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52-498: The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company ( reporting mark GA ) also seen as "GARR", was a historic railroad and banking company that operated in the U.S. state of Georgia . In 1967 it reported 833 million revenue-ton-miles of freight and 3 million passenger-miles; at the end of the year it operated 331 miles (533 km) of road and 510 miles (820 km) of track. The company was chartered in 1833 in Augusta, Georgia . In 1835,

104-695: 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

156-501: A corporate reorganization in 1968, a predecessor of First Union National Bank and First Union Mortgage Corporation, the mortgage banking firm acquired in 1964 became subsidiaries of First Union Corp creating the structure the bank utilized until the 2001 merger. Starting in 1985, with the Supreme Court decision upholding regional interstate banking legislation, First Union focused on an aggressive growth strategy. From 1985 through

208-534: A day train from Atlanta, making connections at Augusta with an ACL train bound for Florence, South Carolina . A unique feature of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company charter was that the state legislature gave the corporation large tax breaks, which were legally challenged on several occasions. The charter also called for daily-except-Sunday passenger service. The lawyers advised management to maintain passenger service on all lines, so as to not violate

260-464: 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

312-700: 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

364-423: A single railroad. The Georgia Railroad was the first to be merged away. The railroad properties of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, which had been operated under a lease for 90 years by CSX and its predecessors, were formally merged into Seaboard System Railroad. The mixed train service ended in 1983. In 1986, Seaboard System Railroad renamed itself CSX Transportation . The same year, Georgia Railroad Bank

416-504: A specialist in home equity loans known for its commercials featuring Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop Phil Rizutto and pitcher Jim Palmer . Two years later, it closed the unit, writing off $ 1.7 billion in losses. On April 16, 2001, First Union announced it would merge with Wachovia. This was viewed with great surprise by the financial press and security analysts. While Wachovia had been viewed as an acquisition candidate after running into problems with earnings and credit quality in 2000,

468-464: The Athens branch to secure enough rail to reopen its main line. After their defeat, returning Confederate soldiers were given free rides home, to the extent that the company's limited rail network would allow. They also honored all Confederate scrip issued by their bank. No depositor lost their savings even if Confederate money had no value. It helped that the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company had

520-701: The Bank of North America , the first bank chartered in the United States. Once the merger finalized, First Union claimed 1781 as its founding date. It continued to operate The Bank of North America's first branch at 6th and Chestnut streets in Philadelphia , which opened in 1782. It is now the longest continuously operated branch in the nation, and is part of Wells Fargo through multiple subsequent mergers. The acquisition of CoreStates brought problems. Many of these arose when First Union attempted to integrate

572-628: The Savannah and Atlanta Railroad , which connected with the Georgia Railroad at Warrenton , the Georgia Railroad now competed with the Central of Georgia Railroad for traffic to and from Savannah. Soon the ACL came to dominate the Augusta interchange traffic, through its Charleston and Western Carolina Railway subsidiary and via the ACL's spur from its main line at Florence, South Carolina , in order that

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624-645: The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL). SCL continued to operate the Georgia Railroad as a subsidiary alongside the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and the Clinchfield Railroad . These were known collectively as the "Family Lines System." SCL continued to operate the Georgia Railroad under its initial charter; the Georgia Railroad was maintained as a separate company, with SCL leasing the rail properties. Two years later,

676-513: 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

728-930: The 55-story First Union Financial Center in downtown Miami became the Wachovia Financial Center . The merger also affected the names of the indoor professional sports arenas in Philadelphia and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania . Formerly known as the First Union Center and the First Union Spectrum, both in Philadelphia, and First Union Arena in Wilkes-Barre, they became the Wachovia Center , Wachovia Spectrum , and Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza , respectively. In 2010, following Wachovia's merger into Wells Fargo ,

780-710: The CoreStates and First Union computer systems too rapidly. Initially, CoreStates’ tellers received insufficient training with the new First Union systems and the two systems were unable to communicate with each other. This led to problems with account access and payments not correctly applied to loans. First Union acquired Bowles Hollowell Conner & Co. on April 30, 1998 adding to its merger and acquisition , high yield , leveraged finance , equity underwriting , private placement , loan syndication , risk management , and public finance capabilities. On June 30, 1998, First Union paid $ 2.1 billion for The Money Store ,

832-637: The First Union deal, rejecting SunTrust's attempts to elect a new board of directors for Wachovia and ending SunTrust's hostile takeover attempt. Another issue concerned each bank's credit card division. In April 2001, Wachovia agreed to sell its $ 8 billion credit card portfolio to Bank One . The cards, which would have still been branded as Wachovia, would have been issued through Bank One's First USA division. First Union sold its credit card portfolio to MBNA in August 2000. After entering into negotiations,

884-649: The First Union systems, now using the Wachovia name. The company first began converting systems in the southeast United States, where both banks had branches, before moving to the Northeast, where First Union branches only had to change their signs to reflect the new company name and logo. This process ended on August 18, 2003, almost two years after the merger took place. When First Union bought Wachovia, Charlotte's One , Two , and Three First Union buildings became One, Two, and Three Wachovia Center (respectively), and

936-711: The Georgia Railroad could compete with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and Southern Railway for traffic from Atlanta up the Eastern seaboard . A 1925 timetable showed four daily roundtrips between Atlanta and Augusta. A trip on the Night Express of that era was described by W.F Beckum. By the opening of the 1960s, however, passenger service had been reduced to an overnight through-train from Atlanta to Augusta, continuing as an Atlantic Coast Line Railroad train to Wilmington, North Carolina , and

988-568: The Georgia Railroad ended its traditional passenger service, though it continued to operate a bare-bones mixed train service between Atlanta ( Atlanta Union Station ) and Augusta ( Augusta Union Station ). In 1980, SCL merged with Chessie System to form CSX Corporation . In 1982, SCL and L&N merged to form the Seaboard System Railroad , beginning what would be a process in which the CSX operating companies would be merged into

1040-599: 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

1092-682: 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

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1144-541: 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 ,

1196-481: The bank added Cameron-Brown company, a mortgage banking and insurance firm. First Union Corporation was incorporated in 1967. In February 1968, Cameron-Brown Co., a $ 10 billion mortgage banker created in 1955 from the merger of Fidelity Bond & Mortgage Co. started in 1946 in Raleigh and Brown-Hamel Mortgage Co. of Greensboro , changed its name to First Union Mortgage Corp. to match its parent company. As part of

1248-431: The charter was amended to include banking. Originally the line was chartered to build a railroad from Augusta to Athens , with a branch to Madison . It was converted to 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) in 1886. The 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) gauge railroad opened in 1845 with J. Edgar Thomson as its Chief Engineer and Richard Peters as its first Superintendent. At that time

1300-653: The charter. The Georgia was among the last railroads to operate both freight and inter-city passenger trains in the " Lower 48 " states, into the Amtrak era. The Georgia Railroad originally fell under common management with the Atlanta & West Point Railroad and the Western Railway of Alabama , commonly known as "the West Point Route." In 1967, ACL merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form

1352-565: The company. In 1881, Colonel William M. Wadley, Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia president, leased the railroad properties of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, including the A&;WP and WofA. Wadley assigned half of the lease to his company and half to the L&;N. Following the Panic of 1896 , the Central went into receivership and its portion of the lease lapsed, whereupon it

1404-625: The deal appeal to investors, SunTrust argued that it would provide a smoother transition than First Union and offered a higher cash price for Wachovia stock than First Union. Wachovia's board of directors rejected SunTrust's offer and supported the merger with First Union. SunTrust continued its hostile takeover attempt, leading to a bitter battle over the summer between SunTrust and First Union. Both banks increased their offers for Wachovia, took out newspaper ads, mailed letters to shareholders, and initiated court battles to challenge each other's takeover bids. On August 3, 2001, Wachovia shareholders approved

1456-512: The financial strength to honor those promises. At that time, most Southern banks were repudiating any obligations related to Confederate currency . This helped to solidify the bank's reputation as one of the premier banks in the southeastern United States, well into the 20th century. The Georgia Railroad Freight Depot , designed by architect Max Corput , was completed in 1869 and is the oldest building in Downtown Atlanta . The company

1508-448: 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

1560-529: 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 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

1612-652: The largest financial holding companies in the U.S. As of the end of 2000, First Union had over $ 171 billion of total assets, over 70,000 employees and 2,193 branches. After their acquisition of Wachovia, they assumed the name and stock ticket symbol of the latter company. First Union Corporation was founded as Union National Bank on June 2, 1908, a small banking desk in the lobby of a hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina , by H. M. Victor. The bank merged with First National Bank and Trust Company of Asheville in 1958 to become First Union National Bank of North Carolina. In 1964,

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1664-512: The loss of stature from losing a major corporate headquarters. First Union was concerned by the potential deposit attrition and customer loss in the city. First Union responded to these concerns by placing the wealth management and Carolinas-region headquarters in Winston-Salem. On May 14, 2001, SunTrust announced a rival takeover bid for Wachovia, the first hostile takeover attempt in the banking sector in many years. In its effort to make

1716-590: The majority of financial institution assets in South Carolina, something that had never happened in any state since regional banking began in 1986. In 1995, First Union acquired First Fidelity of Newark, New Jersey to expand to the Northeast . In April 1998, First Union acquired CoreStates Financial Corporation , headquartered in Philadelphia . At the time, this was the largest merger in U.S. banking history. CoreStates traced its history to 1781 and

1768-415: 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 the railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating

1820-612: The merger with Wachovia in 2001, First Union completed over 90 banking-related acquisitions, 50 of which were completed between 1985 and 1995. Atlantic National Bank in Jacksonville, Florida , merged with First Union in 1985. In a deal announced in June 1992, First Union acquired South Carolina Federal Corp., making First Union the third largest bank in South Carolina by deposits, but also giving North Carolina-based banks

1872-523: The new Wachovia agreed to buy back its portfolio from Bank One in September 2001 and resell it to MBNA. Wachovia paid Bank One a $ 350 million termination fee . On September 4, 2001, First Union officially completed its purchase of Wachovia National Bank to formally become the newly named Wachovia Corporation. In order to prevent a repeat of the CoreStates problems, the new Wachovia phased the conversion of legacy Wachovia National Bank computer systems into

1924-762: The other lines in the South were broad gauge. During the American Civil War , the Confederate States of America maintained a gunpowder factory in Augusta. Carloads of gunpowder would be transported on the Georgia Railroad to various battlefields in the "Western Campaign." Although the Civil War saw heavy damage to railroads such as the Georgia Railroad, management used their considerable resources to restore operation as quickly as possible. The Georgia Railroad even resorted to temporarily abandoning

1976-572: 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

2028-405: 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

2080-529: 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, the TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example,

2132-513: The railroad side. The Georgia Railroad & Banking Company was perhaps the strongest bank in Georgia for many years. The bankers used some of their wealth to buy controlling interests in the Atlanta & West Point Railroad (A&WP) and the Western Railway of Alabama (WofA), which provided a continuous line from Atlanta to Montgomery, Alabama , although the WofA was standard gauge , while all

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2184-827: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . First Union First Union Corporation was a bank holding company that provided commercial and retail banking services in eleven states in the eastern U.S . First Union also provided various other financial services, including mortgage banking, credit card, investment banking (First Union Securities), investment advisory, home equity lending, asset-based lending, leasing, insurance, international and securities brokerage services and private equity through First Union Capital Partners , and through other subsidiaries. In September 2001, First Union completed their acquisition of Wachovia National Bank to become Wachovia Corporation , which used to be one of

2236-698: 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

2288-723: The rates were as follows: Several other railroads were then under construction: The Georgia Railroad decided to extend the Madison branch to Terminus (Atlanta) and thereby compete with the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia (later the Central of Georgia Railroad ), which together with the Macon & Western Railroad , was competing for traffic through Charleston's rival port of Savannah, Georgia . By 1850, this railroad had built 213 miles (343 km) of track and

2340-656: 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 the reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns

2392-432: The suitor shocked analysts as many speculated that Wachovia would be sold to Atlanta-based SunTrust . As an important part of the deal, while First Union was the nominal survivor, the merged company would assume the Wachovia name and stock ticker symbol (though it retained First Union's pre-2001 stock price history). Analysts said this move was most likely to help First Union acquire a new identity, as Wachovia's reputation

2444-554: Was acquired by First Union ; most former branches are now part of Wells Fargo . A year later, Chessie System merged into CSX Transportation. After a period of somewhat heavy use during the CSX ownership, most through traffic has been diverted from the former Georgia Railroad mainline. As of October 2018, only a single through train in each direction daily uses the line. Trains departed from Atlanta at 8:55   am and 7:15   pm and arrived in Augusta at 6:00   pm and 10:05   am. Reporting mark In North America ,

2496-611: Was eventually reassigned to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL). In 1902, the ACL acquired controlling interest in the L&N; thus the Georgia, A&WP, and WofA became non-operating subsidiaries of the Atlantic Coast Line. In 1909, white firemen of the Georgia Railroad, organized under the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen , went on a mass strike . With the building of

2548-570: Was far better with consumers than First Union. At the same time, Wachovia's name and corporate identity would survive. The deal met with skepticism and criticism. Analysts, remembering the problems with the CoreStates acquisition, were concerned First Union's ability to merge with another large company. Winston-Salem's citizens and politicians suffered a blow to their civic pride because the merged company would be based in Charlotte, home to First Union. City leaders were concerned both by job losses and

2600-580: 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

2652-699: Was later re-chartered as the Georgia Railroad Bank, then a subsidiary of the First Railroad and Banking Company, which eventually opened banks in Atlanta under the name of First Georgia Bank. The banking operations were merged with First Union in 1986 and First Union subsequently merged with Wachovia Corporation (now Wells Fargo ). The Georgia Railroad Bank entered the insurance business using subsidiaries such as First of Georgia, however these were subsequently sold, at considerable profit to

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2704-544: Was up to 232 miles (373 km) by 1860. At the time, goods from the Mississippi and Ohio valleys had to go by riverboat to New Orleans and then via coastal steamships around the Florida Keys , to get to the big population centers in the Northeast. Shipping cross-country by rail to the ports of Charleston and Savannah made perfect economic sense. The banking side of the business was quickly more successful than

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