Reporting Marks with X at the end


dispatcher812

dispatcher812

Member
I was just about to order some decals to start my Leasing Co when i noticed that (at least on one web page), the reporting marks for the Leasing Co, almost all have "X" at the end. IE: LLPX, CEFX, GATX

Is that something they are supposed to have? What does it mean?
 
reporting marks with an "X" on the end are private owners, UTLX= Union Tank Car Leasing, LLPX is Something Something Locomotive Leasing, HELX is Helm Leasing, etc... although i have seen cars used for MOW with "X" at the beginning too
 
Reporting marks "X"

The "X" at the end of the reporting marks means that the car is owned by a company that is not a railroad. That includes leasing companies, but also includes other companies, including industrial corporations, that own their own cars.

Here are some examples: Dow Chemical Corporation (DOWX): Duke Power Company (DKPX) owns trains of coal cars for delivery to their power plants: Sid Richardson Carbon Company (SRCX) manufactures carbon black and ships it to industrial customers in their own covered hoppers.

Jimmie Fisher
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RailroadFreightCars/
 
Are they required to have that at the end? My fictional leasing company is goiong to be "New England Locomotive Works". So the reporting marks would be? NELW?, NELWX?
 
Trouble said:
reporting marks with an "X" on the end are private owners, UTLX= Union Tank Car Leasing, LLPX is Something Something Locomotive Leasing, HELX is Helm Leasing, etc... although i have seen cars used for MOW with "X" at the beginning too
Click to expand...

Helm leasing is HATX, HLMX, and HLCX.
LLPX is Locomotive Leasing Partners.

The letter X at the end traditionally meant a railcar owner, any railcar owner whether they are a railroad or not, but Class 1s cannot end with X. (CSX wanted the reporting marks CSX but because CSX is a Class 1, they had to use CSXT) Today, although most companies follow the tradition, the X at the end is not required.

Reporting marks can be 2, 3, or 4 letters, but not any more or less. Reporting marks cannot contain any punctuation although & is acceptable. If the reporting marks have an & in it, it is only on the car, and not on paper. Reporting marks cannot have any obscenities in them although "SEX" is allowed. (For example, Schneider Steel Company is SSEX)

When a railroad or company buys another company/railroad, they also inheirit the reporting marks. (for example, ARMN belongs to UP)

Examples of 2 letter reporting marks:
UP - Union Pacific
BN - Burlington Northern (now BNSF)
CN - Canadian National
CP - Canadian Pacific
ST - Springfield Terminal
BM - Boston and Maine
NS - Norfolk Southern
NW - Norfolk and Western (now Norfolk Southern)
CR - Conrail (now Norfolk Southern and CSX although NS owns the exclusive rights to the reporting mark)
WC - Wisconsin Central (now Canadian Pacific)
IC - Illinois Central (now Canadian National)

Examples of 3 letter reporting marks:
GTW - Grand Trunk Western (now canadian national)
SOU - Southern Railway (now Norfolk southern)
PRR - Pennsylvania Railroad (now Norfolk southern)
NYC - New York Central (now CSX)
CB&Q - Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (now BNSF)
CNW - Chicago (and) Northwestern (now Union Pacific)
MEC - Maine Central
MMA - Maine, Montreal, and Atlantic
NHN - New Hampshire Northcoast

Examples of 4 letter reporting marks:
CSXT - CSX
MBTX - Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (the engine I'm standing on in my avatar)
BNSF - Burlington Northern Santa Fe (Big Nasty Santa Fe)
ARMN - American Refrigerator Transit Company (now Union Pacific)
AMTK - Amtrak
LLPX - Locomotive Leasing Partners
LMSX - Locomotive Management Services (was a Conrail thing. No longer exists. I think NS owns the reporting mark now)
HLCX, HLMX - Helm Leasing/Helm Financial
HATX - Helm Atlantic Leasing
NYSW - New York, Susquehanna, and Western
MPEX - Motive Power Industries
EMDX - EMD leasing/EMD Test locos
GECX - General Electric Company
 
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diburning said:
Helm leasing is HATX, HLMX, and HLCX.
LLPX is Locomotive Leasing Partners.
Click to expand...

thanks, knew it was something like that. BNSF also stands for Big Nasty Slow errr... Fellows, as well as Better Not Start a Family, Big Nuts Small Franks, and so on....
 
dispatcher812 said:
Are they required to have that at the end? My fictional leasing company is goiong to be "New England Locomotive Works". So the reporting marks would be? NELW?, NELWX?
Click to expand...

There is no such thing as a 5 letter reporting mark in the real world, so you will have to do a NELX or a NEWX... Unless of coarse you dont mind it being not fully to prototype :D
 
Actually, the "X" is required at the end of all reporting marks of cars or locomotives not owned by an AAR railroad. This mostly for accounting purposes, since many railroads have different rate agreements with other railroads than with private owners. The "X" at the end tells the computer to search a private owner list rather than every AAR reporting mark. The four character limit goes back to the early days of railroad's using computerized accounting. The database field for reporting marks would only accept up to four characters. There's no real reason to continue this now in terms of database capabilities, but it would require lots of reprogamming of existing accounting programs, so it continues today. In your case, Kevin, the NELX reporting mark would make the most sense. The real NELX is the mark of the NATIONAL EQUIPMENT LEASING CORP. You could use NEWX but that's owned by CONSOLIDATED CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, INC. NLWX is not on the AAR list, so that might be your best choice.
 
Sometimes cars that are leased end up getting the reporting marks of the railroad they're leased to and not the company leasing them out. For example Conrail's FGE boxcars were leased. Usually FGE cars were given RBNX reporting marks and numbered in the 94000's to 99000's. But Conrail and some other roads repainted them and gave them their own reporting marks and numbers to better fit their own existing rosters.
 
Correct, a car leased to a railroad will usually have that railroad's reporting marks. Leasing by itself means nothing in terms of reporting marks. It's only when a car is either leased to a non-railroad company or operated by a non-railroad company that the "X" is required at the end of the reporting marks. There are a number of shorlines that really only exist to lease or rent thier freight cars out to private companies. Even though all the loads are for private companies, the car still has the AAR reporting mark for that railroad.
 
the most common example is railbox/railgon. I believe i read in trains magazine years ago they are owned by TTX and are in business for the specific purpose of leasing rolling stock to railroads. I have seen quite a few RailBoxs with CSXT reporting marks, same with railgon.
 
UP2CSX said:
In your case, Kevin, the NELX reporting mark would make the most sense. The real NELX is the mark of the NATIONAL EQUIPMENT LEASING CORP. You could use NEWX but that's owned by CONSOLIDATED CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES, INC. NLWX is not on the AAR list, so that might be your best choice.
Click to expand...

Wow, I did not realize that these were that important and complicated, i thought they were just abbreviations. Also and thanks to up2csx, it looks like I should have done a little more research. I will be using his suggestion and going with NLWX as the reporting marks. Thanks everyone.
 
Just don't use GRLX. It's not assigned in the ULMER system but is "assigned" to my son's fictional leasing company.;)
 
Reporting marks list

dispatcher812 said:
Are they required to have that at the end? My fictional leasing company is goiong to be "New England Locomotive Works". So the reporting marks would be? NELW?, NELWX?
Click to expand...

Here is a link to a comprehensive list of reporting marks. You can use it to make sure no one is using reporting marks you want to use. I use this list all the time to identify freight car owners, and it is kept fairly well up to date:
http://www.pwrr.org/rrm/index.html

Jimmie Fisher
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RailroadFreightCars/
 
bleh, slipped up while typing :p

Steel Wheels said:
the most common example is railbox/railgon. I believe i read in trains magazine years ago they are owned by TTX and are in business for the specific purpose of leasing rolling stock to railroads. I have seen quite a few RailBoxs with CSXT reporting marks, same with railgon.
Click to expand...

TTX now owns railbox and railgon. They also sold off much of the fleet. If you see a railbox with CSXT reporting marks, chances are that the car was bought by the railroad and patched since re-painting isn't really a priority.
 
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