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26-769: The Spokane International Railroad ( reporting mark SI ) was a short line railroad between Spokane, Washington , and the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) at Kingsgate, British Columbia . The line became an important one for the CP with its connections to the Union Pacific Railroad and Portland, Oregon . The line, originally named the Spokane International Railway , was built by local businessman and railroader Daniel Chase Corbin following an agreement between him and

52-695: 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

78-464: 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

104-700: 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

130-536: A two-to-four letter identification, is used by the transportation industry to identify freight carriers in computer systems and shipping documents such as Bill of Lading , Freight Bill , Packing List , and Purchase Order . It is also used by the American National Standards Institute , Accredited Standards Committee X12 , and United Nations EDIFACT for Electronic Data Interchange computer systems. SCACs are commonly used by

156-752: The Northern Pacific Railway and Great Northern Railway lines for transportation between the Midwest and the Puget Sound area (in conjunction with the Union Pacific Railroad subsidiary Oregon-Washington Railroad and Navigation Company west of Spokane). Express passenger service was soon introduced on the line via the Soo-Spokane Train De Luxe . Two Ohio Match Company locomotives were sold to

182-780: The U.S. Navy in 1940 to construct a spur off the Spokane International in order to construct the Farragut Naval Base in Farragut, Idaho , and were scrapped by the U.S. Navy in 1944 for war materials. The SI was reorganized October 1, 1941, following financial difficulties and receivership during the Great Depression . The line was renamed the Spokane International Railroad as part of the restructuring agreement until

208-607: The 1950s. On October 6, 1958, the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) took control of Spokane International Railroad. In 1962 UP leased SI's 11 ALCO RS-1 locomotives for operation. The locomotives were later repainted to UP's yellow and gray paint scheme, but retained their SI lettering. Also in 1962, UP sold four of its older steel cabooses to SI. These were also painted in UP's yellow scheme, but received SI lettering and numbers. After UP's 1958 control of SI, Union Pacific continued to lease SI for operation. On December 31, 1987, Union Pacific formally merged SI into its corporate structure. At

234-513: 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

260-480: The CP, with CP agreeing to fund much of the line's construction and to secure the loan by holding the new line's bonds. Especially significant was that the CP controlled the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (Soo Line) and its connections to Minneapolis , Minnesota, Saint Paul, Minnesota , and Chicago , Illinois. Completion of the Spokane International now meant that the CP could compete with

286-599: 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

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312-682: 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

338-466: 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 ,

364-551: The automobile, petroleum, forest products, and chemical industries; as well as suppliers to retail businesses, carriers engaged in railroad piggyback trailers, and ocean container drayage. SCACs can be obtained online at http://www.nmfta.org . Freight Carriers who participate in the Uniform Intermodal Interchange Agreement (UIIA) are required to maintain a SCAC. Certain groups of SCACs are reserved for specific purposes. Codes ending with

390-473: The end of 1960 SI operated 150 miles (240 km) of road on 190 miles (310 km) of track; that year it reported 141 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and zero passengers. The line remains in operation as the Union Pacific's Spokane Subdivision , an important connection between southern British Columbia and the northwest United States. Reporting mark In North America ,

416-448: 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

442-529: 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

468-411: The letter "U" are reserved for the identification of freight containers. Codes ending with the letter "X" are reserved for the identification of privately owned railroad cars . Codes ending with the letter "Z" are reserved for the identification of truck chassis and trailers used in intermodal service. SCAC is also used to identify an ocean carrier or self-filing party, such as a freight forwarder, for

494-415: 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

520-498: 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

546-405: 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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572-529: 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,

598-592: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Standard Carrier Alpha Code The Standard Carrier Alpha Code ( SCAC ) is a privately controlled US code used to identify vessel operating common carriers (VOCC). It is typically two to four letters long. The National Motor Freight Traffic Association developed the SCAC code in the 1960s to help road transport companies computerize data and records. The Standard Carrier Alpha Code,

624-762: 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

650-656: 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

676-580: 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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