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25-649: The Meridian and Bigbee Railroad ( reporting mark MNBR ) was a Class III railroad that operates over 168 miles (270 km) of track between Meridian, Mississippi and Burkville, Alabama . Additionally, the M&;B had trackage rights over CSX from Burkville to Montgomery, Alabama . MNBR used to operate with a 286,000-pound railcar loading capacity. The M&B was chartered on December 24, 1926. Construction advanced eastward to Cromwell, Alabama in April 1928 and finally to Myrtlewood, Alabama , where it connected with

50-695: 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

75-464: 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

100-700: 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

125-639: Is exchanged with the Union Pacific Railroad in New Orleans , who then takes it to the cross-border gateway in Laredo, Texas , where it is delivered to CPKC. Kansas City Southern , one of CPKC's predecessor railroads, attempted a joint purchase with CSX of the MNBR line more than two decades ago. The deal was scrapped for fear of angering BNSF and Union Pacific, the two dominant railroads in

150-489: 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 the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by

175-653: The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) in 1935. The railroad operated with steam locomotives until 1953. Today, engine #116, a 2-8-0 Consolidation built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1917 originally for the Susquehanna and New York Railroad is the only surviving M&B steam locomotive left. It is currently on display at Highland Park in Meridian. In 2003 the M&B took over

200-557: 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 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

225-513: 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

250-532: The KCS and CSX rail networks. In October 2024, the STB approved CPKC's purchase of the line between Meridian and Myrtlewood, and the resumption of CSX operations between Myrtlewood and Burkville, marking the end of nearly 98 years of Meridian & Bigbee history. The approval became effective November 16, 2024. Reporting mark In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters,

275-508: The MNBR line. Under the proposed agreement, CPKC would acquire the 50.4 miles (81.1 km) segment of the line between Meridian and Myrtlewood, Alabama , so-called Western Line, while CSX will resume operations on the so-called Eastern Line, between Myrtlewood and Burkville, terminating the lease currently in place with MNBR. MNBR will cease operations between Myrtlewood and Burkville, although it may continue to operate between Myrtlewood and Meridian and serve existing customers on that segment of

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300-682: 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

325-541: 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 ,

350-1020: 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 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

375-682: The ex-L&N line from Myrtlewood to Selma, Alabama and the ex- Western Railway of Alabama line from Selma to Burkville. CSX retained ownership between Montgomery and Burkville, where there is a large industrial customer. In 2005, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. acquired MNBR. In 2007, the line gained publicity when a train hauling parts of the Space Shuttle solid rocket booster derailed on an overloaded bridge weakened by heavy rains. Between 2018–2022, more than $ 21 million of investments were made in MNBR, including improvements at Naheola Yard and Meridian Yard. The Meridian Yard improvements were

400-448: 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

425-592: 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, 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

450-451: The line increases, CPKC President and CEO Keith Creel said centralized traffic control could be added, and track could be further improved to Class IV standards, allowing speeds to be increased to 60 mph (97 km/h). MNBR's Western Line, once acquired by CPKC, will be renamed Haverty Subdivision, in honor of former KCS CEO and President Mike Haverty , the original driver of the idea to acquire MNBR more than two decades ago, to tie

475-495: The line. If approved by the STB, this would provide a direct connection between the two companies. In compensation, Genesee & Wyoming would receive CPKC properties in Alberta along with rights on CPKC lines. The connection through the MNBR line will allow CSX traffic destined for Mexico to be delivered directly to CPKC, eliminating the need for an intermediary railroad to move such traffic. Currently, CSX traffic going to Mexico

500-498: 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

525-405: 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

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550-762: 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

575-414: The result of a public-private partnership between Mississippi Department of Transportation and MNBR. During that period, more than 99,000 new crossties and switch ties were installed. More than $ 7 million was invested to improve grade crossings and to repair and upgrade bridges along the line. On June 28, 2023, Canadian Pacific Kansas City and CSX Transportation announced the intention to jointly acquire

600-449: The west, who did not want CSX or Norfolk Southern to do business with KCS. If the purchase plan is approved, CPKC and CSX plan to strengthen the MNBR track to Class III standards , which will allow 40 mph (64 km/h) operation, up from the 10 to 25 mph (16 to 40 km/h) currently allowed. CPKC will also improve its connection in Meridian, which will include increasing clearances to allow double-stack trains . If traffic over

625-580: 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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