Reporting marks, why don't they change?

[ICG/SOU]

Or do they?

I've only been railfanning a short time. Around here UP has the tracks, but BNSF and KCS with some NS has been around too. However, looking at the rolling stock, there is a wide variety of reporting marks.

What I haven't figured out yet are three questions:

1) when one railroad acquires another, say when UP acquired SP, why would all the SP reporting marks stay on the car? I have only seen one or two UP marked boxcars, yet have seen a ton of SSW, SP, MP, TP marked ones. Is it because there are just too many cars out there to worry with changing reporting marks on?

2) Lately I've seen several NYC marked 60' boxcars. Since NYC hasn't been a railroad in almost 40 years, who or which railroad owns the car? I had thought that Conrail was formed from the Penn Central failure, and CSX and NS split up the rolling stock between them. I guess no one along the way felt the need to repaint or at least patch the reporting marks?

3) What has happened to some of the fallen flag's cars? I have yet to see anything marked MKT, for example, yet ex-MKT lines run through my town, and was an operating railroad more recently than NYC.

As a new observer, there doesn't seem to be much in the way of rhyme or reason. I figure the only reason why I don't see GM&O or I&GN is because they didn't have many of the more modern cars (because the latter was merged with MP in the 1950s, and the former with ICG in the 1970s).

 

[MGWSY]

One of the reason is that UP prob already has the car numbers in the UP fleet so they just use the reporting marks that the car already had. Sometimes they will move car groups around and change numbers when the cars go in for a mojor overhaul but its a lot of paperwork to changecar numbers as everything has to be updated. It was like CR they had cars with NYC, PRR, PC reporting marks.

As for the NYC and PRR you see now, it was done during the CR split and NYC cars went to CSX and PRR went to NS.

 

[UP2CSX]

In addition, many of the cars are owned by trusts and leased to a specific railroad. Even though the SP is officially merged into the UP, a paper company remains to handle the lease terminations as cars go out of trust. Since the SP is the actual lessor, it's much easier to leave the cars reporting marks and handle it through the paper company than change everything over to the new corporation. Assuming the cars are still useable, they will be either bought or re-leased by the UP and then you'll se a change in reporting marks.

 

[ICG/SOU]

Thanks, all. I wasn't aware that cars could be held in trust. I had only thought there were railroad company marked cars and leased cars, like TILX.

Except for the decrepit condition the paint jobs are in, I truly can run just about anything (rolling stock wise) where ever I want (North America), and they wouldn't be completely out of place.

 

[UP2CSX]

Trey, most railroad "owned" freight cars are actually owned by multiple trusts. They get leased back to the railroad based on either a monthly payment or percentage of the revenue earned by the car. Many cars used to have cast iron trust plates like the one in the picture. Most are now just painted on the car, usually between the rungs of the ladder. The railroads do these trust arrangements because there are tax advantages to leasing cars rather than buying. If the railroad defaults on their payments, the trustee/lessor can actually reposess the car, just like if you leased an automobile. Right now, railroads, aren't in as much trouble as some other parts of the economy but this a big issue if they start to lose money, since trustees will start to reposess the cars and leave them short of rolling stock. This was one of the things that drove the Penn Central into bankruptcy.

Indeed, you can run cars from just about any railroad from Mexico to Canada and you'd be quite correct in doing so.