BNSF, CSX, Please pick a Name>>>>>>>

[chefjavier]

Jim Wrinn, Editor of Trains wrote a interested article on February2008 {From the Editor}

One of the most frequently asked question at Trains "What does CSX stand for?" More recently, the same question has been posed about BNSF.

So, we'd like to offer alternatives:

For BNSF, choose a bold new name that bespeaks your territory and franchise. Like "Great Western".....

For CSX, to keep down confusion ,stick with the names that gave you the componets for the current moniker- "Cheesie" or "Seabord"....

As for my personal opinion:

I prefer if BNSF would keep the name Santa Fe with Warbonet colors and for CSX, Cheesie System. What is your suggestion?

[zugmann]

The names they have are fine.  THey should show pride by providing good, timely service - not by having a name that only a few railfans care about.

[n012944]

Jim Wrinn, Editor of Trains wrote a interested article on February2008 {From the Editor}

One of the most frequently asked question at Trains "What does CSX stand for?" More recently, the same question has been posed about BNSF.

So, we'd like to offer alternatives:

For BNSF, choose a bold new name that bespeaks your territory and franchise. Like "Great Western".....

For CSX, to keep down confusion ,stick with the names that gave you the componets for the current moniker- "Cheesie" or "Seabord"....

As for my personal opinion:

I prefer if BNSF would keep the name Santa Fe with Warbonet colors and for CSX, Cheesie System. What is your suggestion?

Well, Cheesie system might cause confusion as well, people might think that CSX served Wisconsin.  Chessie System, means as little to shippers as CSX does.  Having a name does not make a railroad haul products any better or cheaper.  In the end that is all a shipper really cares about.

[Jack_S]

CSX can keep that name, but I was torqued when they dropped the stylized "Kitten" logo.  I was one of those kids who was heavily (and favorably) influenced by the children's story book that led to the logo.  It was good PR.

As for BNSF, I had no trouble with the full name spelled out.  It was just as mellifluous as the original name of the Santa Fe.  You could even sing the song to the new name. 

I kind of like the magazine's "Great Western" paint job but they should put a Santa Fe circle and cross (without the name) in the middle instead of that script GW thingy.  And then put the whole thing on a Warbonnet.

The ATSF Warbonnet and the C & O kitten are the two best known PR graphics in the history of US rail.  The successor firms should find some way to keep them alive.

Jack

[chefjavier]

The names they have are fine.  THey should show pride by providing good, timely service - not by having a name that only a few railfans care about.

I bet you would like to say, "Jersey Central".

[MarknLisa]

Chicago, Burlington and Northern & Santa Fe, Colorado Southern Western Railway?  

Chicago, Chesapeake, and Seaboard Eastern Railway?

 

 

[WSOR 3801]

Well, Cheesie system might cause confusion as well, people might think that CSX served Wisconsin.  Chessie System, means as little to shippers as CSX does.  Having a name does not make a railroad haul products any better or cheaper.  In the end that is all a shipper really cares about.

 

C&O used to have a car ferry dock in Milwaukee.  I think they even stationed a switcher there.   

[Ulrich]

Well..I asked that question in a thread back in October/November...and when I saw the headline on the editorial..well..I was flattered.

I'm surprised this is being asked again given the amount of negative response I got. The consensus as I recall was that I should go buy my own railroad. This was before I realized 1)  how unhappy most rail people are with their jobs and b) how some folks can't distinguish between a lighthearted discussion and a PhD dissertation. Oh well...have at 'er again.. maybe Trains For You is a good name.

[tree68]

Methinks the objection is that there seems to be a general movement away from names and into relatively meaningless letter combinations which seem to represent faceless corporations.   

We may know them as IBM, but it still comes from International Business Machines.  We use RR initials or reporting marks all the time (NKP, NW, SP) but there is a name behind them.   CSX may mean something, but the official name of the corporation is still CSX.  Same now with BNSF.  KFC may be going back to "Kentucky Fried Chicken," IIRC.

Even though we would still routinely call it "NEWS", we'd be happier if the real name was the North, East, West, & South Railroad.  I created a fictional railroad (for a layout that will never be built, but the planning was fun) I called the "America Northeastern," reporting marks ANE.  It would have fit for Conrail.

Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, and Kansas City Southern have maintained more traditional names, and shortlines seem to do so as well.  NS has sort of overreached their name (with their presence in the northeast), but UP and KCS still fit theirs.

[aricat]

  There is nothing wrong with the name BNSF. Burlington represents the CB&Q; Northern the GN and NP; and of course Santa Fe.They all are from proud railroad traditions and do NOT need to become anything else, like Great Western. The Great Western will always be associated with Britain.The GWR was Britain's best. The name needs to remain on the other side of the Atlantic. The GWR lives in spirit in Britain to this day. The British Government may have nationalized the GWR in 1948; but her name can still be found proudly still on the Station in Cardiff and other places. Aricat

[Krazykat112079]

  There is nothing wrong with the name BNSF. Burlington represents the CB&Q; Northern the GN and NP; and of course Santa Fe.They all are from proud railroad traditions and do NOT need to become anything else, like Great Western. The Great Western will always be associated with Britain.The GWR was Britain's best. The name needs to remain on the other side of the Atlantic. The GWR lives in spirit in Britain to this day. The British Government may have nationalized the GWR in 1948; but her name can still be found proudly still on the Station in Cardiff and other places. Aricat

True, but the official name of the rail subsidiary is The BNSF Railway Company.  It merely uses the acronym as the name.  The parent corp is still Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, but the railroad is BNSF.  

[wjstix]

"Great Western" might also cause confusion with Chicago Great Western, a name now owned by U.P.

It would be nice if BNSF used the last GN "goat" herald, just as it would be nice to see CSX use "Chessie". The last (Big Sky Blue) GN herald didn't have any writing in it, the name of the railroad was next to the herald, so "BNSF" would work fine. It would give it a little more history.

BTW I think one reason they wouldn't use "Santa Fe" for BNSF is that (I believe) BN was the larger of the two railroads at the time of the merger.

[tree68]

True, but the official name of the rail subsidiary is The BNSF Railway Company.  It merely uses the acronym as the name.  The parent corp is still Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, but the railroad is BNSF.  

'Xactly

[Murphy Siding]

     Be happy it didn't come out as BNXSF.

[BaltACD]

A name is a name....deal with it.

In other industries names that make minimal sense

BASF & Exxon are two quick examples of something that means nothing.

[tree68]

A name is a name....deal with it.

In other industries names that make minimal sense

BASF & Exxon are two quick examples of something that means nothing.

BASF = Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik

Exxon I have to sort of give you.  It was the product of a computer program set up to create a new name for several brands that made up Standard Oil.

[MichaelSol]

A name is a name....deal with it.

In other industries names that make minimal sense

BASF & Exxon are two quick examples of something that means nothing.

Like IBM, the initials actually do stand for something; BASF is based on Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik, the original company name in German.

"Exxon", was an expensive brand name computer generated when the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey found out that one of its U.S. brand names, "Enco" (ESSO just about everywhere else), meant "stalled car" in Japanese. It couldn't use the old "Standard" names nationally in the U.S. under the 1911 anti-trust (!!) court decree, "ESSO" was S.O. -- Standard Oil -- and so the search was on for a universal international name -- preferably one that didn't mean "stalled car" or something equally negative somewhere -- hence the need for a completely synthetic word.

Brand names are significant. Business schools everywhere teach, and companies recognize, the importance of "branding" and the purpose extends far beyond the actual customers, but to create "goodwill" for accounting purposes, as well as for building up that long-term public good will that shows up in odd places -- city council zoning meetings, state legislatures, and Congressional committees where various items that can impact companies often occur, albeit outside the usual marketplace.

People respond to childhood memories, and favorable events associated with a given name. That's brand loyalty, and it extends from customers, to employees, to politicians. You don't extend loyalty to a "thing" -- to a "XMGSTLP Corp." -- but you do extend it to something that perhaps your Father or Grandfather worked for and, yes, a customer, a supplier, a politician, will often go a little further out of their way for a memory -- which is what a brand name ultimately depends on. Erase the meaning and the memory is erased as well.

Psychologists, as well as astute marketing people, recognize the long term usefulness of brand names -- Coca Cola without the name would be a non-starter in a world filled with beverages that taste a lot like Coca Cola -- but often these "renaming" splurges are undertaken by a new CEO somewhere, determined to leave his indelible stamp on a company, by removing some other indelible stamp. It's a little like a Napoleanic French Poodle, obsessively marking his territory, CEO-style.

In the case of merged companies, it's usually an effort -- almost always a failed one -- to message the employees that the new company is inclusive to avoid the perception of one corporate culture conquering another and breeding resentment. Union Pacific recognized its brand. Most didn't.

 

[Flashwave]

Okay, so any truth to the rumor that CSX was a placeholder name that they couldn't come up with a more suitable name, and or CSX just stuck?

[tree68]

Okay, so any truth to the rumor that CSX was a placeholder name that they couldn't come up with a more suitable name, and or CSX just stuck?

Actually, yes.

IIRC, there was a write-up in Trains about it a while back.

 

[arbfbe]

The BNSF name was Matt Rose's attempt to clean the ATSF influence left over from the merger with BN where many employees with the BN pedigree were passed over by ATSF managers.  The change was done pretty much inhouse on President Rose's desk.  Tons of stationery had to be tossed, for sure but the old locos in the H1 and H2 paint sort of blended in.

So if you are repeating a track warrant it should be B..N..S..F.., bravo, november, sierra, foxtrot and not Burlington Northern Santa Fe. 

[eolafan]

Bring Nobody 'Sept railFans

A bit rough around the edges, but the message is a good one.

[Murphy Siding]

Brand names are significant. Business schools everywhere teach, and companies recognize, the importance of "branding" and the purpose extends far beyond the actual customers.........

.........Psychologists, as well as astute marketing people, recognize the long term usefulness of brand names -- Coca Cola without the name would be a non-starter in a world filled with beverages that taste a lot like Coca Cola -- but often these "renaming" splurges are undertaken by a new CEO somewhere, determined to leave his indelible stamp on a company, by removing some other indelible stamp. It's a little like a Napoleanic French Poodle, obsessively marking his territory, CEO-style.

I think the value of branding is more on the "retail" side than the "wholesale" side.  While Mr. and Mrs. Citizen may get a warm fuzzy feeling from buying their favorite brand name widget, the people in the supply chain between the Widget factory and the local Widgets R'us outlet don't quite share in that feeling.  Until a product gets near the ultimate consumer, it's treated more as a commodity.  The folks in the middle don't much care if they're dealing with a company called Widgets Extordinare, or a compnay called Al's Budget Widgets.  The same is true, I think, for transportation, railroad and otherwise.  Does it change the value of the widgets, if your carload came via BNSF, verses shipping on the Murphy Siding,Spiffy Locomotives & Western Railroad?  "Be specific ship Union Pacific"  is a neat little jingle, and does give you a warm fuzzy feeling.  But what sold freight business had more to do with price, quality and service.  Some things never change.

[Andrew Falconer]

CSX or CSXT could choose a name that explains Chessie and Seaboard.

Chessie came from the word Chesapeake.

The Seaboard is on the Atlantic Ocean.

Why not call it the strong sounding Chesapeake Atlantic Rail Transportation Corporation with the reporting marks of CART?

Then again you can go for a lighter name. Chessie was a Tabby Kitten and the Atlantic Ocean is made of Salt Water. This is a pleasant name, the Salt Water Tabby Kitten Railroad. 

Andrew

[vsmith]

CSX =

C-rash, S-top, X-plode

C-ant S-top & X-plain

BNSF

B-rown N-osers w/ S-ticky F-ingers

B-uy N-orfolk S-outhern F-ast

Seriously, my understanding was that CSX was a condensing of Chessie System Exchange or Chessie Seaboard Exchange, ment to represent all the lines that merged under the Chessie. Personally I agree that the Suits who decided to officially drop the classic warbonnet and kitten logo schemes were idiots. BNSFs "Pumpkin Barf" schemes are pretty ugly and CSXs current schemes are just dull as dishwater.