CR - NS/PRR & CSX/NYC

[nbrodar]

tomikawaTT asked why NS applied PRR decals to it's ex-Conrail equipment. Actually only the locomotives got PRR lettering, the cars retained their CR markings. CSX did it the opposite and applied NYC markings to it's former Conrail cars, and CSXT markings to it's locomotives.

The reason was accounting. Business accounting in convoluted to begin with and railroad accounting is downright byzantine. CSX and NS spent $10.5 (give or take a few) billon on CR, but didn't actually take possesion of it. Instead they formed three holding companies, New York Central Lines (for CSX), Pennsylvania Lines (NS), and Shared Assests Conrail (the terminal company that serves New Jeresy and Detroit).

The Conrail assets were then divided up among the holding companies. CSX leased it's portion of Conrail from NYC and NS it's portion from PRR. In 2004 (I think) both road patitioned the Securities and Exchange Commistion to desolve the holding companies and take full possession of the assets. NYC and PRR were dissovled during 2005. Shared Assets is the only remaining company.

Nick

[wjstix]

It's interesting that everyone these roads doing this calmly, but when someone mentions that Union Pacific has equipment with reporting marks CNW or CGW people go berserk [soapbox]because they're sure UP is only doing it so they can prove in court that they still own and use the trademarks to the old railroads names and then can charge model manufacturers to make Chicago and NorthWestern or Chicago Great Western models. Railroads in fact do this all the time, before the UP took over CNW, CNW used reporting marks MSTL and CMO and CGW from railroads it had taken over in earlier years. [:D]

[tomikawaTT]

nbrodar

I saw a lot of NYC and PRR markings on freight cars passing through Nashville while I was living there a few years ago, so I'm inclined to believe that they were applied to more than locomotives. The alternative, that Conrail had never repainted them, seems implausible at best (especially since the rest of the paint job was pure Conrail.)

Almost anything involving any kind of transportation system results in Byzantine poitical and financial arrangements. The latest is the action of the Clark County Commission, which refused to certify the company providing concrete to the Hoover Dam Bypass project because it was non-union. The vote was three Democrats to two Republicans, and the public be ****ed.

Chuck

[nbrodar]

Chuck,

You could be right, it's just that in Philadelphia, I've never seen any freight cars with PRR markings, just the engines. I also remember hearing that NS had started remarking the cars, and stopped when CSX began applying NYC marking to theirs.

Nick

Nick.