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A reporting mark is a two-to-four letter alphabetic code assigned by the Association of American Railroads (through subsidiary Railinc) to identify rail carriers, private railroad car owners, and other companies operating railroad equipment in North America. Railinc also manages an electronic Universal Machine Language Equipment Register (UMLER) informational system about various railroad, intermodal, and other interchangeable transportation equipment in use by North American railroads.
Standard practices for reporting marks
A reporting mark is a sequence of two to four letters that uniquely identifies the owner of a piece of railroad rolling stock. The ampersand symbol (&) is not considered part of the reporting mark. When a new reporting mark is created, its first letter is selected to be the same as the first letter of the applying company's name; the remaining letters in a reporting mark are generally derived from the applying company's initials. For example, the reporting marks for which Union Pacific Railroad (UP) applied all begin with the letter U. As companies are merged, the companies' reporting marks are normally transferred to the resultant companies along with the original companies' trademarks and logos. The reporting marks that were assigned to Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW), for example, are now assigned to UP which purchased CNW in the 1990s.
Marks that end in X are assigned to rail car owners that are not common carrier railroads themselves (typically these are private car owners, leasing companies or railroad museums). Marks that end in Z are assigned to trailer owners/operators for use on equipment that does not have flanged wheels but that will be used on North American railroads in intermodal service. Marks that end in U are assigned to container owners/operators for use on equipment that will be used in intermodal service. Marks that end in any other letter are assigned to railroads for use on railroad equipment in interchange service.
List of reporting marks
Where multiple railroads are listed on a reporting mark, their order indicates the order of the mark's assignment; the succession is usually through mergers or buyouts. When a railroad is issued a reporting mark, if it merges with another railroad, the surviving company is permitted to use the prior company's mark, but most railroads typically retire reporting marks of older railroads that they absorb. A reporting mark that is retired is colloquially referred to as a "fallen flag carrier".
Due to this list's size, it has been split into subpages based on the first letter of the reporting mark:
| List of North American reporting marks | |
|---|---|
See also
- Association of American Railroads
- Standard Carrier Alpha Codes
- UIC Country Code – A series of prefixes used on rolling stock identification numbers by members of the International Union of Railways (UIC) to identify the country of origin of railway rolling stock.
References
- Railinc, Mark Register, accessed July 2009
- Trains Magazine, Understanding Railroad Reporting Marks Robert S. McGonigal, accessed July 2009
- Association of Car Accounting and Car Service Officers, Industry Terms, accessed July 2009
- Rail Inc. UMLER System Overview, accessed August 2009
- Rail Inc. FindUs.Rail Overview, accessed August 2009
External links
- Association of American Railroads – Official Website of AAR
- Trains Magazine Article – Understanding Railroad Reporting Marks by Robert S. McGonigal. (May 2006)
- Piedmont & Western Railroad Club -- AAR Reporting Marks – Unofficial compilation of North American railroad reporting marks and abbreviations, both past & present.
- Nakina.Net – Reporting Marks – Another unofficial compilation of reporting marks with markings from the 1920s to the present day. (Does not include U & Z markings.)
- Center for Transportation Analysis – CTA Railroad Network, Reporting Marks & Carrier Alpha Codes (Partial listing)
- Rail Inc./FindUs.Rail Database – Search the UMLER informational system by markings. (Not to be confused with AAR reporting marks.)