What is CMO

[cacole]

I saw a train of 100 fairly new covered hoppers going eastward through Benson, Arizona today. None of them had grafitti on them yet, and they were all numbered in series. They had the UP shield and slogan on them, but the road name was indicated as CMO rather than UP. What is CMO?

[Anonymous]

CMO is the reporting marks for the Chicago, St Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha. Also called the Omaha Road, CMO was a long time subsidiary of the Chicago & North Western. It was formed as a corporation in 1880 and came under the control of the C&NW in 1882. The CMO was basically operated as part of the C&NW for the entirty of its existance. It was leased by the C&NW in 1957 virtually ending its existance. C&NW merged it out of existance in 1972.
UP uses the marks for freight cars so the don't fill up all of the UP numbers. They also still use the CNW, SP and MSTL marks which also all have the UP sheild on them.

[CShaveRR]

I have still not determined (or been informed of) what would cause a series of UP cars to be lettered CMO instead of UP (or CHTT). I have a feeling that cars with CMO and CHTT reporting marks are leased equipment. Maybe there's something in the nature of the lease. There weren't any CMO cars until a couple of years ago. You'd think that as a UP employee and a freight-car freak I'd be able to find this out, but noooo...

Cars lettered SP or CNW (or MP, SSW, D&RGW, MKT, WP, or whatever) were lettered with those reporting marks (with certain exceptions) when the UP acquired them by merger. No new cars are being lettered with these reporting marks (some have been renumbered when they were rebuilt, but many carry their original numbers).

[miniwyo]

I saw the same thing a few weeks ago. It was certianly a sight to see.

[jimrice4449]

When you have a RR of the size of the 4 Super RRs in the US today you can run out of numbers for a block of cars if they all were to carry the same (UP in this case) initials. By reviving (sometimes long dead) reporting marks you can run cars in the same number series simply by having 2 or 3 cars w/ the identical numbers but diferent intials, for example, UP 123456, CNW 123456, and CMO 123456.
There's also (although I don't think it applies in this case) a situation where a larger road might want to list ownership of some equipment trust w/ a subsiduary rather than the parent company. For example the Milwaukee Road had some Hudsons w/ the initials CTH&SE on the tender. They never ran on the CTH&SE. It was just some kind of book keeping/legal shenaigan.

[tree68]

During the CR split, many cars were lettered "NYC" or "PRR" to facilitate the split. How long they remain with that lettering remains to be seen (somebody may have info).

Remember, too, how UP is about trademarks. The "heritage" units are only partly about heritage. They are also about protecting the trademarks, etc, that UP now owns. Running out of numbers notwithstanding (and they are doing similar things with engines, too), using the reporting marks helps keep ownership established...

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

C&NW was also in the habit of using reporting marks to which it had the rights (M&StL, CMO and CGW come to mind) for blocks of new equipment, especially coal gondolas for unit train service. UP probably picked up on this practice for several of the reasons cited above, e.g.: additional number blocks or for financing purposes if the underlying subsidiary road holding the reporting marks still exists on paper.

[Anonymous]

FYI,
Reporting Mark Private Car Owner

ACFX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
ADMX ADM Transportation Company
AEX The Andersons
ALAX Equistar Chemicals, LP
ALNX The Alberta Government
ARSX Aristech Chemical Corporation
ATGX ATEL Leasing Corporation
BCAX Blue Circle Inc.
BFGX Oxy Vinyls, LP
BFRX Bakery Trading Co.
BGEX GATX Capital Corp.
BRAX The CIT Group/ Capital Finance
BRIX Incobrasa Industries Ltd.
CCX Columbian Chemical Company
CCLX Crystal Car Line
CEFX The CIT Group/ Capital Finance
CGAX Cargill, Inc. - C.G.D Division
CGEX Cargill, Inc. - C.G.D Division
CGLX CGTX Inc.
CGOX Cargill, Inc.
CHVX Chevron Chemical Company
CLSX Cargill, Inc. - Salt Division
CNLX Canac International
CNWX The Canadian Wheat Board
CRDX Chicago Frieght Car Leasing Co.
CSYX Central Soya
CTNX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
DCLX Dow Chemical Canada, Inc.
DDNX Didion, Inc.
DGCX Dakota Gasification Company
DJLX Joseph Leasing, Ltd.
DOWX The Dow Chemical Company
DUPX E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., Inc.
ELTX Solvay Polymers Inc.
FLOX Flex Leasing Corporation
FPAX Formosa Transrail Corporation
FURX First Union Rail
GACX General American Marks Company
GAPX Georgia Gulf Corporation, Plaquemine Division
GCCX GATX Capital Corp.
GFSX GATX Capital Corp.
GPFX General American Marks Company
GPLX General American Marks Company
GRPX The CIT Group/ Capital Finance
GVDX Oxy Vinyls, LP
GWIX GWI Leasing Corporation
HLMX HELM Financial Corporation
IMCX Mosaic / IMC Global Operations
ITLX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
JAIX JAIX Leasing Company
JTMX ISG Resources Inc.
LCGX Cargill, Inc. - C.G.D Division
MDDX Old Line Holding Company
MWCX Midwest Railcar Corporation
NAHX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
NCIX Nova Chemicals, Ltd.
NCLX Nova Chemicals, Ltd.
NCUX Transport Capital Rail Partners, LLC
NDYX First Union Rail
NRLX Bombardier Capital Rail
OCPX Oxy Vinyls, LP
OLDX Old Line Holding Company
PCSX PLM International
PFMX Perdue Transportation, Inc.
PLCX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
PLWX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
PSPX Phillips Petroleum Company
PTLX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
RFMX Caldwell-Baker Company
RMGX Railcar, Ltd.
ROIX Shintech, Inc.
RRLX Rail Logistics, LC
SAMX Cargill, Inc.
SHPX ACF Industries, Inc.
SIRX Southern Illinois Railcar Co.
SKNX The Saskatchewan Grain Car Coproration
SMNX Solvay Minerals Inc.
SRCX Sid Richardson Carbon Company
SRIX Southwest Rail Industries, Inc.
STLX A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company
TCMX The CIT Group/ Capital Finance
TILX Trinity Industries Leasing Company
TLCX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
TLDX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
TRNX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
UELX ADM Transportation Company
UMPX First Union Rail
UNPX Procor Limited
USLX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
WAGX PCS Phosphate Company, Inc.
WITX General Electric Rail Services Corporation
WRSX Warren Railcar Service, Inc.

Best regards,
Swafford

[cacole]

Thanks to all who responded to my question. I have an older document that I found somewhere on the Internet entitled "Railroad Abbreviations" but CMO is not included in it for some reason -- now it is, along with all of the ones provided by Swafford!

Thanks

[CShaveRR]

Mr. Cole, the last original CMO cars probably disappeared in the 1970s. UP didn't resurrect the reporting mark until 2004 (or late 2003). So a list of reporting marks wouldn't have to be too far out of date to miss it.

And no, I don't buy the theory that they're using this reporting mark just to fit more cars into the same numbering series. (Though that's precisely why some of those coal gons were relettered MSTL by CNW--they were temporarily leased, the numbers already on the cars conflicted with some CNW numbers, so they used another reporting mark so they didn't have to renumber the cars while they operated them. They did that with some old EL and CR open hoppers they acquired, too--lettered them FDDM.)

[CShaveRR]

Tree, no freight cars were lettered PRR to separate them in anticipation of the Conrail breakup. Cars destined to be owned by CSXT were relettered NYC, but the 58-percent majoroity of the cars, going to NS, retained CR reporting marks.

Currently, NS is relettereing and renumbering some of its Conrail cars into the NS 600000 series and assigning NS-style classifications to them, like BP, GP, FP, etc., with the "P" apparently standing for "Pennsylvania".

CSX, however, will not be relettering its NYC cars. Some have already been rebuilt, repainted, and even renumbered, but they retain the NYC reporting marks. (More sharp-eved observers will have noted a series of CSXT auto-parts box cars with Conrail markings--those are not ex-NYC, but rather ex-CR, and they were acquired from Norfolk Southern a few years after the Conrail split.)

[CShaveRR]

As for a list of reporting marks, the most complete I know of can be found at

http://www.nakina.net/report.html

This is a historical list, giving the dates during which these marks were used (or at least when they were shown in Equipment Registers).

[miniwyo]

NEW! Earlier I saw a whole train of BRAND NEW full CMO coal hoppers, They looked really sharp until I came up on the Locomotives. In great UP fasion they had 4 of THE crummiest looking locos on the point. figures, EH?

[NareBNSF]

I actually saw a bunch of NYC boxcars in Enola Railyard a couple days ago.

[BaltACD]

NareBNSF

I actually saw a bunch of NYC boxcars in Enola Railyard a couple days ago.

As CSX and NS were dividing up ConRail equipment, the equipment going to CSX accounts was lettered NYC, equipment going to NS accounts was lettered PRR.  There has been no crushing need for either carrier to reidentify this equipment into CSXT & NS equipment series.

Today's Class 1 carriers own the reporting marks of all the carriers that were merged into today's carrier.  They will frequently use one of these reporting marks to identify a particular situation for accounting or other internal purposes.

[Buslist]

BaltACD

 

 

NareBNSF

I actually saw a bunch of NYC boxcars in Enola Railyard a couple days ago.

 

 

As CSX and NS were dividing up ConRail equipment, the equipment going to CSX accounts was lettered NYC, equipment going to NS accounts was lettered PRR.  There has been no crushing need for either carrier to reidentify this equipment into CSXT & NS equipment series.

Today's Class 1 carriers own the reporting marks of all the carriers that were merged into today's carrier.  They will frequently use one of these reporting marks to identify a particular situation for accounting or other internal purposes.

 

Covered hopper cars (sugar) going to the candy company in Forest Park Il are almost universally CMO even fresh repaints.

[CShaveRR]

Balt, perhaps some ex-Con locomotives were relettered PRR, but--even 18 years after the breakup, I can find no evidence of a NS-operated ex-CR freight car being relettered PRR.  The ones that went to CSX were relettered NYC, but the ones that went to NS stayed as CR equipment.  Some eventually were relettered and renumbered into NS series (with classifications that included a "P" in them), usually in the 600000s.

[trainmaster247]

Seen this to in both grain hoppers and box cars a few times also some L&N family lines cars.

[Cotton Belt MP104]

trainmaster247

Seen this to in both grain hoppers and box cars a few times also some L&N family lines cars.

 

It would seem Larry and Paul (10-19-2005 on this thread) have good answers.  With the same reasoning, someone questioned recently/somewhere, how can NEW SSW cars be rolling out of production lines PRESENTLY?  See Larry and Paul posts for the answer this interesting occurance    endmrw0302171240

[BaltACD]

CShaveRR

Balt, perhaps some ex-Con locomotives were relettered PRR, but--even 18 years after the breakup, I can find no evidence of a NS-operated ex-CR freight car being relettered PRR.  The ones that went to CSX were relettered NYC, but the ones that went to NS stayed as CR equipment.  Some eventually were relettered and renumbered into NS series (with classifications that included a "P" in them), usually in the 600000s.

NYC & PRR are what the plan called for, NS also got the CR reporting mark so in most cases they didn't have to do anything.