Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!ntt From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader) Newsgroups: net.railroad Subject: Re: Reporting Marks Message-ID: <749@dciem.UUCP> Date: Thu, 1-Mar-84 12:22:13 EST Article-I.D.: dciem.749 Posted: Thu Mar 1 12:22:13 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 1-Mar-84 18:49:53 EST References: <5899@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada Lines: 23 Bruce G. Alcock's interesting article on reporting marks includes this: They can be from 2 to 4 characters in length. Some roads such as B&O use the ampersand. This is the only non-alphabetic character that I have ever observed. When I lived by a CP Rail (ex Canadian Pacific Railway), I kept a list of railway cars seen and their reporting marks. So I couldn't miss observing that the Southern Railway uses "SOUTHERN", while CP Rail's US subsidiary (whose full name I can't think of right now) uses the full usual form of its name, "SOO LINE". Of course, it may be that only 4 characters are significant, and the rest is just comment (as we would say). For those of you who live far away, the first word in the placename Sault Ste. Marie (Michigan and Ontario) is pronounced Soo -- it's either an old or a bastardized French pronounciation -- and hence the railway name. Some railways use more than one reporting mark, by the way. CP Rail has "CP", "CPAA", and "CPI". This classifies their cars in ways that matter to them, for instance, when they enter the United States. In this case AA stands for "as (if) American" and I for "international". Reporting: Mark Brader