Do Trains Have License Plates? - Railroad Reporting Marks for Beginners!
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- čas přidán 26. 05. 2024
- Do Trains Have License Plates? - Railroad Reporting Marks for Beginners!
Well, not exactly but they have reporting marks, which perform a similar function.
Welcome to Model Railroading for Beginners!
Each piece of railroad equipment in North America has a reporting mark. The reporting mark consists of a 2-4 character alphabetic code and a number from 1-6 digits.
The alphabetic code tells you who owns the piece of equipment. The codes are usually abbreviations. For example, “UP” is for Union Pacific, “NS” is for Norfolk Southern, etc.
There are a few alphabetic codes that are special.
If the code ends in “X”, then the railroad equipment belongs to a private owner that’s not a railroad.
Many of these are leasing companies, like ACFX (American Car & Foundry). Others are industrial owners with their own fleets of cars, like ADMX (Archer Daniels Midland).
Codes ending in “Z” are reserved for trailers, like semi trailers that are sometimes hauled on trains and frequently towed behind big rigs.
Codes that end in “U” are for intermodal containers, the big metal shipping containers that can be seen on trains, ships, and behind semi trucks.
Sometimes railroads have more than one reporting mark. Union Pacific, for example, also has “MP”, since they acquired the Missouri Pacific Railroad in 1982. UP also uses “UPY” for some of its yard locomotives.
Dan & Nichole discuss all this and more in this episode of Model Railroading for Beginners!
If you’re curious about how this all works and want to learn more, be sure to watch this video!
#train #modeltrains #trainvideo #scalemodels #railroad #railway - Jak na to + styl
Hey Nicole. Graffitis are "artistic vandalism" to my point of view. In fact, it's a real pain in the a... for railroad companies. As Dan said, reporting marks get covered by those pseudo artists. That's violation of property at the end. I'm glad being old enough to have seen cars with none on them. Nearly all my model cars have none. I really don't like them. This one was very educational. Thanks for sharing your work.
I remember when graffiti on trains was rare, too! We're glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!
Excellent informative video which I enjoyed watching.👍😃😃🚂🇬🇧
We're glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching!
Great Video Dan, Nicole!! You'll
have to do one showing how to remove a factory applied set
of numbers and reapply new
numbers for sets of cars belonging to your favorite RR!!
I love the ole Micro Sol and scotch tape method!!! 😁😁😁
That's a good video idea. I did one a while back on removing old decals, but factory lettering is another good one. I'll put it on the list. Thanks for watching!
Great video! I always love to see this series grow and cover new topics!
We will be doing more of these from time to time. We're glad you liked this one. Thanks for watching!
The rail car your referring too that supposedly Rosevelt used was in grand central station. I laughed my entire way through the documentary. He pointed to the truck and tried to say the springs are “heavy duty springs” when in reality all they were was standard issue of the time.
The car itself is in Ct rail museum now I believe
The intermodal containers are also a tad different from the standard trailer.
If you observe them they have a series of braces that’s meant for overseas travel. And the have holes on each corner for locking them into each chassis that the truck can transport.
The trailers are also reinforced in the floors as well for train travel but not as much as a standard container.
Practice was or so I was told was a container ship would pull to Newark and they come off the ship onto a train across the county to LA or west coast where it was back on a ship to Asia. Idea was less port of calls for the ship and lower shipping cost
If you also look at the reporting markings of an Overseas container the weight is in KGs as well as American tons or Lbs
Thanks for the clarifications. It's been a long time since I saw that program, and mostly what I remembered was the comment about the reporting marks. That's good to know about the trailers vs. containers, too. Thanks for the info and for watching!
I am not sure how i have been a railfan this whole time and not understood why it was called Z train. Thank you for finally learning me a little something haha.
We're glad you found the video helpful. Thanks for watching!
one reason why rail equipment is separated into railroad owned and private owned is for billing purposes... private railcars, when on customer rails, are not subject to a demurrage fee... whereas railroad owned equipment IS subject to a demurrage fee when on customer property
That's interesting. I am not that well versed on the legal and financial aspects of railroading, so I appreciate the info. Thanks for sharing and for watching!
Daniel, Thanks for covering this topic. Knowing what all those letters mean enhances the MR experience. Thanks for explaining the divided ownership of auto rack cars. I had no idea. But, you didn't say what the "G" after TT stands for. X is for privately owned leased cars, right ? What does the "X" refer to ? An extra ? Or is it X has been an identifier of things not commonly accepted or in this case these are beyond our (RR company) purview or part of our inventory . Also I think a very related topic as part of what you covered so well is how the importance of reporting marks conflicts with graffiti . I think I remember reading that taggers had a nodding respect of RR reporting marks and would refrain from obliterating that information. But, if they didn't doesn't that crime interfere with efficient car movement and JIT progress reports to shipper clients ? I would guess that this is very important.
Thanks again Daniel for continuing education. Bob
I am not sure about the origins of the use of "X" for private owners. It might be interesting to find out. I know Trailer Train has a bunch of reporting marks, that I think they use for different types of rolling stock, but I'd have to research that one more too. TTGX is just one. Many of them are like that, TT-X, with some other letter in the third slot. I didn't know that taggers would avoid reporting marks, and I'm not sure if it's a more serious offense to cover the reporting marks vs. just regular tagging/vandalism. That would also be interesting to know. Thanks for contributing to the discussion and for watching!
Don't forget the T is also part of CSX's full name, being CSX Transportation.
Yes, good catch. Thanks for watching!
Very good. I should've glommed onto that point. But that somebody owns the flat car and someone else owns the super structure.
Very cool 🤠
Thanks for watching!
Thanks!
Thank you so much!
Dan, Nicely done video for the beginners to use as a reference in building their rolling stock fleets. Especially as some private owned reporting marks can be seen on certain roads, such as USGX for ex-SP sugar beet cars, or unit train coal contracts. Also by the way how does that "Front Runner" 2 axle TOFC car run for you in a train? I never had much luck with them, especially if I needed to back the train up.
I'm glad you liked the video. I haven't really had a chance to run the Front Runner car. I have several of them, but like a lot of my rolling stock, they've been in boxes for years. Once I get the layout going I'll be able to test them out and see how well they work. Thanks for watching!
Hi Dan my name is Bradley I would like to ask you a question can you review mp 710310 from 7:32
That's a really old model, but maybe I could do a retro review or something on it sometime. It's already been weathered, has Kadees installed, etc. so I can't really review it as a new model. Thanks for the suggestion!
@DanielCortopassi it's alright a retro review could be good if that comes out feel free to mention me in one of your videos
Are you nicholie going longbeach
We'd like to but I'm not sure if we'll be able to make it. I'm sure it will be fun. Thanks for watching!
What's Longbeach ? Long Beach, Ca.?