Every piece of railroad rolling stock operating in North American interchange service is required to carry a standardized set of reporting marks. The marks are made up of a two- to four-letter code identifying the owner of the equipment accompanied by an identification number and statistics on the equipment's capacity and tare (unloaded) weight. Marks whose codes end in X (such as TTGX) are used on equipment owned by entities that are not common carrier railroads themselves. Marks whose codes end in U are used on containers that are carried in intermodal transport, and marks whose codes end in Z are used on trailers that are carried in intermodal transport, per ISO standard 6346). Most freight cars carry automatic equipment identification RFID transponders.


Typically, railroads operating in the United States reserve one- to four-digit identification numbers for powered equipment such as diesel locomotives and six-digit identification numbers for unpowered equipment. There is no hard and fast rule for how equipment is numbered; each railroad maintains its own numbering policy for its equipment.


Federal regulation of railroads is mainly through the United States Department of Transportation, especially the Federal Railroad Administration which regulates safety, and the Surface Transportation Board which regulates rates, service, the construction, acquisition and abandonment of rail lines, carrier mergers and interchange of traffic among carriers.


Railroads are also regulated by the individual states, for example through the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities.


South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad is a short line railroad which operates of rail lines in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri that used to belong to Missouri Pacific, Frisco and Santa Fe lines. SKOL is a unit of Watco Companies. The present railroad was created in July 2000, when WATCO merged one short line railroad, the Southeast Kansas Railroad (SEKR), with another short line, the South Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad. SKOL was the surviving company.


Rail lines of the present SKOL include:


The only part of the former SEKR system that still operates is Sherwin, KS to Liberal, MO.


SKOL was honored as Regional Railroad of the Year for 2008 by rail industry magazine "Railway Age".


SKOL has Class I railroad interchanges with the BNSF, Kansas City Southern, and Union Pacific.


The Wisconsin and Southern Railroad is a Class II regional railroad in Southern Wisconsin and Northeastern Illinois currently operated by Watco. It operates former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) and Chicago and North Western Railway (C&NW) trackage, mostly acquired by the state of Wisconsin in the 1980s.


Within Wisconsin, WSOR connects with four western Class I railroads: BNSF Railway, Canadian National Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. Through trackage rights over Metra, WSOR accesses Chicago to connect with the two eastern Class I railroads, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. WSOR also has access to harbor facilities in Prairie du Chien, and transload facilities are located in Milwaukee, Janesville, Madison, and Oshkosh. 22 grain elevators have located rail load-out facilities on the WSOR system.


WSOR is headquartered in Madison, which is also a central hub terminal. The train dispatching office is located in Horicon. Locomotive maintenance is centered in Janesville, with secondary work also being performed at Horicon. WSOR's Horicon paint shops perform contract work on both rolling stock and locomotives.


WSOR was named the 2009 Regional Railroad of the Year by "Railway Age" magazine.


On April 11, 2011, WSOR's president and chief executive officer (CEO), William Gardner, was charged with two felonies after he was accused of funneling more than $60,000 in illegal campaign contributions through WSOR employees during the 2010 Wisconsin gubernatorial election. Gardner agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts. Under a deal, prosecutors agreed not to seek jail time but instead would seek two years of probation. In a statement, Gardner acknowledged his mistakes and said he took full responsibility. The vast majority of the contributions were to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.


On November 29, 2011, it was announced that WSOR would be acquired by Watco, with the deal to close on January 1, 2012.


In December 2012, the state of Wisconsin issued $17.1 million in financial aid to WSOR to rehabilitate of rail line between Plymouth and Kohler, which connects with existing WSOR tracks at Plymouth. Service has begun as of 2015.


WSOR planned to operate a terminal railroad in Madison called the Madison Terminal Railway.


These are the numeric train symbols that are used by the railroad to organize operations.


The Kanawha River Railroad is a common-carrier railroad in the United States. A subsidiary of Watco Transportation Services, the company leases 309 miles of track in the US states of Ohio and West Virginia from the Class I Norfolk Southern Railway. The KNWA also operates an additional 6 miles of track on the southern side of the Kanawha River, where the railroad breaks down, loads, and rebuilds coal trains before handing them off to CSX Transportation.


The railroad uses rebuild SD45s and SD60s for manifest trains, GP39-2s for switching and local duties, and their fleet of SD60s as helper power on coal trains, with leased power from Norfolk Southern leading the coal trains.


The railroads roster includes 3 GP-39-2s, No.s 3901, 3902, and 3921.


3 SD45s, mechanically rebuilt into SD40-2s, No.s 4211, 4213, and 4221.


Watco Australia is a rail haulage operator that was formed in 2010 to haul grain for the CBH Group in Western Australia. In 2019 it commenced operating in Queensland under a contract with GrainCorp. It is a subsidiary of Watco Companies.


On 2009, CBH Group decided to put its rail grain haulage services out to tender for the first time. This work had previously been performed by the Western Australian Government Railways, Australian Western Railroad and QR National (now Aurizon). CBH aimed that the amount of grain transported by rail rise from 50% to 70%. CBH settled on a business model that saw it invest in new locomotives and grain wagons, with day-to-day operations contracted out.


On 13 December 2010, CBH awarded Watco WA Rail a ten-year contract to operate services in the south of Western Australia. To operate the services, CBH purchased 22 CBH class locomotives from MotivePower, Boise, and 574 grain wagons from Bradken, Xuzhou. The cost of this rolling stock was $175 million.


Under the agreement, Watco is responsible for providing a comprehensive rail logistics planning service, including train planning and scheduling, tracking, maintenance, inventory control and crew management. Watco operates and maintains the rolling stock, with ownership remaining with CBH.


The services link various CBH grain collection points in the wheatbelt with CBH terminal and port facilities in Albany, Geraldton and Kwinana. CBH operate on the Arc Infrastructure managed open access network. Watco transports an average of 10-12 million tonnes (368-441 million bushels) of grain from 192 country reception sites to CBH’s four export terminals.


Although the contract officially commenced on 1 May 2012, Watco operated its first service on 30 March 2012. Because of a delay in the delivery of the rolling stock, QR National continued to operate some gauge services until October 2012, while to operate standard gauge services, locomotives were hired from Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia and SCT Logistics. A further three locomotives were delivered in 2015 as compensation for late delivery of the original order.


In 2016 Watco Australia was awarded an infrastructure train contract by Brookfield Rail to operate infrastructure trains with two 422 class locomotives purchased from CFCL Australia. In December 2016, Watco acquired a majority shareholding in Intermodal Group, a Western Australian intermodal container transport group. In July 2017, Watco took over the operation of the Forrestfield to Fremantle Harbour intermodal container service from SCT Logistics with flat wagons purchased from CFCL Australia.


In late 2019, Watco Australia will commence operations in Queensland under a seven-year contract with GrainCorp. Eight locomotives from the National Railway Equipment Company and 128 wagons from China have been ordered.


Watco as the operator for CBH railway operations is outlined in news stories following the agreement finalization on the first of November 2019, and the list below: The agreement involved keeping the Miling railway line open, and all other tier 3 railways closed, and allowing CBH access until 2026.


The Boise Valley Railroad is a shortline railroad connecting Nampa, Idaho with Boise, Idaho and Wilder, Idaho. It is owned and operated by Watco Companies.


On 23 November 2009, the railroad began operations, running over an 11-mile(18 km) line between Wilder and Caldwell, Idaho and a 25-mile(40 km) line between Nampa and Boise, with the two lines connected via trackage rights on the Union Pacific Railroad. Watco purchased the line from Idaho Northern and Pacific Railroad. Watco took over operations and leased the line to Union Pacific. Operations for both branches are based at Nampa Yard in Nampa where cars are interchanged to the Union Pacific.


The Wilder Branch begins at Caldwell and goes west to Wilder and switches several packing houses. The branch is 11 miles long.


The 25 mile Boise Branch goes from Nampa to Boise Airport and is Union Pacific's former main line into Boise. The City of Boise closed the Boise Yard in 1989 but kept the branch active until 1996 when the eastern half was abandoned with the departure of the Amtrak Pioneer. BVRR also switches the Nampa Industrial Lead which comes off the Boise Branch at Nampa Junction and goes out to Amalgamated Sugar Company at the end of the branch.


Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) is a transportation company based in Pittsburg, Kansas, formed in 1983 by Charles R. Webb. Watco is composed of four divisions: transportation, mechanical, terminal and port services, and compliance. Watco is the owner of Watco Transportation Services, L.L.C. (WTS), which operates 41 short line railroads in the U.S. and Australia. It is one of the largest short line railroad companies in the United States. As of December 2018, it operated on of leased and owned track. Also under transportation is the contract switching the company provides service for 30 customers. That is the service that Watco originally offered before it branched out into other areas.


Watco’s mechanical division has 19 car repair shops and is one of the largest mechanical services provider in the United States. They provide program, contract and emergency repairs. These services include maintenance of all types of cars including tank cars and coal fleets, and the preparation and cleaning of boxcars and refrigerated cars.


The terminal and port services division operates ten warehouses throughout the country. They also operate several transloading facilities and specialize in loading and unloading railcars and moving commodities to their next destination.


Watco also operates two port services in the Gulf Region. Greens Port Terminal on the Houston Ship Channel in Harris County, Texas and Port Birmingham Terminal on the Black Warrior River in Alabama both provide access to the Gulf of Mexico.


Watco's newest division, Watco Supply Chain Services, provides supply chain logistics for highway, intermodal, rail, and international logistics.


Watco was established in 1983 by Charles R. "Dick" Webb. The first operation was an industrial switching operation in DeRidder, Louisiana, that is still in existence. Webb then started his first mechanical operation, a railcar repair shop in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1985.


The Coffeyville mechanical shop was held captive to the major rail lines, and during discussions with the Union Pacific the opportunity arose to purchase the line running from Nevada, Missouri, to Coffeyville. This was the Union Pacific’s first short line sale. Watco then looked to the West Region, acquiring the Blue Mountain Railroad in 1998, the Palouse River and Coulee City Railroad in 1992 and the Eastern Idaho Railroad in 1993.


In December 2010 Watco entered the Australian rail haulage market when it was awarded a 10-year contract to operate grain services for the CBH Group of Western Australia. Operations commenced in March 2012. In late 2016 Watco Australia was awarded an infrastructure train contract with Brookfield Rail operating ballast and rail work trains.


On December 15, 2010, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, announced an agreement whereby it would invest up to $150 million over the next year in Watco in exchange for a preferred equity position in the company. Kinder Morgan made an initial $50 million preferred shares investment on January 3, 2011. Additional $50 million equity investment completed in December 2011. Kinder Morgan will receive 3.25% quarterly distribution on the equity investment. Kinder Morgan is a leading pipeline transportation and energy storage company in North America. The transaction provides capital to Watco for further expansion of specific projects and offers Kinder Morgan the opportunity to share in the subsequent growth.


In April 2011, Watco began operating the Autauga Northern Railroad, between Maplesville and Autauga Creek, Alabama, the third short line in Alabama operated by Watco.


On December 28, 2011 Watco began operations of the Swan Ranch Railroad in the Swan Ranch Industrial Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming. On January 1, 2012, Watco gained majority ownership of the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, a regional railroad in Wisconsin, and on February 1, 2012 took over operations of the Birmingham Southern Railroad.


On June 4, 2014, Watco and The Greenbrier Companies announced that it would create an equally owned joint venture, GBW Railcar Services, providing railcar repair services. This joint venture was dissolved in August 2018.


Track IQ formerly known as Trackside Intelligence, is an international manufacturer and supplier of railway equipment and services for the purpose of measuring operating conditions. After developing the RailBAM (Bearing Acoustic Monitor) and WCM (Wheel Condition Monitoring) systems, Track IQ formed a partnership with Siemens to install the systems in the United Kingdom and Continental Europe.


In October 2015, Track IQ was acquired by Wabtec.


Track IQ, is installing wheel bearing and tread defect detection systems at 20 sites on key railway routes across India. In 2017, Track IQ acquired Imaging Technologies, which enabled the supplier to boost its capabilities to accurately measure wheel profile, brake and brake shoe condition FleetOne is a multi-sensor trending database product that extends the capability of the wayside monitoring hardware interface. The database integrates a range of wayside monitoring equipment data into a single system and facilitates vehicle monitoring and data mining via key vehicle metrics, which are delivered through a web-based application.


Although Track IQ operates out of Australia, more than 150 of their systems have been installed around the world. The company currently services 14 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Brasil, USA, South Africa, Mexico, Ireland, Northern Ireland, India, China, UK, Belgium, France and Norway.


In 2014, Track IQ received the SNCF Innovation Award for its RailBAM (Bearing Acoustic Monitor) system, which detects damage to a train’s wheelset bearings at an early stage.


Pioneer Lines (formerly Pioneer Railcorp) is a holding company for a number of American short-line railroads. Other subsidiaries offer locomotive and freight car leasing to its own railroads and to third parties, and also freight car cleaning. Pioneer Lines also has interests in real estate and newsletter publishing.


The company, originally named Pioneer Railroad Company, was founded in January 1986 by Guy L. Brenkman. The company raised the capital for its first acquisition through a self-underwritten public stock offering. It continued this method of raising capital for subsequent acquisitions.


Almost all of the short lines owned by Pioneer are lines spun off by Class I railroads.


The Vandalia Railroad is a shortline railroad subsidiary of Pioneer Railcorp, providing local service from a CSX Transportation connection in Vandalia, Illinois. The line part of the original main line of the Illinois Central Railroad, completed in the 1850s between Cairo and Galena. Successor Illinois Central Gulf Railroad abandoned the portion through Centralia in 1981, and in December 1983 the newly created Vandalia Railroad reactivated a short piece. Pioneer Railcorp gained control in October 1994.


Not to be confused with the Railtex International Exhibition in Birmingham, UK


RailTex was a transportation holding company that specialized in owning and operating short line railroads across North America.


Based in San Antonio, Texas, the public company was a leader in making unprofitable lines shed by Class I railroads into viable transportation routes.


The company was sold on February 4, 2000 and merged into RailAmerica.


Railtex was founded in 1977 by Bruce Flohr as a business that leased rail cars. Flohr had invested $50,000 of his own money and had investor help for another $50,000 from investors. Flohr had started as a Southern Pacific train-crew brakeman in 1965 and rose to superintendent of Southern Pacific's San Antonio Division until he became deputy administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration in 1975.


Seeking to broaden the revenue base, he purchased the San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad. Operating the railroad the company quickly developed a formula for a series of successful takeovers, including:


In 1986 it acquired its second Austin and Northwestern Railroad.


In 1989 it sold its rail car business to Chrysler.


The company went public in 1993 trading on NASDAQ under the sign RTEX.


At the time of its acquisition by RailAmerica it had 26 railroads over approximately 4,100 route miles in the southeastern, midwestern and New England regions of the United States, as well as Eastern Canada and Mexico. The acquisition was valued at $325 million.


Consol Energy Inc. is an American energy company with interests in coal headquartered in the suburb of Cecil Township, in the Southpointe complex, just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2017, Consol formed two separate entities: CNX Resources Corporation and CONSOL Energy Inc. While CNX Resources Corp. focuses on natural gas, spin-off Consol Mining Corporation, now Consol Energy Inc. focuses on coal. In 2010, Consol was the leading producer of high-BTU bituminous coal in the United States and the U.S.'s largest underground coal mining company. The company employs more than 1,600 people.


Consol Energy was originally created in 1860 as the Consolidation Coal Company after several small mining companies in Western Maryland decided to combine their operations. The company was formally established in 1864 and headquartered in Cumberland, Maryland for the first 85 years (1864–1945), where the company became the largest bituminous coal company in the eastern United States.


Western Maryland's coal production rose about 1 million short tons in 1865, exceeded 4 million short tons by the turn of the century, and reached an all-time high of about 6 million short tons in 1907. A small amount of the coal production in the early 1900s was premium smithing coal (as in blacksmith) that was specially processed and delivered in boxcars to customers throughout the United States and Canada. In 1945, Consolidation Coal Company was merged with Pittsburgh Coal Company and its headquarters were moved to Western Pennsylvania.


With growing demand for natural gas in the U.S. following World War II, Consolidation Coal Company was acquired by the Continental Oil Company, or Conoco, in 1966. By the mid-1970s, Consolidation Coal Company operated 56 mines and employed nearly 20,000 miners. In 1981, Conoco along with Consolidation Coal Company was acquired by DuPont, which then sold some of its coal mining interests in Pennsylvania to the German energy company, Rheinbraun A.G.


Looking to invest in coal reserves in North America, Rheinbraun A.G offered Dupont stakes in coal mines and $890 million in 1991 to join in an equal part joint venture creating Consol Energy. Despite the cost of coal dropping in the 1990s, Consol's long-term contracts and investments in longwall mining techniques allowed the company to remain competitive. In 1998, Dupont sold the large majority of its stake in Consol, leaving it with only a 6 percent share and Rheinbraun A.G with a 94 percent interest. Consol also acquired Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company in 1998.


In 1999, Consol underwent a public offering (NYSE: CNX) in order to pay down some of the debt the company had incurred with the majority buy-out from Dupont and the acquisition of Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal Company. Due to uncertainty surrounding demand for coal in the early 2000s, Consol began to place a greater emphasis on diversification, primarily into natural gas. Consol's first major natural gas investment was through the acquisition of MCN Energy Group Inc.'s methane reserves in southwestern Virginia for $160 million. In 2001, Consol acquired Conoco Inc.'s coalbed methane gas production assets in southwestern Virginia.


Consol subsidiaries CNX Ventures and CNX Land Resources also began diversification efforts during this time into methane gas and timber and farming. In 2006, Consol spun off its subsidiary CNX Gas as a standalone company, but retained 83 percent of the new company's shares. On June 28, 2006,Consol Energy entered the S&P 500 replacing Knight-Ridder. In 2007, CNX Gas also began investing heavily in natural gas exploration in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania. In 2010, Consol acquired Dominion Resources Inc.'s natural gas production and exploration assets for 3.74 billion dollars, which included nearly 500,000 acres of Marcellus potential, tripling Consol's position in the Marcellus to approximately 750,000 acres. Consol also acquired all of the remaining publicly owned shares of CNX Gas for a cash payment of $991 million.


In 2010, Consol was also named by "Forbes" magazine as one of the "100 Most Trustworthy Companies." In 2011, Consol entered into two separate joint venture agreements to expedite its natural gas production. The first, an agreement with Noble Energy was to jointly develop the company's 663,350 Marcellus Shale acres in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The second joint agreement, with Hess Corporation, jointly explored and developed Consol's nearly 200,000 Utica Shale acres in Ohio. Consol also began an expansion of its Baltimore Terminal in 2011 to increase capacity from 14 million to 16 million tons to increase its revenue from sales of its metallurgical coal.


In 2017, Consol Energy Inc. spun off from CNX Resources Group. Officially announced on November 29, 2017, this move marked the start of Consol Energy Inc. operating as an independent, publicly traded company.


Consol has begun to inject CO2 into geologic formations which is being practiced in 2012 in the petroleum industry. However it is impossible to know the greater impact this will have.


Consol Energy operates as a producer of coal, primarily for electric power generation. Consol also maintains support services including Baltimore Marine Terminal and Land Division.


Consol Energy's flagship operation is the Pennsylvania Mining Complex, which includes three large underground mines capable of producing approximately 28.5 million tons of coal per year. Consol's coal division received the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Surface Mining National Award for Excellence in Surface Mining for the company's innovative reclamation practices in 2002, 2003, and 2004.


Consol's Gas Division deals with natural gas exploration, development and production, producing nearly 128 billion cubic feet of coalbed methane in 2010. With the acquisition of the exploration and production business of Dominion Resources in 2010, the company has access to over 3.7 trillion cubic feet of proved clean-burning natural gas reserves in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio, including coalbed methane and shale beds. The company currently has nearly 13,000 net producing wells.


As the owner of more than 430,000 surface acres in the U.S. and Canada, Consol Energy has a Land Division that oversees various projects, including selling reserve land that the company does not develop, land donation and conservation projects. Consol Energy has also been recognized for its reclamation efforts by national and state governments and has worked in partnership with several conservation groups on land reclamation projects. Consol's Baltimore Marine Terminal provides coal transshipment services from rail cars to ocean transport ships.


Consol's Water Division is involved in water purification with a focus on treating wastewater produced as a byproduct of hydraulic fracturing. The company operates reverse osmosis water purification plants and has a minority interest in a company that develops solar-powered water purification systems which, , was conducting a pilot test at one of Consol's gas drilling sites. Consol also maintained the Fairmont Supply Company, dedicated to the sale and distribution of mining services and equipment. However, in 2015, Consol sold that Company. Additionally, the company operates the largest privately owned research and development facility in the industry that is devoted exclusively to coal and energy utilization and production.


In 2018, Consol Energy had an annual revenue of $1.53 billion. Consol Energy was ranked number 428 on the Fortune 500 list in 2011.


As a producer of coal and natural gas, the environmental impact of coal mining and natural gas drilling has been a subject of controversy for Consol Energy. Despite this, the company has been recognized for its efforts at environmental protection and was awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Protection Award in 2002. Additionally, Consol maintains ongoing environmental efforts aimed at restoring and enhancing property managed by the company and has worked with conservation groups including Ducks Unlimited and the National Wild Turkey Federation on habitat restoration efforts.


An ad by the National Rifle Association critical of President Barack Obama that was filmed on Consol's Blacksville No. 2 coal mine in West Virginia became an issue of political debate in 2009. The National Rifle Association intended to ask miners the question "How do you feel about having your Second Amendment rights taken away if Obama becomes president." Word spread among pro-Obama miners who contacted their union, the United Mine Workers of America, resulting in 440 miners taking the day off to avoid appearing in the ad in a contract-sanctioned protest, halting production at Consol's Blacksville No. 2 coal mine.


Lobbying efforts on the part of Consol have also been an issue of controversy. In the first quarter of 2010, Consol spent $1.02 million in lobbying expenses on issues relating to the coal mining and natural gas industries. Furthermore, in all of 2010, Consol spent $3.25 million in lobbying expenditures.


Consol Energy has previously put its name to two sports facilities in its Pittsburgh-area. In 2007, Consol Energy purchased the naming rights to Washington, Pennsylvania's minor league baseball team the Washington Wild Things' field, Consol Energy Park. Consol Energy has let the naming rights deal expire as of January 2017.


Consol later purchased the naming rights to the Consol Energy Center in 2008; the arena that hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins National Hockey League team. It is estimated that Consol Energy won the bid for naming rights at a cost between $2.0 - $4.0 million per year, for 21 years. the Consol Energy Center has been renamed PPG Paints Arena as Consol Energy has ended its naming rights of the venue.


Pinsly Railroad Company, based in Westfield, Massachusetts, is a holding company of several short line railroads. It is one of the oldest such companies in the United States, having been founded in 1938 and owned railroads ever since. Pinsly owns only one railroad: Pioneer Valley Railroad.


Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1899, Samuel M. Pinsly received degrees in engineering and law from Northwestern University before briefly serving in the U.S. Army during World War I. Pinsly founded his shortline operating company in 1938 with the purchase of the Hoosac Tunnel and Wilmington Railroad from his father-in-law, fellow shortline operator H.E. Salzberg. While the line was rebuilt and turned a profit, extensive line relocations due to a new dam forced the railroad to be abandoned in 1971. Pinsly went on to acquire a number of lines throughout New England and the Southeast until his death in 1977.


Pinsly sold their 3 Florida shortlines (Florida Central Railroad, Florida Midland Railroad and Florida Northern Railroad) to 3i RR Holdings GP, LLC and subsidiaries (d.b.a. "Regional Rail, LLC") in November 2019.


These are the railroads that were once under the common ownership of Pinsly, listed in order of acquisition.


Railroad Acquisition Holdings, LLC (RAH) is a railroad holding company which owns several railroads in the U.S. states of Florida, Maine, and Vermont, as well as the Canadian province of Quebec.


RAH was formed on December 10, 2013, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group incorporated in Wilmington, Delaware.


CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merger. The various railroads of the former Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries that are now owned by CSX Corporation were eventually merged into a single line in 1986 and it became known as CSX Transportation. CSX Corporation currently has a number of subsidiaries beyond CSX Transportation. Based in Richmond, Virginia, USA after the merger, in 2003 the CSX Corporation headquarters moved to Jacksonville, Florida. CSX is a Fortune 500 company.


CSX Transportation is a Class I railroad operating in the eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track.


As of December 30, 2016, CSX Transportation served population centers in 23 states east of the Mississippi River, the District of Columbia and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. As of December 30, 2016, it had access to over 70 ocean, river and lake port terminals along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, the Mississippi River, the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence Seaway.


Conrail was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name (Consolidated Rail Corporation), and while it no longer operates trains it continues to do business as an asset management and network services provider in three Shared Assets Areas that were excluded from the division of its operations during its acquisition by CSX Corporation and the Norfolk Southern Railway.


The Winston-Salem Southbound Railway is a short-line railroad jointly held by CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway, which provides it with equipment. It connects with Norfolk Southern at the north end in Winston-Salem, CSX at the south end in Wadesboro, and in between with NS at Lexington and Whitney, the subsidiary High Point, Thomasville and Denton Railroad at High Rock, and the Aberdeen, Carolina and Western Railway at Norwood. Originally owned jointly by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and Norfolk and Western Railway, predecessors to CSX and NS, it was completed in November 1910.


Commodities commonly carried by the railroad are grain, sand, gravel, stone, forest products, paper products, coal, coke, cement, clay fertilizer, aluminum, chemicals, iron, and steel. Its principal shippers are Corn Products Company of Winston-Salem, a manufacturer of corn syrup and related products, and Owens Brockway Glass Company of Eller, a manufacturer of glass products.


CSX is organized into two operating regions: the West Region and the East Region. Each primary region is divided into two sub-regions:


CSX Corporation was formed on November 1, 1980, by combining the railroads of the former Chessie System with Seaboard Coast Line Industries.


The founding chairman of CSX Corporation was Prime F. Osborn III of Seaboard, for whom Jacksonville's Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center is named. The first CEO and second chairman was Hays T. Watkins Jr. of Chessie. Watkins was succeeded by John W. Snow as CEO in 1989 and as chairman in 1991. When Snow left the company in 2003 to become United States Secretary of the Treasury, Michael J. Ward, who then headed CSX Transportation, was promoted to succeed him. Overall in 2003, Ward took on the positions of chairman, president, and CEO. When president Oscar Munoz left CSX in September 2015 after obtaining the role earlier that year from Ward, the company underwent several management changes, with Clarence Gooden appointed president.


The company went through major leadership changes in 2017 when activist investor Mantle Ridge, a hedge fund that held 4.9% of CSX's stock, demanded a change in the board, that Michael Ward step down as CEO, that the company cut middle management, and that the company hire Hunter Harrison, known for leading the turnaround three other railroads, as CEO. Within months of Harrison's hiring in spring 2017, several members of CSX's executive management team stepped down. Harrison died on December 16, 2017 and shortly thereafter Chief Operating Officer James M. Foote was named president and chief executive officer.


CSX is also trying to increase profits by monetizing some of its real estate. As of early 2018, the company planned to generate $800 million by 2020 by selling off some railroad lines and other real estate. As of the same date, CSX held real estate in 23 states, the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces.


The following is a list of CSX management as of January 2020:


At the end of 2018, CSX Corporation's total shareholder's equity was reported as US$12.58 billion and total assets were valued at $36.729 billion. Total revenue for 2018 was $12.25 billion, an increase from $11.408 billion the previous year. Operating income was $4.869 billion, up from $3.72 billion in 2017, while earnings before income taxes were $4.304 billion, compared to $3.142 billion the previous year.


As of 2019, CSX Corporation was a Fortune 500 company.


The CSX Transportation Building is a high-rise office building in Jacksonville, Florida. Completed in 1960, the building currently serves as headquarters for CSX Corporation. The building is located in the Northbank area of Downtown Jacksonville, along the banks of the St. Johns River. Its former names include the Atlantic Coast Line Building and the Seaboard Coastline Railroad Building. Designed by KBJ Architects, the CSX Transportation Building is a LEED certified building and is an example of mid-century modern and international style architecture.


Pan Am Railways, Inc. (PAR), known before March 2006 as Guilford Rail System, is an American holding company that owns and operates Class II regional railroads covering northern New England from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Rotterdam Junction, New York. The primary subsidiaries of Pan Am Railways are Boston and Maine Corporation, Maine Central Railroad Company, Portland Terminal Company, and Springfield Terminal Railway Company.


Pan Am Railways is headquartered in Iron Horse Park in North Billerica, Massachusetts. It is a subsidiary of Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Pan Am Systems, formerly known as Guilford Transportation Industries. Guilford bought the name, colors and logo of Pan American World Airways in 1998.


On November 30, 2020, an agreement was announced for CSX to acquire Pan Am Railways. Norfolk Southern has expressed concern about possible impacts on competition. The sale was proposed as follows: CSX will own and operate between Mattawamkeag, ME and Ayer, MA. Between Ayer and Rotterdam, NY, Genessee and Wyoming Rail will be the operating party. This means the track will be owned by CSX but CSX will not dispatch it. Also the Norfolk Southern partner of Pan Am Southern (PAS) will keep its 49%. With the sale the intermodal traffic between Mechanicville and Ayer will be re-routed over the B&A to Worcester, MA. From there the traffic will come up the Worcester main and into Ayer Yard.


During much of the 20th century, heavy manufacturing industry tended to move out of New England, making the region primarily a receiver of freight traffic rather than an originator. Originating freight or carrying it long distance are far more profitable than final delivery or short haul. New England's railroads have long been handicapped by traffic flow that makes them delivery agents for other railroads and by short distances. Practically the longest one-railroad haul in New England was Boston & Maine's route from the Hudson River to Portland, Maine, — less than one-eighth of the distance from Seattle to Chicago on the BNSF Railway.


A merger consisting of the B&M, the Maine Central Railroad (MEC), and the Delaware & Hudson Railway (D&H), along with one or more other New England railroads, was proposed as long ago as 1929 by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) as part of its nationwide merger proposal. Frederic C. Dumaine, Jr., president at various times of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad (NH), the Bangor & Aroostook Railroad and D&H, proffered much the same idea. The benefits of such a merger would include economies of scale and longer hauls.


In 1977, Timothy Mellon, heir of the wealthy and influential Mellon family of Guilford, Connecticut, teamed up with ex-Penn Central employee David Fink to form Perma Treat, a railroad tie treatment company. Mellon wanted to acquire a railroad and considered several: Illinois Central Railroad and the Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Railroad. None of those acquisitions happened, but Mellon's interest in railroads continued. The passage of the Staggers Rail Act in 1980 allowed Mellon and Fink to execute a business plan (unlike those of earlier railroads in the region), centering on buying up as many local railroads as possible, thus creating full horizontal integration over New England and the northern Mid-Atlantic states, and gaining efficiencies of scale.


In June 1981, Mellon purchased MEC and its wholly owned subsidiary Portland Terminal Company (then owned by U.S. Filter Corporation) through his holding company, Guilford Transportation Industries. In June 1983, the B&M became the second piece of the Guilford system, bringing with it a subsidiary, the Springfield Terminal Railway, a former interurban line connecting Springfield, Vermont to Charlestown, New Hampshire. The Springfield Terminal subsidiary continues to exist and houses most of the operational side of the entire company including train crews and dispatch.


By the time the Guilford system was formed, the one-time multiplicity of connecting railroads had become a single, healthy, well-managed railroad: Conrail. Any New England-bound traffic Conrail originated would move as far as possible on Conrail before being handed over to Guilford (e.g. to Springfield, Massachusetts, rather than Buffalo, New York), and it would move faster. The Guilford remained a short-haul, terminating railroad.


Guilford's first few years were defined by abandonments, labor unrest and strikes, and a draconian management style that damaged the company's reputation. The railroad struggled financially to turn a profit and implemented cost-cutting measures. Guilford then began to shrink its system by eliminating marginal low-density routes.


MEC's Mountain Division from Portland, Maine, to St. Johnsbury, Vermont, carried almost no local traffic and served only to give MEC a connection with a railroad other than B&M. With the formation of the Guilford system, it was deemed redundant. B&M was now part of the family, and interchanging traffic with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) at Mattawamkeag, Maine, was easier than battling the grades of Crawford Notch in New Hampshire. A section in New Hampshire was salvaged and reborn as the Conway Scenic Railroad.


Similarly, the only business on MEC's Calais Branch from Bangor to Calais, Maine, was at the extreme eastern end, which could be reached by CP. Service on most of the branch was discontinued, and the line was sold to the Maine Department of Transportation (MaineDOT). The remaining service in Calais serves a pulp mill in Woodland and is operated by ST; MaineDOT leases a segment between Brewer and Ellsworth to the Downeast Scenic Railroad. The remaining Ellsworth-Calais segment was leased to the Downeast Sunrise Trail, an interim rail trail.


MEC's Rockland Branch from Brunswick, to Rockland, Maine, was also on the chopping block, as was part of the Lower Road, the Portland-Waterville route via Augusta, Maine. This branch would later be sold to MaineDOT, and operated on its behalf by the Maine Eastern Railroad until the end of 2015, when operations were transferred to the Central Maine and Quebec Railway (CMQ). The operation of this branch would soon be transferred to CP, upon that rail system's acquisition of CMQ.


In 1985, Guilford entered into an agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) to run trains to St. Louis. NS was attempting to win approval of a plan to purchase Conrail from the U.S. government and proposed allowing Guilford to lease Conrail lines to St. Louis in order to restore competition that would be lost in the merger. The plan would have allowed Guilford to use the Conrail mainline from Toledo to Ridgeway, Ohio, and from Crestline, Ohio, to St. Louis. Guilford would also purchase of Conrail track and 1,300 freight cars from Norfolk Southern for $53M. NS did not prevail in its attempt to purchase Conrail in 1985, and the Guilford plan was dropped. In 1987, Guilford also placed a bid to buy Southern Pacific.


The paper industry provides the largest source of business, with chemicals, clay and pulp inbound, and finished paper outbound. But the railroad has been losing ground to other forms of transportation - particularly trucking. A 2008 report issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers rated Maine at 48th of the 50 states in volume of freight traffic that moves by rail. The Maine Motor Transport Association web page reports that trucks transport 94% of total manufactured tonnage in Maine.


Despite the general growth in freight transport throughout the US, Guilford's growth remained stagnant after an initial increase in the 1990s. After the creation of Pan Am Railways, traffic dropped considerably. A report issued by MaineDOT listed traffic on MEC as being 162,658 loads in 1972. As of 2008, Pan Am traffic over the remaining portions of MEC was estimated to be less than 69,000 loads. During the same time span, the Association of American Railroads estimates that freight traffic throughout the US more than doubled.


In 1998, Guilford bought the name, colors and logo of Pan American World Airways. In March 2006, Guilford Transportation Industries changed its name to Pan Am Systems, and Guilford Rail System was rebranded as Pan Am Railways (PAR). Then in March 2009, PAR was ordered to pay the largest corporate criminal fine in Massachusetts history — $500,000 — due to the company's negligence to report a spill of hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel in violation of state and federal environmental laws and regulations.


As of 2011, PAR employs 750 people and has a $40 million payroll. The company continues to operate with subsidiary entities bearing the names of former railroads which over time formed the present day company. The company's assets are housed separately in these various subsidiaries for various reasons. For example, the Boston and Maine Corporation owns the railroad property itself while the Springfield Terminal branch operates the railroad (most of the company's employees are under the Springfield Terminal umbrella.) Meanwhile, the Maine Central entity owns rolling stock.


On May 15, 2008, NS announced that it had come to an agreement with PAR to "create an improved rail route between Albany, New York, and the Boston, Massachusetts, region, named the Patriot Corridor. The STB approved the deal on March 10, 2009, with each railroad owning 50% of a new company known as Pan Am Southern (PAS). PAR's trackage between Ayer, Massachusetts, and Mechanicville, New York, was transferred to PAS and continues to be operated and maintained by PAR's ST subsidiary. NS transferred to PAS cash and property valued at $140 million.


Improvements to the route include track and signal upgrades, and expansion of terminals, including construction of new automotive and intermodal terminals in Ayer and Mechanicville. In March 2012, the Federal Railroad Administration awarded a $2-million grant to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation for preliminary engineering on removing 19 obstacles to allow double stack container trains to use the Patriot Corridor route. The project includes raising clearance by two feet in the Hoosac Tunnel.


The company has been criticized for dumping used railroad ties that contain creosote rather than sending them for safe disposal or recycling.


Pan Am was put up for sale in July 2020. On November 30, 2020, CSX announced that it had signed a definitive agreement to purchase Pan Am Railways, Inc. The sale of Pan Am to CSX is subject to regulatory review and approval of the Surface Transportation Board.


PAR's main line runs from Mattawamkeag, Maine, to Mechanicville, New York, via the lines of the following former companies:


In August 2011, PAR repainted an EMD GP9 locomotive (ST #77) into the maroon and gold "Minuteman" paint scheme used on B&M locomotives in the 1950s. In December 2011, ST GP9 #52 was repainted using MEC's 1950s-era "Pine Tree Route" green and gold livery. Both were sold to the Heber Valley Railroad and departed Pan Am property in September 2018.


RailAmerica, Inc., based in Jacksonville, Florida, is a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada.


In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group. Before that, it traded on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker symbol RRA. It was relisted in October 2009 with the ticker symbol RA.


On June 30, 2010, the company announced that it had acquired Atlas Railroad Construction, a construction and maintenance company operating in the Northeast and Midwest United States, for US$24 million.


In April 2011, RailAmerica made its first shortline purchase in over five years by initiating a deal with Gulf and Ohio Railways to acquire three Alabama shortlines for $12.7 million.


On July 23, 2012, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. announced that it intended to purchase RailAmerica in a deal valued at $1.39 billion. Approval of the purchase was granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board on December 19, 2012. While awaiting the decision, Genesee & Wyoming put RailAmerica control in the hands of a trust. They assumed control on December 28, 2012 and the company was in the process of integration to G&W.


RailAmerica controlled the following railroads. It has acquired some through purchase of other holding companies: RailLink Canada in July 1999, RailTex in February 2000, ParkSierra and StatesRail in January 2002, and the rail properties of Alcoa in September 2005.


In addition to those listed below, RailAmerica's prior owner, Fortress Investment Group, purchased the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) in September 2007 from Florida East Coast Industries. Although Fortress maintained a level of common control between the two railroads, FEC was never made a formal part of the RailAmerica family, and Fortress did not include FEC in the RailAmerica spinoff.


RailAmerica was founded by Donald Redfearn and Gary O. Marino in 1986.


The Grand Trunk Corporation is the subsidiary holding company for the Canadian National Railway's properties in the United States. It is named for CN subsidiary railroad Grand Trunk Western Railroad. The Association of American Railroads has considered it to be a Class I railroad since fiscal year 2002.


GTC was incorporated under Delaware General Corporation Law on September 21, 1970 as Grand Trunk Industries, Inc., and renamed Grand Trunk Corporation on November 18, 1970. It acquired control of CN's U.S. properties; Grand Trunk Western, Central Vermont Railway and the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway in December 1971, and has since acquired other companies, mostly through acquisitions of other holding companies: Illinois Central Railroad (IC) in 1999, Wisconsin Central Transportation Corporation (WC) in 2001, Great Lakes Transportation in 2004, and Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railway in 2008.


Patriot Rail Company LLC (Patriot Rail) is a holding company for a number of shortline railroads across the United States.


In June 2012, Patriot Rail was acquired by SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners (SteelRiver).


Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC is the parent company of the BNSF Railway (formerly the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway). The company is an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of


Berkshire Hathaway, which is controlled by investor Warren Buffett.


The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation was incorporated in 1993 to facilitate the merger of Burlington Northern, Incorporated, parent of the Burlington Northern Railroad, and Santa Fe Pacific Corporation, which owned the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (Santa Fe). The corporate merger was consummated on September 22, 1995, at which point shareholders of the previous companies became shareholders of BNSF and the two companies became wholly owned subsidiaries of BNSF. In December 1996, the two holding companies and two railroads were formally merged, and in January 1998 the remaining intermediate holding company was folded into the railroad.


Robert D. Krebs of Santa Fe Pacific was president of BNSF from the merger until 1999, chief executive from the merger until 2000, and chairman from 1997 until 2002. He was succeeded in all three positions by Matthew K. Rose.


On November 3, 2009, Berkshire Hathaway made a $26 billion offer to buy the remaining 77.4% of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation it did not already own, valuing the purchase at $34 billion. The deal, which including Berkshire's previous investment and the assumption of $10 billion in Burlington Northern debt brings the total value to $44 billion. Consummated February 12, 2010, it is the largest acquisition in Berkshire Hathaway's history.


The deal was structured so that the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation would merge with and into R Acquisition Company, LLC, an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway. The deal closed on February 12, 2010, and at the same time, the now merged company changed its name to Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC that remains an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.


BNSF Railway's primary rail competitor in the Western region of the US is the Union Pacific Railroad Company. Other Class 1 railroads and numerous regional railroads and motor carriers also operate in parts of the same territories served by BNSF Railway.


Based on weekly reporting by the Association of American Railroads, BNSF's share of the western US rail traffic in 2008 was approximately 49%.


OmniTRAX, Inc. is a transportation and transportation infrastructure holding company based in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It primarily owns and operates railroads, with a network of 21 regional and shortline railroads in 12 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. It is one of the largest privately owned railroad companies in the United States. The firm also invests in, develops, and operates ports, multimodal transportation terminals, and industrial parks.


OmniTRAX was incorporated in 1986 as a subsidiary of The Broe Group, a privately held energy development and real estate company founded by Denver businessman Pat Broe in 1972. OmniTRAX purchased the Great Western Railway of Colorado that year in order to augment the value of Broe's industrial real estate developments in northeastern Colorado.


OmniTRAX leased the Kansas Southwestern Railway from the Union Pacific Railroad in April 1991.


In June 1992, OmniTRAX purchased all the outstanding stock of the Chicago West Pullman Transportation Co., which owned the Manufacturers' Junction Railway at Cicero, Illinois; the Newburgh and South Shore Railroad at Cleveland, Ohio; the Chicago Rail Link at Chicago, Illinois; the Chicago, West Pullman and Southern Railroad in Chicago; the Georgia Woodlands Railroad in Warren and Wilkes counties, Georgia; and the Wisconsin and Calumet Railroad in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. The Wisconsin & Calumet was sold less than a month later to the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad. OmniTRAX purchased the abandoned Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Cicero, which was adjacent to the Manufacturers' Junction Railway, and began developing it as a multimodal transfer center.


In October 1992, OmniTRAX purchased of track in Kansas and Oklahoma from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. The main lines of track stretched from Salina, Kansas, to Osborne, Kansas, and from Marion, Kansas, to Scott City, Kansas. OmniTRAX formed the Central Kansas Railway to run on the lines. The Kansas Southwestern Railway merged into the Central Kansas Railway in May 2000, and then OmniTRAX sold the Central Kansas Railway to Watco in April 2001.


OmniTRAX purchased of track between Borger and Panhandle, Texas, from the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe in November 1993. It formed the Panhandle Northern Railroad to operate on this track. Eighteen months later, in May 1995, OmniTRAX leased the Northern Ohio & Western Railway from the Sandusky County/Seneca County/Tiffin Port Authority.


OmniTRAX moved into Canada in November 1996 with its purchase of the Hudson Bay Railway, which ran from The Pas, Manitoba, to the Port of Churchill in Churchill, Manitoba. OmniTRAX then purchased the port itself for C$1 in November 1997. As part of the deal, the Canadian government agreed to put C$34 million worth of upgrades, dredging, and repairs into the port, while OmniTRAX pledged to add C$45 million in upgrading the port facilities and Hudson Bay Railway. Three months later, OmniTRAX purchased the Carlton Trail Railway track bought from the Canadian National Railway. The ran from Warman, Saskatchewan, to White Star, Saskatchewan, and from Speers Junction (near White Star) to end of the line at Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan.


OmniTRAX expanded its presence in the American Southeast in 2004 by purchasing the Georgia and Florida Railnet (renamed the Georgia and Florida Railway) from North American RailNet. It also leased the terminal switching Fulton County Railway (based in Atlanta), and the Alabama and Tennessee River Railway in Alabama. It purchased both lines outright in 2018.


OmniTRAX made its first venture into Washington state when it purchased the BNSF Railway in January 2005. This route, shaped like an inverted capital "U", ran from Kettle Falls, Washington, north to the U.S.-Canadian border at Laurier, Washington, crossed the border to reach Cascade City, British Columbia, traveled west to Almond Gardens, then south to cross the border to follow Washington State Route 21 to Republic, Washington. Another of line (from Kettle Falls southeast to Chewelah, Washington, and from Kettle Falls northwest to Columbia Gardens, British Columbia) was leased from BNSF. The Kettle Falls International Railway was created to run on these lines.


OmniTRAX completed its purchase of all of North American Railnet's assets in April 2005 when it purchased the Nebraska Kansas Colorado Railway and the Illinois Railway.


OmniTRAX moved into California for the first time in 2011 when it purchased the Stockton Terminal and Eastern Railroad, a short line linking several industrial customers to the Port of Stockton, the Union Pacific, and the BNSF.


The company expanded its operations in Oklahoma in June 2014 when it purchased the Sand Springs Railway based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In September 2016, it acquired the former Gerdau steel mill site. The company said it would work with other Broe Co. subsidiaries to build residential, retail, industrial, logistics, and transportation buildings and facilities there.


OmniTRAX proposed buying Iowa Pacific Holdings' Sanford Lake Branch track (also known as the Saratoga-North Creek Railway), which ran from North Creek, New York, to Tahawus, New York, in August 2019. The firm also proposed buying track owned by Warren County which ran from North Creek to Corinth, New York. This would allow OmniTRAX to make additional connections with Class I railroads. Local residents, concerned that OmniTRAX would permit its track to be used for the storage of oil tank cars, opposed the sale. Warren County officials did not want to sell their track for fear of losing control over the uses to which it could be put. After a year of public debate, OmniTRAX declined to pursue both deals.


In July 2019, OmniTRAX purchased the Winchester and Western Railroad's Virginia Division from Covia Holdings for $105 million. The division included of track in western Virginia and of track in New Jersey. The purchase was subject to review and approval by the Surface Transportation Board, a federal agency. It was completed in September 2019.


In 1997 the Canadian National Railway sold the Port of Churchill and accompanying rail line to OmniTRAX as part of the privatization of CN. OmniTRAX operated the railway for the ensuing two decades, shipping mostly wheat to the Port of Churchill on behalf of the Canadian Wheat Board.


In June 2017, OmniTRAX suspended service on the Churchill rail line after severe flooding washed out the line in multiple locations.


OmniTRAX refused to repair the railway, claiming it was not economically feasible. The company claimed that due to the closure of the Canadian Wheat Board in 2008, it was no longer economical to operate the line or the Port of Churchill. As part of a 2008 contract between the Federal Government and OmniTRAX, the Government of Canada had given OmniTRAX C$20 million for upgrades to both the Railway and Port with the agreement that the company would match the funds. However, the contract stipulated that OmniTRAX could not reduce or abandon service on the line, or the funding would be required to be returned.


On October 13, 2017, Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr issued a notice of default to OmniTRAX, advising the company that they had 30 days to make repairs to the rail line or face default on the agreement. On November 14, the Federal Government issued a notice of default against OmniTRAX claiming C$18 million, plus interest. In response, the company filed a complaint through NAFTA Chapter 11 claiming the Canadian Federal Government had sabotaged efforts to repair and transfer ownership of the railway.


In June of 2018 OmnitTRAX was ordered by federal regulators to repair the tracks. On August 31, 2018 the port and rail line were sold to Arctic Gateway Group, a consortium of investors including First Nations, local governments, financial holding companies, and grain producers.


In 2003, OmniTRAX was one of three companies bidding for BC Rail, a province-owned railroad in British Columbia then being privatized by the government. OmniTRAX officials began communicating with provincial officials in 2001, urging the privatization of the railroad. Although the British Columbia Liberal Party had pledged during 2001 elections not to sell the road, OmniTRAX officials continued to urge them to do so in 2002.


BC Rail officials recommended the privatization of the line in the fall of 2002. OmniTRAX partnered with BNSF to bid on the line.


OmniTRAX hired Pilothouse Communications, a Victoria-based lobbyist firm, to represent its interests. Pilothouse lobbyist Erik Bornmann bribed two ministerial aides from 2001 to 2003 with cash and gifts in exchange for confidential government documents that were then passed to OmniTRAX. Brian Kieran, Pilothouse's owner, claimed he advised OmniTRAX against offering one a gift (a trip to Denver to see a football game), but OmniTRAX officials disregarded his advice. Law enforcement officials never charged OmniTRAX with any wrongdoing in regards to the bribery effort or the receipt of stolen documents.


OmniTRAX ultimately bid C$710 million for BC Rail, a C$4 million increase over its initial second-round bid. Although Crown prosecutors believed the improved OmniTRAX bid was related to its receipt of leaked documents, court testimony indicated that the government's bid evaluation team thought the improved offer was merely an attempt to win the auction. OmniTRAX dropped out of the auction (police later alleged, based on wiretap information) after its officials came to believe that the provincial government had predetermined Canadian National Railway to be the successful bidder. David Basi, an aide to BC Finance Minister Gary Collins, then advised Collins to arrange an unnamed "consolation prize" for OmniTRAX.


In December 2003, Pat Broe and Dwight Johnson (a vice president of The Broe Group) had dinner at an exclusive Vancouver restaurant with Collins. Their conversation allegedly regarded the sale of a BC Rail spur line to OmniTRAX. The sale of the spur was cancelled after law enforcement officials revealed to Collins that the sale had been compromised due to the disclosure of confidential government information. Law enforcement officials investigated the dinner meeting, but never charged Broe, Johnson, or Collins with wrongdoing. OmniTRAX strongly asserted it had committed no ethical or legal infractions regarding the meeting.


OmniTRAX is subsidiary of The Broe Group, a company with an array of financial interests in energy development, healthcare technology, real estate, transportation, and other industries. As of August 2019, OmniTRAX operated 21 rail lines, making it one of the largest privately-owned rail transportation companies in the United States.


OmniTRAX's corporate strategy is to identify companies or groups of companies transporting cargo but not using railroads to do so. It then looks for unused or under-used rail opportunities nearby to serve these customers. Commodities which the company transports include aggregate, chemicals, clay, grain, and stone. OmniTRAX railroads often connect to Class I railroads.


OmniTRAX also operates ports, terminals, and multimodal transhipment facilities. It sometimes engages (alone or in concert with other Broe Group companies) in industrial development.


TransCANADA Switching Services (TSS) was formed by OmniTRAX in 1996. In 1997, TSS won a contract to provide switching services at the newly-opened Deltaport, the Port of Vancouver's new container shipping facility. OmniTRAX ceased to provide services at Deltaport in July 2008.


OmniTRAX Logistics Services (OLS) is a subsidiary of OmniTRAX that provides materials handling. In 2016, OLS purchased the assets of Terracor Group, a firm that provided ultra-fine-grain sand for hydraulic fracturing purposes. These included three "frac sand" facilities (in Montana and Texas) and the mineral rights to a frac sand mine in Wisconsin. OmniTRAX intended to supply frac sand to Broe Group energy development companies as well as to other customers in Bakken Formation of Manitoba, Montana, North Dakota,


and Saskatchewan; the Eagle Ford Shale of Texas; and the Permian Basin of New Mexico and Texas. OmniTRAX's attempt to open the Wisconsin mine led to a lawsuit in February 2017 by local residents who feared the noise, light, and traffic associated with the mine. Although OmniTRAX won a state permit to fill in of wetland as part of a proposed railroad associated with the mine, a state court permitted the lawsuit to proceed. In May 2019, OmniTRAX said it had abandoned the mine project.


OmniTRAX Sand Holdings is a subsidiary of OmniTRAX which provides transportation options for frac sand and ceramics. It is a joint venture of OmniTRAX and Arrows Up, a bulk materials storage and transportation company. The joint venture is marketing the Arrows Up Jumbo Bin, a container which can be used by rail or trucks that is capable of holding up to of frac sand or ceramic material. The bin can be used for transportation or storage, and contains its own dust suppression features.


The Utah Central Railway is a shortline railroad serving Ogden, Utah and surrounding areas. It interchanges with the Union Pacific Railroad (UP), as well as with BNSF Railway trains running over the UP via trackage rights. The company began operations in 1992 as a private switching railroad, and became a common carrier in 1995. It expanded operations in 2001 and 2004, and the Patriot Rail Corporation gained control in January 2008.


At one point the UCRY leased a 44-ton GE diesel and class CA-11 caboose from the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden, Utah. Both the locomotive and caboose were repainted in UCRY colors. When returned to the museum, the locomotive sat idle for several years.


For many years, the Business Depot was served by an ex-Air Force Fairbanks-Morse H-12-44. In July 2010, the UCRY repainted their ex-Rarus Railway GP9 black with a large "Utah Central" in gold across the engine compartment, and moved it to BDO to replace the FM locomotive. Reason for this replacement is unknown; according to a Utah Central employee, the H-12-44 had only 100 running hours in 2009.


In September 2010, two GP-15 diesel locomotives 1418 and 1401, refurbished from LTEX were delivered to the UCRY's headquarters at the old sugar factory. They are painted in the distinctive Patriot Rail corporate scheme (red overall with a blue stripe highlighted by gold pin stripes down the middle with an eagle on the nose).


The Utah Central was once known for its eclectic mix of second-hand locomotives. For a time no two were painted alike (excepting nos. 1418 and 1401). Some notable former examples of this are an ex-Kennecott High-Clearance GP-39 locomotive originally used in the Bingham Canyon copper pit (RARW 1010) and an ex-Rarus Railway chop-nose GP9 (UCRY 201). Currently most of the Utah Central locomotive fleet is painted in the colors of its parent Patriot Rail.


The Kingman Terminal Railroad operates about 3 miles of track at the Kingman Industrial Park north of Kingman, Arizona. It is owned by Patriot Rail Company and its reporting mark is KGTR.


The Muskogee Company, although a Philadelphia company, was founded in Delaware on February 27, 1923. The company officers were brothers C. Jared Ingersoll, industrialist, as president, and John H. W. Ingersoll, attorney and industrialist, as vice president and treasurer. The Muskogee Company owned large interests in several railroads in and about northeastern Oklahoma.


According to a historical summary written by the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University, which holds the archives of the Muskogee Company, the company history actually began in the 1890s, when a group of Philadelphia businessmen, headed by C. J. Ingersoll, built the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Gulf Railroad (CO&G), which ran from Hartford, Arkansas to McAlester, Oklahoma (then known as Indian Territory). These men intended the railroad to serve their coal mines in Arkansas, the most notable of which were:the Sebastian County Coal & Mining Co., American Smokeless Coal Co., Mazzrad Coal & Mining Co., and Garland Coal & Mining Co.


In 1902, Ingersoll's group sold the CO&G to a competitor and began the Midland Valley Railroad, which would run from Ft. Smith, Arkansas to Wichita, Kansas. The route was to go northwest from Ft. Smith through Muskogee, Tulsa and the Osage Nation into Kansas, where there were other coal interests.


Coal shipments from company-owned mines to colder western regions of the United States via the Muskogee Company-owned Midland Valley was the original plan for profit. Oil discoveries in Oklahoma later produced lucrative revenues for the Muskogee Company railroads that were strategically located in high production areas of the state.


Seaboard Coast Line Industries, Inc., incorporated in Delaware on May 9, 1969, was a railroad holding company that owned the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, its subsidiary Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and several smaller carriers. Its railroad subsidiaries were collectively known as the Family Lines System. Its headquarters were in Jacksonville, Florida, in the United States. Through 1979, the Family Lines network totaled in 13 states.


The company succeeded SCL Industries, Inc., incorporated August 1, 1968, in Virginia and renamed Seaboard Coast Line Industries, Inc. on February 5, 1969.


On November 1, 1980, Seaboard Coast Line Industries merged with Chessie System, Inc. to form CSX Corporation (Chessie-Seaboard Multiplied), and in 1983 the Family Lines units were combined as the Seaboard System Railroad. In 1986, Seaboard System was renamed CSX Transportation, and then merged with sister CSX Corp. subsidiary Chessie System to form a single new railroad, reporting mark CSXT.


Iron Road Railways Incorporated (IRR) was a railroad holding company which owned several short line railroads in the U.S. state of Maine, as well as the Canadian provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.


IRR was formed in 1994 and headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. Its president was Robert T. Schmidt and officers included Benjamin F. Collins, John F. DePodesta, and Daniel Sabin.


In 2002, IRR's "Bangor and Aroostook System" (BAR, CDAC, VBB, and QS/NV) entered bankruptcy protection and service became jeopardized. Both Canadian National and New Brunswick Southern Railway applied to the Surface Transportation Board for permission to operate former BAR lines that served major industrial customers in northern Maine. CN was granted permission to operate from Van Buren, Maine to Madawaska, Maine, while NBSR was granted permission to operate former BAR lines from Brownville Junction south to Searsport and north to Madawaska; neither applications became necessary after the BAR lines were sold.


The BAR, CDAC, and part of the QS/NV were sold in October 2002 to Rail World which reorganized the lines under its newly formed subsidiary Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway.


The NV south of Newport to Wells River, Vermont was purchased by the state of Vermont and operation contracted to Washington County Railroad.


The VBB had been operated on tracks leased from owner Canadian Pacific. In January 2003, Canadian Pacific sold this small line to Canadian National.


Former IRR president Robert T. Schmidt retained ownership of the Windsor and Hantsport Railway while another former IRR officer Daniel Sabin took ownership of the Iowa Northern Railway.


In addition to streetcar lines, the Van Sweringen Brothers of Cleveland, Ohio owned a vast network of steam railroads.


The New York Central Railroad had owned the closely parallel New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad since 1882, soon after its opening. Due to fears of prosecution under the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act, the NYC sold the line on July 5, 1915 to the newly formed Nickel Plate Securities Corporation, a holding company formed by the Vans. They were at first only interested in the line to provide a right-of-way for their Shaker Heights Rapid Transit to downtown Cleveland.


By 1920 the Vans had decided they wanted control of other railroads, including the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Western Maryland Railway, Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway, Pittsburgh and West Virginia Railway, Pere Marquette Railway, Cincinnati Northern Railroad and Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad (Clover Leaf), as well as partial ownership in the Lake Erie and Western Railroad and Philadelphia and Reading Railway.


The Vaness Company was incorporated in Delaware on January 9, 1922 as a holding company to own all the other holding companies. The Clover Leaf Company was incorporated February 25 to own the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad, and the Western Company March 11 for the Lake Erie and Western Railroad. The LE&W was bought for $3 million from the New York Central Railroad on April 26. On July 1, 1923 and LE&W and Clover Leaf were merged into the Nickel Plate.


For the next several years, the Vans bought up the stock of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (including its Hocking Valley Railway), the Pere Marquette Railway and the Erie Railroad. On August 20, 1924 they announced plans to merge the four companies into the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate) to form a new New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway. They applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission on February 21, 1925, but were denied March 2, 1926 due to unsound financing. The plan was opposed by many C&O stockholders.


On February 3, 1927 the Vans, along with the New York Central Railroad and Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, bought the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway. Four days later the Vans announced that they would make the C&O the centerpiece of their system, selling the Erie and Pere Marquette to them.


The Alleghany Corporation was incorporated January 26, 1929 in Maryland to hold the Vans' stock in the Nickel Plate, Chesapeake Corporation, Erie and C&O, as well as a partial ownership of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway (traded to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in March for the B&O's part of the W&LE; the Vans acquired the rest of it from the NYC at the same time). In April 1930 the Alleghany Corporation bought the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad and 46% of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, gaining a majority of the MoPac on May 13. The Hocking Valley Railway merged into the C&O April 30, 1930.


Due to the Great Depression, the planned "Fourth System" failed. The new Midamerica Company bought most of the old assets on September 30, 1935 in an attempt to reorganize.


North American RailNet, Inc., based in Bedford, Texas, was a holding company of short line railroads. It formerly owned the following:


By 1948, there were 14 railroads in North America with more than 1000 locomotives in service each. Twelve were located in the US and two were in Canada. The total number of steam locomotives and the number of route miles for each railroad in 1948 are given by Bruce (1952).


Bruce (1952) also reports that by the end of 1949 a total of approximately 29,000 steam locomotives were left on Class I railroads in the United States.


The Tariffville train crash was a railroad accident that occurred on January 15, 1878 on the Connecticut Western line, then a route linking Hartford and the Hudson Valley.


On January 15, 1878, around 10:00 PM, a passenger train returning from Hartford crossed the wooden bridge spanning the Farmington River at Tariffville, as one of the two main bridge spans collapsed, dropping two locomotives, one baggage car and three passenger coaches into the icy river. Some people from New Hartford hitching a ride between the cars were killed when they were thrown beneath the wreck. The wreck claimed 13 lives and injured more than 70, some severely. Many of the passengers were returning from a Protestant revival meeting in Hartford featuring well-known evangelist Dwight L. Moody.


Residents of Tariffville provided emergency assistance for passengers and provided them with dry clothing and shelter. Dr. D.P. Pelletier was the first Hartford surgeon notified of the accident. He went to a drug store on Capitol Avenue and used the store's telephone to summon other doctors for a relief train in what is possibly the first emergency telephone call. A special relief train carrying physicians and other rescue personnel was sent that became known as the "Samaritan Special."


The Billups Neon Crossing Signal was a prototypical grade crossing signal installed at a dangerous Illinois Central crossing on Mississippi Highway 7 (now Mississippi Highway 332) in Grenada, Mississippi.


It was installed in the mid-1930s by inventor Alonzo Billups over growing concern due to numerous accidents at the crossing involving trains and motor vehicles. Like nothing before, the Billups signal was a large gantry spanning the highway and was likely the first such use of a gantry-style crossing of the type now in relatively common use. Upon approach of a train, a giant neon sign lit up with the words "Stop-DEATH-Stop" beneath a lighted skull and crossbones. Flashing neon arrows indicated the direction of oncoming trains and an air raid siren in lieu of bells provided aural warning. As a backup, standard railway flashers were mounted below the neon sign. The signal was known locally as the "Skull and Crossbones."


The onset of World War II brought about a scarcity of neon which, when coupled with maintenance problems with the signal (often manifesting themselves in the siren sounding continuously until a crew arrived to stop it) meant that no further signals were produced. The prototype was removed after less than thirty years of service, being replaced with standard railway crossing flashers and bells.


The Central Kansas Railway (CKR) was a short-line railroad operating of trackage in the U.S. state of Kansas and west to Scott City, Kansas. All trackage was former Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway branchlines in Kansas & northern Oklahoma. The Kansas Southwestern Railway, a sister company which operated former Missouri Pacific Railroad branchlines in Kansas, was merged into the CKR in 2000. Owned by Omnitrax, CKR's main business was from the Kansas wheat harvests, as well as other traffic.


The Watco Companies of Pittsburg, Kansas purchased all of the CKR's lines on May 31, 2001 and formed the Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad.


The Brooklyn Heights Railroad was a street railway company in the U.S. state of New York. It leased and operated the streetcar lines of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, but started out with the Montague Street Line, a short cable car line connecting the Wall Street Ferry with downtown Brooklyn along Montague Street. Eliphalet Williams Bliss owned the railroad.


According to articles in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, BHRR included the following lines between 1895 and 1899:


The railroad also partially owned the Bridge Operating Company, a line across the Williamsburg Bridge that was also owned by New York Railways.


Amtrak's Arrow Reservation System is used nationally in the United States by Amtrak employees to take reservations, check train status, and monitor Amtrak equipment throughout the of the Amtrak network. Arrow was created to make Amtrak's reservation taking more simple. It went on-line November 1, 1981. Arrow development is done in-house by Amtrak developers.


The Arrow application is similar to most major airline reservation systems, and runs on IBM's Transaction Processing Facility system. The system is used directly by Amtrak employees and travel agents, and is also the basis for Amtrak.com and Quik-Trak reservations.


On August 26, 2007, the system was the victim of a major power outage at the data center, which impacted Amtrak nationwide. All Amtrak agents were forced to hand-write tickets, and were unable to use the system for any other purposes.


In 2015 a project to upgrade Amtrak's reservation infrastructure left the future of Arrow uncertain with a decision to upgrade or replace it unmade.


Balmer Yard is a rail yard located in the Interbay neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. The yard is owned by BNSF Railway, and was built by predecessor Great Northern Railway as Interbay Yard. As part of a modernization in the late 1960s, which included a 16-track hump, it was renamed after former GN vice president Thomas Balmer. The nearby engine servicing area is still known as Interbay. The yard is over in size and has 41 parallel tracks for switching cars.


General Roy Stone's Centennial Monorail was demonstrated at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair in the U.S., which was held in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.


The track was approx 155 m (170 yards) long and joined the Horticultural Hall and the Agricultural Hall in Fairmount Park. It was used by one elaborately decorated double-decker railcar in Victorian art deco style. It had two load-bearing double-flange wheels, of which one was driven by a rotary steam engine of the "La France" type.


The concept was similar to that of the Lartigue Monorail: The load-bearing rail was installed on top of wooden A-frames. 1,346 mm (4 feet 5-inch) below there were two guide-rails for balancing the vehicle. The load-bearing wheels had a diameter of 711 mm (28-inch). The boiler was similar to that of conventional steam engines: it was 6,400 mm (21 feet) long with a diameter of 863 mm (34 inch). The driver's cabin was at the rear end, and just below there were two water tanks with coal heaped behind them.


A modified version of this demonstrator was exploited in 1878 on the Bradford & Foster Brook Railway in Pennsylvania.


The Blue Ridge Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. It was formerly part of the CSX Huntington West Division. It became part of the CSX Florence Division on June 20, 2016. The line was originally owned by Clinchfield Railroad and runs from Erwin, Tennessee, to Spartanburg, South Carolina, for a total of 138.6 miles. At its north end it continues south from the Erwin Terminal Subdivision and at its south end it branches off onto the Belton Subdivision and the Spartanburg Subdivision.


Banana messengers or fruit messengers were agents sent on US railroads to accompany shipments of bananas and other fruit. They were accorded special ticket rates, similar to those for railway employees and clergy, as late as the 1960s. The tickets were not honored on some premium trains. Reportedly, the reduced rate also applied to the return trip ("sans" bananas).


The name was also used to refer to some cabooses. Described in IC 9650-9956, these were steel underframe drover's cabooses built between 1897 and 1913, and reclassified as banana messengers sometime between 1955 and 1963. The last five were scrapped or sold between 1963 and 1971.


The Cambridge Railroad (also known as the Cambridge Horse Railroad) was the first street railway in the Boston, Massachusetts area, linking Harvard Square in Cambridge to Cambridge Street and Grove Street in Boston's West End, via Massachusetts Avenue, Main Street and the West Boston Bridge.


The company was chartered and incorporated May 25, 1853, and started construction September 1, 1855. The horsecar line opened between West Cedar Street (just east of Charles Street) and Central Square on March 26, 1856. Extensions opened in April to Brattle House in Brattle Square and to Revere House in Bowdoin Square. A further extension to Mount Auburn Cemetery opened soon after, as did a branch to Porter Square. The connecting Watertown Horse Railroad opened on April 27, 1857. The Porter Square branch was extended to the border of West Cambridge (now Arlington); there it met the West Cambridge Horse Railroad, which opened on June 13, 1859.


From its incorporation, the Cambridge Railroad was leased to the Union Railroad for 50 years, later passing under control of the West End Street Railway and the Boston Elevated Railway. The Red Line subway, opened March 23, 1912, now travels this route mostly underground, though the streetcar tracks remained for a while, possibly used by East Boston Tunnel (now Blue Line) trains until 1924 to travel to repair yards. The Red Line still travels over the Longfellow Bridge, successor to the West Boston Bridge, on the surface.


The line beat a rival company by buying secondhand cars from the Brooklyn City Railroad. For the first two months, no fares were charged, making the line very popular, with over 2000 passengers per day within a week. When it started to charge fares, the public was outraged, many calling for the franchises to be revoked.


The American Refrigerator Transit Company (ART) was a St. Louis, Missouri-based private refrigerator car line established in 1881 by the Missouri Pacific and Wabash railroads. It is now a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Corporation.


The Blue Ridge Railway was a 19th-century railroad in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was originally chartered in 1852 as the Blue Ridge Railroad of South Carolina. Original plans were for a 195-mile line from Anderson, South Carolina, to Knoxville, Tennessee going through the mountains with as many as 13 tunnels including the incomplete Stumphouse Mountain Tunnel.


By 1859, the railroad had built between Anderson and West Union, South Carolina and substantial work on several tunnels had started. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, no further work was ever completed on the tunnels despite efforts after the war, including one by the Black Diamond Railroad. A final extension from West Union to Walhalla, South Carolina at the urging of the Town Council and local citizens saw the first train arrive November 14, 1877, but no more track would ever be laid along the alignment up Stumphouse Mountain. In 1880, the Columbia and Greenville Railroad acquired the of track that had been laid. In 1901 the Southern Railway, successor to the Columbia and Greenville, split out the line as the Blue Ridge Railway.


The Southern leased the Blue Ridge to subsidiary Carolina and Northwestern Railway on July 1, 1951, and eventually merged the company. Passenger service from Belton, South Carolina, through Anderson to Walhalla ended by the latter part of 1951.


Block register territory (BRT) is a designation applied to some lightly used segments of railroad track in the United States. In these areas, trains are only authorized to move into the territory when a special type of log book is filled out correctly. BRT is described in the General Code of Operating Rules (GCOR) as Rule 6.15. A standard block register has rows divided into five columns:


The first four columns of the register are filled out upon entering the block. When the track is exited, the last column is filled out and the entire entry is crossed out.


Generally, only one train can occupy block register territory at a time. Additional trains are only allowed to occupy the block if the operator of the incoming train has contacted all of the other employees named in the open entries in the block register. Train movements are then made at restricted speed, a low enough speed that the train could stop within half the distance between it and an oncoming train or obstacle.


The Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad was a railroad in the state of New York, in the United States. Its line ran from Ithaca, New York to Owego, New York. It was founded in 1829 and began operations in 1834. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (Lackawanna) leased the company in 1855 but it remained in existence as a non-operating subsidiary. It was conveyed to Conrail on the bankruptcy of the Erie Lackawanna Railway, successor to the Lackawanna, in 1976.


The railroad was chartered on January 28, 1828, as the Ithaca and Owego Railroad. It was the third railroad built in North America, and the longest of the three. It connected the town of Ithaca, on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake with the town of Owego on the Susquehanna River to the south. By 1818 the Cayuga–Seneca Canal connected the Erie Canal to the north end of Cayuga Lake. The Ithaca and Owego was planned to provide a missing link connecting the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes to the coal fields of Pennsylvania and the Chesapeake Bay.


Little construction was done until the Chemung Canal was built along a similar course in 1833 via Seneca Lake and Elmira, diverting trade from Ithaca and Owego. At this point construction was started and the work was completed by 1834. The chief engineer for the construction was John Randel Jr.


The track was standard gauge strap-iron rails— strips of cast iron attached to wooden rails. The line covered a distance of approximately . It comprised an ascent from Cayuga Lake of in followed by a descent to Owego of . Two inclined planes accomplished the lift from Ithaca, one driven by a stationary engine and the second by a horse-drawn windlass. Originally the cars were pulled by horse power, An engine, "The Pioneer", built by Walter McQueen of Albany, was purchased in 1840. This engine was in service for a few years before crashing through a bridge killing the engineer and fireman, and the railroad returned to horse power.


In 1842 the railroad defaulted on its debts, and was foreclosed and sold to Henry Yates and Archibald McIntyre who reorganized the company as the Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad. At this time the track was changed to broad gauge. The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad leased the company in 1855 and operated the line thereafter as part of its Cayuga Division. The DL&W reconstructed the line with "heavy T rails" cand converted it back to standard gauge, facilitating a connection to the Erie in Owego.


In 1956 the physical right-of-way was abandoned; it would later be incorporated into the South Hill Recreation Way in Ithaca.


The company remained in existence as a non-operating subsidiary through the merger with the Erie Railroad in 1960 to form the Erie Lackawanna Railway. It was conveyed to Conrail in 1976 on the Erie Lackawanna's bankruptcy.


The Bruceton Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of Tennessee. The line runs from Nashville, Tennessee, to Camden, Tennessee, for a total of . At its east end the line continues west from the Nashville Terminal Subdivision and at its west end the line continues west as the Memphis Subdivision.


The Buffalo Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of West Virginia. It was formerly part of the CSX Huntington East Division. It became part of the CSX Florence Division on June 20, 2016. The line runs from Man, West Virginia, to Lorado, West Virginia, for a total of 16.6 miles. At its south end it continues north from the Logan Subdivision and at its north end the track comes to an end.


The Beech Grove Shops is a railway maintenance facility in Beech Grove, Indiana, outside Indianapolis. Beech Grove is Amtrak's primary maintenance facility. It also contains a very large freight yard.


The shops were originally constructed in 1904–1908 by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (the "Big Four"), servicing a network stretching across the Midwest into Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The facility was used as the company's repair shop for steam locomotives and passenger and freight cars.


The Big Four was acquired by the New York Central Railroad (NYC) in 1906, but operated as an independent business until it was formally merged with its owner in 1922. The facility passed to Penn Central Transportation in 1968 when the NYC merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad. Penn Central declared bankruptcy in 1970. Amtrak purchased the facility from the bankrupt Penn Central in 1975.


On September 20, 2002, an F2 tornado hit the shops, damaging Coach Shop 3, which was going to be torn down after the tornado; it had been used to overhaul Superliner passenger cars until 2000.


The Camden Line is a MARC commuter rail line that runs for between Union Station, Washington, D.C., and Camden Station, Baltimore, Maryland, over the CSX Capital Subdivision, and Baltimore Terminal Subdivision. It is one of the oldest commuter lines in the United States still in operation. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad began running commuter service from Baltimore to Ellicott City over part of the current line's trackage on May 24, 1830, and the line was extended to Washington on August 25, 1835. The Camden Line is the shortest MARC line and along with the Brunswick Line, is the successor to commuter services operated by the B&O. , the Camden Line is a weekday-only service.


The American Railway Association (ARA) was an industry trade group representing railroads in the United States. The organization had its inception in meetings of General Managers and ranking railroad operating officials known as Time Table Conventions, the first of which was held on October 1, 1872, at Louisville, Kentucky. In 1875, the group changed its name to General Time Convention and in October 1892, to American Railway Association. In January 1919, ten separate groups of operating officers were amalgamated with the association and carried on their activities as divisions, sections or committees of the larger group.


On October 12, 1934, the ARA ceased to exist, having joined with several other railroad industry trade groups to merge into the Association of American Railroads.


The Louisiana Railroad Bridge carries a single track rail line across the Mississippi River between Louisiana, Missouri and Pike County, Illinois. Built by the Chicago and Alton Railroad, the structure is currently owned by the Kansas City Southern Railway following a series of sales and consolidation in the railroad industry.


A predecessor of this bridge was opened for service in 1873 as one of the first 15 bridges across the Mississippi River. The current structure opened to traffic in 1898, having been fully reconstructed on the original piers from the 1873 bridge. When it opened, the 444 foot swing span was the longest swing span in the nation.


The bridge's distinctive appearance is derived from the variety of truss types installed as different spans were replaced over time. The most recent span replacement occurred in 1945, when three new spans were installed.


In its closed position, the bridge provides a vertical clearance of 15.8 feet above the normal pool for this section of the Mississippi River.


The Union Railroad Clairton Bridge, commonly known as the Clairton Coke Works Bridge, is a truss bridge that formerly carried traffic between Clairton, Pennsylvania and Lincoln, Pennsylvania for the Pennsylvania Union Railroad which is owned and operated by Transtar, Inc., a subsidiary of the United States Steel Corporation. The structure, which featured a single track, has been out of service since the 1970s; rail traffic was rerouted to the US Steel Clairton Works as the steel industry began to decline. The bridge is currently slated to become part of the Montour Trail, one of many current Pittsburgh-area bike trails projects.


Canadian Pacific Camden Place Rail Bridge is a truss bridge that spans the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This bridge is the official end of the navigable channel for river traffic. It was built in 1905 by the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway. In 1977, the bridge was modified to allow higher clearance under the center span. This was done by replacing the deck truss span with a shallower girder span. It is the main line crossing of the Mississippi River for the Canadian Pacific Railway transcontinental (Soo Line Railroad) line.


The Rock Island Railroad Bridge is BNSF Railway's bridge across the Columbia River, at Rock Island, Washington. The structure consists of one through truss, one deck truss, and an approach trestle.


The bridge was originally built in 1892 for the Great Northern Railway and was the first bridge to span the Columbia River. The site was chosen at Rock Island, Washington for being the shortest distance between the banks of the Columbia River in Washington state. In 1925, it was decided to strengthen the main span in anticipation of increased traffic and heavier trains by reinforcing the structure with an additional outside truss frame.


The Metropolis Bridge is a railroad bridge which spans the Ohio River at Metropolis, Illinois. Originally built for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, construction began in 1914 under the direction of engineer Ralph Modjeski.


The bridge consists of the following: (from north to south)


Total length of the bridge is . The largest span stretches , and remains the longest pin-connected simple through truss span in the world. Cost of the bridge when built was $4,000,000. (USD)


Not long after completion in 1917, ownership of the bridge was passed on to the Paducah and Illinois Railroad, a newly formed railroad jointly owned by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. In 1925, the Illinois Central Railroad purchased a 1/3 share of the Paducah and Illinois Railroad, and assumed operations and maintenance, as the bridge served as an important link in their newly completed Edgewood-Fulton Cutoff route.


As of 2013, the bridge is still owned by the Paducah and Illinois Railroad, with operations managed by the Canadian National Railway and bridge maintenance/inspection managed by BNSF Railway, where it continues to see heavy use.


The Panhandle Bridge (officially the Monongahela River Bridge) carries two rail lines of the Port Authority "T" line across the Monongahela River in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The name comes from Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, also known as the Panhandle Route, which operated over the bridge.


The basic structure was built in 1903, and was the third railroad bridge on the site since 1863. It was raised in 1912-14 as part of a grade separation project. The bridge's function was to carry Panhandle Route passenger, mail and express trains from Pennsylvania Station in Pittsburgh, with a tunnel in between the station and the bridge. Pennsy Panhandle freight trains utilized the Ohio Connecting Bridge slightly downstream on the Ohio River, or went the long way around the West Virginia Panhandle via Conway, Pennsylvania.


Rail traffic over the Panhandle Bridge declined as passenger trains were discontinued, and Amtrak became the only regular user of the bridge from 1971 to 1979, when the New York-St. Louis-Kansas City "National Limited" was discontinued on October 1 of that year. As PRR successor Conrail had no use for the bridge and the restrictive downtown tunnel, it was sold to the Port Authority, who rebuilt the bridge beginning in 1982 as part of the downtown light rail subway project, which removed trolleys from downtown streets and the Smithfield Street Bridge. PAT (as the Port Authority system was known at the time) light rail cars began using the bridge on July 7, 1985.