Freight Car Friday – Reporting Marks Quiz

The school year is winding down, so let’s get in one more quiz before summer vacation arrives! Nothing too complicated here, just your ABC’s. Let’s see how well you recognize your favorite railroads by their reporting marks.

Reporting marks are a subtle but essential part of railroad operations.

Reporting marks are the unique set of initials assigned to every company that owns a railroad car. Containers and trailers which ride the rails get them too. Along with the road number, these marks identify the car and provide the railroads’ operating departments a way to route and track it correctly.

Usually the reporting marks are related to the railroad or company name or initials. In some cases the marks seem strange, particularly where the initials are based off of the official roadname and not necessarily the one with which we’re most familiar, like Cotton Belt’s “SSW” for example.

Here is a list of 26 historic and contemporary reporting marks. In addition to well-known railroads, there are some smaller companies, private car owners, intermodal shippers and leasers included to make it a little more challenging. How many do you know?

When cars are sold, often the reporting marks are changed without completely repainting the car.

1. AA
2. BN
3. CSX
4. DTI
5. ETTX
6. FW&D
7. GM&O
8. HLCX
9. ITC
10. JBHU
11. KCS
12. LBR
13. M
14. NOPB
15. ONT
16. P&WV
    

    Some roads, like the Pennsylvania and Southern, spelled out their entire name on cars into the 1960s. Automated car tracking systems and computers would make such a practice impractical and reporting marks are now limited to 4 letters.

17. QC
18. RDG
19. SFRD
20. TRRA
21. UTCX
22. VC
23. WC
24. XOMX
25. YV
26. ZCAX

How did you do? Check out the answer key to check your work and learn a little more. If you want some more chances to test your knowledge, look for the next issue of the LRRC’s Inside Track – coming to members later this month!

Streamliners to Spencer!

When one of the year’s biggest railroad events is just minutes from the office, you know a few of us here at Lionel just had to go! Those who attended Streamliners to Spencer at the North Carolina Transportation Museum this past weekend had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see some of America’s best restored streamlined beauties up close and a combination of colors, builders, models and railroads normally limited to an O Gauge train platform brought to life in full scale.

Norfolk and Western 611 was the Belle of the Ball. We can’t wait to see her back in steam again!

For those of us from Lionel, the trip was both business and pleasure. It was a great chance to compare notes on past projects and scout out a few to consider for the future! We also ran into plenty of Lionel fans and it’s always great to hear from you in person.

We saw lots of smiles from those reliving fond memories to those who were seeing a train for the first time. Kudos to the staff at the Museum and all of the volunteers from the many railroads and organizations involved for putting on an amazing show and in keeping these mechanical marvels around for future generations to appreciate.

Nickel Plate Road 190 stole the show. Her restoration is nearly complete.

There are already hundreds of photos of the event on line, but we’d still like to share a few of our own. If you have any you’d like to share, hop over to our Facebook page and show us your favorites.

Just out of the restoration shop, New Haven FL9 No. 2019 looks absolutely stunning.

Ft Demonstrator 103, among the most historically significant locomotives to be found anywhere, received a well-earned spotlight.

All of the gleaming streamliners weren’t antiques. Amtrak’s exhibit train was anchored by their Veterans unit.

Showing some style even in freight service, CN FPA-4 6789 delighted crowds with that distinctive Alco look and sound.

Six E8s and E9s put on a display of color that would make any train collector proud!

New Product Spotlight – Western Union Telegraph Freight Set

In a world where instant communication has become a center point to daily life, it is easy to understand the impact the railroads and telegraph had on  the world 150 years earlier. For the first time in recorded history, news could travel faster than the speed of a horse.

The Western Union Telegraph set combines the best of new technologies from two different eras!

The fact that both railroads and the telegraph emerged and matured as technologies nearly simultaneously was fortunate. The telegraph companies enjoyed the shared rights of way for their communications lines and stations as convenient hubs. The railroads, quickly adopting the telegraph for their own needs, had the critical tool necessary for allowing the rails to operate efficiently, safely and at greater capacity. The public stood the most to gain as a trip to the station could yield everything from overnight packages to the latest news and gossip off the wire.

Western Union had completed their first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861. By the 1870s the company had emerged as a leader in communications, absorbing many smaller companies as it expanded. In 1884, Western Union was one of the eleven companies used by Dow Jones for their first market average listing. (Nine of the others were railroads.)

The station became the center of a much faster-paced life in town as the hub for both train and telegraph.

Building and maintaining thousands of miles of telegraph wire was not an easy task. Locating along rail lines offered advantages here for the telegraph companies as well. Like the railroads, Western Union maintained work trains which were dispatched to inspect and repair the lines. Although they sometimes used equipment from the railroads, Western Union also owned locomotives of their own.

Lionel’s latest train set captures the enduring style of the trains from this historic era and the excitement of both of these “new” technologies. Ironically, a set which pays tribute to communications by wire is operated with wireless remote control! With the LionChief™ remote, you simply plug the power pack into the wall and the track and you’re ready to go.

This is our first LionChief™ set featuring the “General” 4-4-0 locomotive. The set also includes two flatcars with removable loads and a baggage car, a 40″x60″ oval of FasTrack™, a wall-pack power supply and the hand-held LionChief™ remote control.

The locomotive features:

• Remote control operation
• Puffing smoke
• Operating headlight
• RailSounds RC™ with steam background sounds and steam chuffing in sync with locomotive speed, and remote-activated whistle, bell and announcements
• On/Off switch for steam sounds
• Powerful maintenance-free motor
• Traction tires
• Separately applied details
• Operating coupler on tender
• Die-cast archbar tender trucks

Rolling stock features:

• Die-cast archbar trucks with operating couplers
• Removable vats and tarped load on flatcars
• Interior illumination in baggage car

The remote control has a speed control and direction knob and separate push buttons for the whistle, bell and announcements. It requires three AAA batteries, not included.

This new set is scheduled for delivery this Fall and has a suggested retail price of $369.99. So “dash” on over to your favorite dealer to place your order!

Freight Car Friday – Trinity Rail

Trinity is one of today’s leading freight car builders. Despite not building their own equipment until the late 1960s, the company has been on an amazing path of growth over the past fifty years and through its acquisitions has one of the most experienced pedigrees in the business.

Part of Trinity’s lease fleet, TILX 56304 traces its design back to earlier Pullman Standard designs.

Trinity didn’t start with railcars. The modern Trinity Industries formed in 1958 from a merger of the Dallas Tank Company and Trinity Steel. The company’s major focus was on tanks for the petroleum and natural gas industry as well as supporting equipment. This included building tanks for rail car use.

After supplying components, Trinity went all-in for their first complete tank car in 1977. Building the complete car offered better profit margins and the company expanded its construction aggressively. By 1980 they were among the top five builders in the US. While building their own line, the company expanded through the acquisition of other car builders through the highly turbulent markets of the 1980s.

Reefers may not be as common as tank cars, but Trinity’s TRINCool reefers are certainly among the most recognizable modern freight cars.

This impressive list includes:

• Pullman Standard – 1983
• Greenville – 1986
• Standard Forgings of Chicago – 1986
• Ortner – 1987
• Transcisco Industries – 1996
• McConway and Torley – 1998
• Thrall – 2001

Tank cars remain an important part of Trinity’s business and should be for years to come.

In addition to building rail cars, Trinity has been a leasing cars to the railroads and private companies since 1979. Rail car construction tends to run in hot / cold cycles. Having the lease operation provides a financial buffer for the lean years. Their lease cars, with TILX reporting marks, are a common sight on trains all across North America today.

Many of Trinity’s products retain a strong resemblance to their predecessors like this bulkhead flat inherited from Thrall.

As you would expect, many of Trinity’s cars look very similar to the designs previously built by the companies they have absorbed. This includes iconic designs like Pullman Standard’s boxcars, Ortner’s rapid-discharge hoppers and Thrall’s well cars. The contemporary Trinity product line includes autoracks, hoppers, boxcars, flatcars, tank cars, gondolas, covered hoppers, coil cars, and well cars. You would be hard pressed to find a freight train on a mainline in North America today that doesn’t include some of their products.

Trinity’s acquisition of Ortner gave them access to a proven rapid-discharge car design for aggregate service.

With the growth in crude oil and ethanol shipments in the past decade, Trinity’s roots in tank manufacturing are proving to be a great asset. Tank cars make up more than half of all new car orders today. With new regulations for cars due later this year however, expect to see some changes to the designs. You can also expect Trinity to adapt quickly to meet what might amount to unprecedented demand for the new cars. Earlier this month the company announced plans to reopen a plant in Cartersville, Georgia to build new tank cars.

While the tank car boom should prove lucrative for the company over the next several years, Trinity has hedged its bets for the long term with their other product lines and the leasing operations. In addition to their railcar operations, Trinity Industries still maintains its other industrial operations including tanks and piping, structural and marine products. By all forecasts, we should be seeing Trinity’s cars on the rails for decades to come.