions organized by
210-1012: The Buena Vista Township /Richland Village Festival and the Annual Tuckahoe Transportation Heritage Festival. In November 2021, CMSL filed with the Surface Transportation Board to operate freight rail service on the Beesley's Point line between Winslow and Palermo , approximately 30 miles long. Service commenced in February 2022. On March 1, 2012, CMSL was informed by the New Jersey State Police of track material theft on their Cape May Branch in Dennisville . This main line connects Tuckahoe to Cape May City. Several individuals involved in
240-698: The North American Railcar Operators Association in the U.S. and Canada and the Australian Society of Section Car Operators, Inc. in Australia. Various railways and their workshops also manufactured speeders. Often these were a copy of commercially available cars, such as Wickham and Fairmont. Approximate dimensions of a common speeder car are given below. Due to the variety of base models and customization these are not fixed numbers. These values are from
270-723: The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL). Known as "The Steel Speedway to the Shore," it eventually became part of Conrail's (CR), which ceased passenger service in 1981 and freight service on October 10, 1983. The line was subsequently sold to New Jersey Transit as their Cape May Branch. Cape May Seashore Lines (CMSL) was established by CEO Tony Macrie in January 1984. Regular train service between Cape May Court House and Cold Spring Village began in 1996 and extended to Cape May City in 1999 following
300-669: The TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns the equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses
330-513: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and
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#1732780494481360-568: The AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with the letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example,
390-661: The Beesley's Point Secondary line between Winslow and Palermo , interchanging with Conrail Shared Assets Operations in Winslow. Tony Macrie has been president of the Seashore Lines since he formed the railroad in 1984. The Cape May rail line was constructed in 1863 by the Tuckahoe & Cape May Railroad and was operated by the Philadelphia & Reading Railway 's Atlantic City Railroad , later becoming part of
420-709: The Cape May Branch (service between Rio Grande and Cape May is suspended due to theft of track material and damage along the Cape May Branch). The track is owned by NJ Transit and leased to the Seashore Lines. The Cape May Branch is the original line operated by the Cape May Seashore Lines and runs from Cape May north to Tuckahoe, connecting to the Beesley's Point Secondary in Tuckahoe. Cape May Seashore Lines operates freight service along
450-682: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between
480-541: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,
510-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with
540-409: The name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equipment, similar to IATA airline designators . In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by
570-572: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If
600-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and
630-406: The railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of
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#1732780494481660-495: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Railroad speeder A speeder (also known as a section car, railway motor car , putt-putt , track-maintenance car , crew car , jigger , trike , quad , trolley , inspection car , or draisine ) is a small railcar used around the world by track inspectors and work crews to move quickly to and from work sites. Although slow compared to
690-762: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between
720-577: The repair of the swing bridge over the Cape May Canal . In 2005, mechanical issues with the swing bridge halted trains from entering Cape May City. Although the bridge was repaired in 2006, an April 2007 storm damaged the tracks, leaving locomotives stranded in Tuckahoe. Passenger service between Rio Grande and Cape May City resumed on October 12, 2009. In 2020, CMSL partnered with railbiking company Revolution Rail offering excursions over approximately four miles of trackage between Cape May Station and
750-820: The reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service
780-423: The south. Neither CMSL, NJSL, nor Clayton Sand Company have provided information regarding current or future plans for the line or its operational status. The Seashore Lines owns and leases a large roster of equipment: Reporting mark A reporting mark is a code used to identify owners or lessees of rolling stock and other equipment used on certain rail transport networks. The code typically reflects
810-531: The swing bridge over Cape May Canal. CMSL currently operates excursion trains on 15 miles of CR's Beesley's Point Secondary between Tuckahoe and Richland. The current passenger train operations include themed services such as the Valentine’s Express, St. Patrick’s Express, Easter Bunny Express, Ice Cream Express, and Santa Express. Train sets primarily consist of the railroad's two GP38 diesel locomotives and six passenger cars. CMSL also offers excursions for
840-475: The theft were arrested and charged. On March 5, a father and son from the Villas area of Lower Township, New Jersey , along with an individual from Rio Grande, were apprehended. A subsequent inspection by Macrie and CMSL employees revealed the theft encompassed approximately 6,800 feet (1 1/4 miles) of track, affecting 75 percent of the tie plates and spikes in that section and damaging numerous cross ties. Due to
870-485: The vandalism, excursion trains did not operate in summer 2012. However, CMSL offered rides on railroad speeder vehicles along undamaged tracks of the Cape May Branch. As of 2022, Rio Grande–Cape May service remains suspended. New Jersey Seashore Lines (NJSL) is a subsidiary of CMSL, established in collaboration with Clayton Sand Company in Chatsworth, New Jersey . Utilizing state and federal grants, NJSL rehabilitated
900-580: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When
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