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 the name or identifying number of the owner, lessee, or operator of the equipment, similar to IATA airline designators .
29-515: The Utah Railway ( reporting mark UTAH ) is a class III railroad operating in Utah and Colorado , and owned by Genesee & Wyoming Inc. The Utah Railway Company was incorporated on January 24, 1912, with the name of Utah Coal Railway , shortened to Utah Railway in May of the same year. It was founded to haul coal from the company's mines to Provo, Utah , in reaction to company disappointment in
58-695: 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
87-464: 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
116-700: 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
145-1007: Is headquartered in Washington, D.C. , not far from the Capitol . Its information technology subsidiary, Railinc , is based in Cary, North Carolina . Railinc IT systems and information services, including the Umler system, the Interline Settlement System and Embargoes system are an integral part of the North American rail infrastructure . Railinc delivers approximately nine million messages each day over its EDI network, including transportation waybills , advance train consists, blocking requests and responses and trip plans. Its applications support railroads, equipment owners and rail industry suppliers along every link of
174-526: The American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA), although some smaller railroads and railroad holding companies are also members of the AAR. The AAR also has two associate programs, and most associates are suppliers to the railroad industry. AAR was created October 12, 1934, by the merger of five industry-related groups: William George Besler was its first President. The AAR
203-665: The San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad (later LA&SL), painted with "Utah Coal Route" lettering and UCR reporting marks. These gondolas were known to the railroad's employees as "Battleships". Parent company Mueller Industries , a manufacturer of copper products, sold the Utah Railway in 2002 to Genesee & Wyoming Inc. , a railroad holding company . Today's Utah Railway operates over 423 miles (681 km) of track between Grand Junction , Colorado , and Provo , Utah, of which 45 miles (72 km) are owned, and
232-753: The Transportation Technology Center , a 52-square-mile (130 km ) facility 21 miles (34 km) northeast of Pueblo, Colorado , owned by the United States Department of Transportation . The facility is under a care, custody and control contract with the Federal Railroad Administration . TTCI has an array of specialized testing facilities and tracks. The site enables testing of freight and passenger rolling stock , vehicle and track components, and safety devices. Where appropriate,
261-490: The supply chain . The company maintains the only industry-accepted version of the North American railroad industry's official code tables. Beginning as an information technology department within the Association of American Railroads (AAR), the company was established as a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of the AAR in 1999. Another subsidiary, the Transportation Technology Center, Inc. (TTCI), operates and maintains
290-513: 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
319-400: The AAR represents its members' interests to the public at large and to Congress and government regulators in particular. The AAR works to improve the efficiency, safety and service of the railroad industry, such as through its responsibility for the industry's interchange rules and equipment specifications, e.g. for locomotive multiple unit control . One of the AAR's duties is to oversee
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#1732783899681348-599: 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
377-470: The Utah Railway was the first to equip its air brakes with fourteen-pound tension springs instead of the standard seven-pound springs. The company was one of the earliest coal hauling railroads to employ diesel locomotives , and was early to adopt automation technologies, including the use of flashing rear end devices instead of cabooses . The Utah Railway's freight car roster consisted of fifteen flatcars and about 2,000 drop-bottom gondolas jointly owned with
406-682: 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
435-541: 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 ,
464-448: 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
493-416: 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
522-415: 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
551-572: 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
580-405: 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
609-529: 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,
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#1732783899681638-560: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . Association of American Railroads The Association of American Railroads ( AAR ) is an industry trade group representing primarily the major freight railroads of North America ( Canada , Mexico and the United States ). Amtrak and some regional commuter railroads are also members. Smaller freight railroads are typically represented by
667-762: 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
696-845: The remainder operated under agreements with BNSF Railway and Union Pacific . As of January, 2017, the company no longer hauls coal. The Utah Railway also owns a subsidiary railroad, the Salt Lake City Southern Railroad , serving over 30 customers on over 25 miles (40 km) of track between Salt Lake City and Draper , Utah. In addition, switching services are provided in Ogden and elsewhere. As of 2023, Genesee & Wyoming holds 59 miles. The Utah Railway interchanges in multiple locations: with BNSF and Union Pacific in Provo, Utah and Grand Junction, Utah . It can hold up to 286,000 pounds of supplies. The earliest logo
725-656: 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
754-463: The service and route of the existing Denver and Rio Grande Railroad nearby. It was known for owning the most modern equipment; when built, its large "Santa Fe" ( 2-10-2 ) and " Mallet " ( 2-6-6-2 ) steam locomotives had automatic stokers, a new invention at the time, and a convenience that drew many firemen from the D&RGW's Utah Division to the Utah Railway in 1917 when that line opened. In addition,
783-553: Was an oval with an image of an SD diesel locomotive and the words "Utah Railway: Since 1912". In later years the symbol of the Utah Railway Company was the beehive , which is also the Utah state symbol. GWI alters the corporate logos of its acquisitions to match the parent company's logo, and as such, the beehive was retained within a logo similar to the parent company's design. Reporting mark In North America ,
812-580: 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
841-409: Was simply the words "Utah Railway Company", spelled out on the locomotives and cabooses, and "Utah Coal Route" on the drop-bottom gondolas. On paper, however, the logo for many years was a black circle with a white background. The wording and image in these circular logos changed over the years. The 1948 logo included the words "Utah Railway" surrounding a gondola with the initials "U.C.R.". The 1999 logo
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