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30-633: The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad ( reporting mark PN ) is a short-line railroad operating on trackage mostly in Bucks and Montgomery counties to the north of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . It was created in 2011, taking over former operations from CSX Transportation . The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad interchanges with CSX in Lansdale , the East Penn Railroad in Telford , and

60-695: 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

90-436: A full kitchen, dining room, state rooms, secretary's room, an observation room, and often servant's quarters. Railroad barons including Leland Stanford had their private cars. Abraham Lincoln disliked the ornate railroad car supplied for his service as president: he rode in it only in his coffin. Private cars were more common in the heyday of passenger rail service and during the pre-Amtrak era (before 1971). At its peak in

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

150-620: A newly formed shortline, the Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad, would be taking over freight operations in the Lansdale area from CSX. Under the new arrangement, CSX would still move freight north from Philadelphia while the PN would serve customers in Lansdale, Hatfield, Souderton, Telford and Warminster. In addition, PN serves as a bridge route for rail traffic bound for the East Penn Railroad 's Quakertown line, and

180-700: 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

210-561: A private locomotive, providing privacy for its passengers. They were used by railroad officials and dignitaries as business cars, and wealthy people for travel and entertainment, especially in the United States. They were sometimes used by politicians in "whistle stop campaigns" . Pay cars with less opulent sleeping and dining facilities were used by a paymaster and assistants to transport and disburse cash wages to railway employees in remote locations without banking facilities. In

240-419: A sideline in the upscale travel industry , with its own niche magazine Private Varnish , which ceased publication in 2019. Amtrak regulations require head-end power and train control wiring, though some cars generate their own power and can run on freight lines as well. Most restored private cars have been rebuilt to newer specifications. In the 21st century private coaches are very rarely used anywhere in

270-726: The Doylestown Branch from Lansdale to Doylestown , the New Hope Branch from Glenside to Ivyland , the New York Line from Jenkintown to Neshaminy Falls , as well as a 3-mile (4.8 km) portion of the Stony Creek Branch near Lansdale. The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad also operates the Lansdale Yard in Lansdale. The railroad interchanges with CSX Transportation in Lansdale,

300-585: The New Hope Railroad in Warminster , and the East Penn Railroad in Telford . The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad offers various freight rail services including transloading of bulk commodities between railcars and trucks, rail access to warehouse facilities including Lansdale Warehouse and AmeriCold Logistics LLC in Hatfield and storage of railcars. In December 2010, it was announced that

330-485: The New Hope Railroad in Warminster . The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad operates on 55.53 miles (89.37 km) of SEPTA -owned trackage mostly in Bucks and Montgomery counties to the north of Philadelphia , with some lines extending into northern portions of Philadelphia. The lines operated by the Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad include the Bethlehem Branch from Newtown Junction to Telford ,

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360-669: 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

390-513: 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

420-568: 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,

450-541: The New Hope Railroad. The Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad took over operations from CSX in August 2011. Reporting mark 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

480-682: 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

510-637: The accessibility of locations along the tracks. Amtrak has increasingly-stringent regulations on allowing private cars on its trains, and reserves the right to refuse any movement. Lucius Beebe and his life partner Charles Clegg owned two private railroad cars, the Gold Coast and the Virginia City . Beebe's book Mansions on Rails: The Folklore of the Private Railway Car ( Berkeley, California : Howell-North , 1959) presented

540-541: 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 ,

570-1008: The early 20th century, an estimated 2,000 private cars were in use. Such carriages were extremely rare in the United Kingdom , although a notable example was the Duke of Sutherland 's saloon, which is preserved at the National Railway Museum in York . In the 21st century, some private cars have survived the decades and some are used for tour rides, leasing for private events, etc. Others are on static display. A small number of private cars (along with other types of passenger cars), have been upgraded to meet current Amtrak regulations, and may be chartered by their owners for private travel attached to Amtrak trains. Dedicated railroad buffs rescued some private varnish cars from scrapping. Chartering of these formerly private cars has become

600-610: The first history of the private railroad car in the U.S. The Gold Coast is now in the collection of the California State Railroad Museum . The Virginia City and the Redwood Empire are available for private charter. The Survivor was a private railroad car built by the American Car and Foundry Company in 1926 for Jesse Woolworth, the heiress to F.W. Woolworth . The car was used by

630-448: 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

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660-409: The late 19th century Gilded Age , wealthy people had finely appointed private cars custom-built to their specifications. Additionally many cars built by Pullman , Budd , and other companies that were originally used in common carrier service as passenger cars were later converted for use as business and private cars. There are various configurations, but the cars generally have an observation platform,

690-572: 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

720-405: 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

750-406: 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

780-454: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Private railroad car A private railroad car , private railway coach , private car , or private varnish is a railroad passenger car either originally built or later converted for service as a business car for private individuals. A private car could be added to the make-up of a train or pulled by

810-762: 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

840-820: 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

870-407: The world, though in some countries a coach of this kind can be chartered for vacations, business meetings or other such occasions needing the privacy of a dedicated coach. As the capacity of rail transport is large, it takes special operations to include a private coach in an otherwise public train. A railcar might be better suited for this kind of luxury, but the timetables of normal operations limit

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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