PIEDMONT AND WESTERN RAILROAD CLUB

RAILROAD REPORTING MARKS - PAST & PRESENT


Over 12,000 Reporting Marks and Abbreviations for North American Railroads

Originally compiled by Jesse Koski.
Subsequent revisions by Ken Humphreys.

P&WRR expresses appreciation to Bruce Andrews for providing invaluable aid in helping us to keep this listing current.

If you have any comments, corrections or additions, please e-mail the P&WRR Webmaster.



Railroad equipment marks updated through the April 1, 2011
Additional marks added September 2011 and May 2012

This file contains AAR assigned reporting marks that have been compiled from several sources. Many common railroad abbreviations are also included. The list includes all active AAR reporting marks as of April 1, 2011 plus many historical marks which are no longer in use. Included in the abbreviations are 199 railroads and affiliated companies which became a part of the Southern Railway System. Railroads acquired by Southern some time after 1894 when the railroad was formed by merger of several railroads are noted in the listings.  The Southern Railway System later merged with the Norfolk & Western Railway to become the Norfolk Southern Corporation in 1982.  Note that most of the companies which were incorporated into the Southern Railway existed before the advent of AAR reporting marks. They are therefore listed by abbreviations, not by reporting marks.

Many container and trailer marks were added to this listing in September 2010. This listing of container and trailer marks is complete only through November 1997. After that date, the listing is not complete. Publication of the Official Intermodal Equipment Register was discontinued after March 2000. With the explosive growth of intermodal transport, there are now literally thousands of container marks and these change quite frequently.  It is therefore literally impossible for P&WRR to maintain a complete list of container marks. However a searchable list of all current marks is available at
http://www.bic-code.org/official-register-containers-bic-code.html. The registry of marks is now maintained by the Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal rather than by AAR.

* (Asterisk) or + (plus) denotes duplicated or reassigned reporting marks among the various sources we have come across over the years. This is often due to the fact that the reporting mark had been retired long ago and reassigned, or the company was sold, bought out, merged and/or changed names. Some marks are also registered to equipment leasing companies which have leased the equipment to more than one customer, each of which used the mark. In some cases a mark may be shown as the mark of the leasing company and also as the mark of the lessee company. If both the lessee company and the equipment leasing company are known, both names appear after the mark and are separated by a /.  Many of the duplicated reporting marks are also due to the many railroad mergers and purchases over the years. Since this is a compilation of many reporting marks lists, we have made no attempt to track down the history of the many companies in this list. In most cases, but not all, duplicated marks are listed with the oldest mark first. If the current holder of a duplicated or reassigned mark is known, the entry is preceded by +.

In the absence of AAR assigned reporting marks, the AAR uniform Alpha code was used. A limited number of commonly used abbreviations for railroad names and terms is also included in this listing. Examples are MOW (maintenance of way) and UNK (railroad unknown).

Reporting marks, along with the car serial number, are used by shippers and railroads to identify specific pieces of rolling stock. All organizations with cars in interchange service are assigned reporting marks by the AAR. Some reporting marks may still be registered even though the organizations no longer have cars in interchange service or may still be awaiting delivery of ordered cars.

The uniform ALPHA code is assigned by the AAR to all organizations that may be involved in handling rail equipment. The ALPHA code usually, but NOT always, is the same as the reporting mark and, in the case of an organization that has no current or planned interchange equipment, is NOT to be considered as a reporting mark until so assigned. The ALPHA code is used by shippers and railroads to identify car-handling organizations for purpose of routing, billing, division of charges, etc.

PLEASE NOTE that for historical research purposes this list contains references to many companies that are known to no longer be in existence.

NOTE ALSO that reporting mark changes and additions occur frequently. Company names also change due to mergers and other reasons. If any errors, changes or omissions are noted in these listings, please bring them to the attention of the P&WRR Webmaster so that we may keep these listings as current and comprehensive as possible.



ALPHABETICAL LISTING
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

EXPLANATION OF LISTINGS
ROAD MARK
(OWNER OR LESSEE/LESSOR
[FALLEN FLAG OR PREDECESSOR COMPANY]
SPS
(BN)
[SPOKANE, PORTLAND & SEATTLE]



REPORTING MARK SUFFIXES


X PRIVATE CAR OWNERS
U CONTAINERS
Z TRAILERS
 

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