Ok, I am very confused about the railroad names. I thought CN was CN. Then they said it was CNIC. Now people say it is Grand Trunk Corporation. Is it the CN Divison of GTW?
Any other railroads with this confusing stuff?
All of the US properties (GTW, DMIR, IC,WC, etc.) of CN are legally known (according to recent postings on the STB website) as “Grand Trunk Western Railroad Incorporated”
All of the Canadian properties fall under “Canadian National Railway Company”
I presume that this is done to clarify the financial and legal operations of the overall company, marketed simply as “CN”
CP Rail also does this, with it’s US properties legally identified as Soo Line Railroad Company (albeit it is marketed as the “CP Rail System”).
CSX and NS also do this with respect to their ownership of former-Conrail lines. One of them has a subsidiary of Pennsylvania Lines LLC for their portion of the old Conrail, and the other has New York Central Lines LLC as their Conrail holding subsidiary. I honestly don’t remeber which one belongs to which railroad off the top of my head.
Needless to say railroad corporate structures can be quite complicated to say the least. Hope this helps [8D].
drfizzix pretty well nailed it. The principal reason for the break between Canadian National Railway and Grand Trunk (both under CN) is accounting and taxation although legal exposure factors in as well.
Back in the bad old days Texas, in particular (but I think some other states) required railroads operating in the state to be incorporated in the state, which resulted in some fascinating legal and corporate gymnastics…
CNIC unites were purchased by Illinois Centeral, then CN baught the IC and then relabled it with a CN, but never took awasy the IC. Propably because it rolls off your toung. [;)]
CSX Transportation owns New York Central, NS owns PRR. Many CSX cars also have L & N, B & O, SCL, and ACL reporting marks. Many NS cars tend to have Reading Railroad, Southern, and Lehigh Valley reporting marks.