On some CSX and Norfolk Southern locomotives what does the PRR and NYC leters mean.

[Anonymous]

Do these leters represent PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD AND NEW YORK CENTRAL? What are they there to represent?

[Dough]

I'm glad that you brought this up. They are former Conrail engines that are assigned that for some reason. Accounting I belive? I have really wanted some clearification on this!

And on a related note, I caught a few NS SD40's working a week ago and they had CNO&TP and AGS marks. Any clue why they picked these two long dead roads?

[Train Guy 3]

I know like 2 years back in TRAINS there was a picture describing a repainted Conrail loco and it noted the "PRR" under the number.

[tree68]

I believe that this was the method used to mark up who got what. Right after the merger, I saw a lot of hoppers marked NYC on CSX.

That noted, I think CSX got the "NYC" stuff and NS got the "PRR" stuff. I'm sure that a lot of the NYC and PRR markings will eventually disappear, as the equipment gets assimilated into the respective railroads.

[JoeKoh]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Dough

I'm glad that you brought this up. They are former Conrail engines that are assigned that for some reason. Accounting I belive? I have really wanted some clearification on this!

And on a related note, I caught a few NS SD40's working a week ago and they had CNO&TP and AGS marks. Any clue why they picked these two long dead roads?

they could be honoring the predecessor roads.i have seen these locos and caught a csx gp 30 with C&O on it last weekend.
stay safe
Joe

[cpbloom]

Conrail was split 58%, 42% with NS getting the 58%. The locos were divided up that way and the tracks, CSX got most of the NYC routes and NS got most of the PRR routes so that might explain why the label all their stuff PRR and CSX labels theirs NYC. The other thing, on NS I have seen the letters CNO&TP, AGS, SOU and NW; Chessie System used to do that too with the B&O, C&O and WM. That might be because when the railroads came to be, the individual roads still had their own identity. I can't speak for NS on that but I don't think they officially done away with B&O, C&O etc. until 5/6 after CSX

[wabash1]

All prr equipment went to NS and all nyc went to CSX. The reason for the markings is who owns it. ( or did for revenue perpose) after a period of time it will get the ns logo on it. the cnotp ags sou marks are who owns them. even though there is no southern or cnotp or ags and so on . this is the way they can still show their assets as these rails only was merged not a buy out. this is for tax perpose only and each part can be sold off you haft to remeber the definition of northfolk southern. they are not a railroad they just own one.

[Anonymous]

Hey Dough, believe it or not, but some of those roads that are under NS, still report their company earnings seperately from the conglomerate. I read it in Trains magazine somewhere. So, that's the reason why some of NS's engines have those company markings.

Glenn
A R E A L RAILROADER...A TRUE AMERICAN!!!!

[Dough]

Hey Glenn thanks, I thought that it had something to do with accounting. Now let me ask some more questions.

Do the letters represent who originally built the engines or are they just assigned. I know that many of the newer units have NS, however I have not looked for any other marks on the new stuff. I could believe that to be true with Sou and NW. However, I am not sure when CNO&TP or AGS were absorbed.

Also, in regards to wabash1's post, what dictates when an car or engine will recieve new marks. In the case of engines I would think that they keep the small markings on the cabs even though they get the new paint.

However, I recently discovered that a bunch of the cars the get delivered to a local Thomas concrete plant are fallen flags. This is a CSX line and I have been going back often to get pics of B&O and C&O covered cement hoppers with original reporting marks. However I noticed today that the letters above the number on one of the B&O's had been painted out and CSX had been applied.

To provide even more random examples I see some ex L&N grain hoppers with original marks and some repainted with CSX. However, every single Chessie has a giant square paint job (in csx hopper tan) and the reporting marks and numbers have been changed.

Sooooo, any method to this madness???[;)][?]

[Anonymous]

Isnt it with the NS locomotives if it says PRR is use to be CR's and if its a CSX and says NYC it use to be CR's.

[MP57313]

I noticed this too when I was back east. Thought there might be some roster number duplication so the different reporting marks keep things straight.

Union Pacific continued to buy/paint "new" cars with Missouri Pacific (MP) initials into the mid-90s and later.

MP

[Anonymous]

My take on this from what I heard is that some as long as they don't need paint then they won't paint them. From my dealings it's a cost thing. If theres no reason to paint a car the companies don't want to use the money to paint them. When you see a patch that is there cheap way of changing the numbers. This is just what I could figure out from the stuff I've read about.
Andrew Miller

[BaltACD]

NYC - PRR reporting marks were a convienient means of identifying who got what in the CSX/NS division of Conrail.

Since equipment, generally, only gets repainted when it undergoes a major overhaul we will continue to see fallen flag reporting marks for a number of years to come. The fallen flag reporing marks will diminish over time as the equipment is rebuilt and assimilated into the owenrs reporing marks or scrapped.

The Official Equipment Register contains listings of each reporing mark that belongs to each carrier, and each private car owner, for that matter. The Equipment Register contains most all statistical equipment information that anyone can make use of concerning rail cars. For computer use by the railroads there is the Universal Machine Language Equipment Register (UMLER) that has all the equipment information for computer application usage. UMLER information gets used in Train Documentation for such things as car length, car width, tare weight, load limit and any of 100 different aspects that pertain to the use and accounting of cars, their ownership and their rental (per diem).

[wabash1]

Southern railway owned the cnotp and the gs and the ags and the camp lejune and dozenof othr shortline railroads. the oly reason you see the reporting marks is that the engines are not getting repainted. all new engiens only have the ns name on them.

On to umler it also will tell you what a engine is horsepower and who ownes it. so when i have a engine in my consist from up or csx or bnsf i can look it up on the computor and see what it is.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

CNO&TP continues to exist as the lessee and operator of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, which is owned by the City of Cincinnati, and runs from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. I believe that CNO&TP is 100% owned by NS, but continues to exist because of the lease of Cincinnati Southern. I'm not sure of the reason for the continued existence of Alabama Great Southern.