An article in our local (South Dakota) newspaper had an article about the Dakota,Minnesota and Eastern Railroad. It mentioned that the DM%E had grown from a small, regional railroad to become the country’s “8 th biggest railroad”. I realize that due to mergers ,DM&E may have moved up the reletive ladder,so to speak, but do you think it’s the 8th biggest?
could be, given that CP & CN are Canadian
8th biggest measured how??
DM&E and IC&E have 2500 miles of track combined,the largest contiguouos class II regional RR system in the U.S. and the only regional RR with connections to all major North American class I railroads. Hugh: Canada and the U.S.A. are 2 different countries.
The biggest is UP, and then #2 BNSF, #3 CSX, #4 NS, #5 CN, #6 CP, #7 KCS and #8 DM&E (including the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern, which they own.). This is ranked by mileage in the USA and Canada. CN has a lot of track in the USA after buying the Illinois Central and the Wisconsin Central.They also have trackage across Michigan which used to be Grand Trunk Western.The USA and Canada are basically one country from a RR operating viewpoint.
Murphy Siding; Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your first post.
The gap between 6 and 7 is pretty sizable and the gap between 7 and 8 isn’t that small either. Being #8 isn’t that small but #1 through #6 are positively gigantic.
The BNSF Railway is gona get even more Mileage once it takes over the Aberdeen to Sioux Falls line. Thats over 300 Miles. I could be wrong too.
This trackage has been operated under lease from the State since 1982 and has been included in BN and BNSF totals since then. Both BNSF and DME/IC&E are operating about 1100 miles of former Milwaukee Road, more than CP or anyone else.
hell, the IC&E is entirely ex-Milwaukee isn’t it? i’ve been back and forth out to Davenport, IA the past few weeks for work and it looks like a pretty robust and busy railroad.
Thanks for the replies. So, it’s a boast based on the mileage of rail operated? Who would be #9, and #10, for example? Are there now only 7 railroads classifed as class 1? Or are Guilford and Florida East Coast still considered as class 1 railroads?
Hello Murphy Siding,
Hope this may help.
Class I railroads are those with operating revenue of at least $272 million in 2002. Class I carriers comprise only 1 percent of the number of U.S. freight railroads, but they account for 70 percent of the industry’s mileage operated, 89 percent of its employees, and 92 percent of its freight revenue. Class I carriers typically operate in many different states and concentrate largely on long-haul, high-density intercity traffic lanes. There are seven Class I railroads ranging in size from just over 3,000 to more than 33,000 miles operated and from 2,600 to more than 46,000 employees.
Class I Railroads
The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe (BNSD.
CSX Transportation (CSX).
Grand Trunk Corporation, which consists of the U.S. operations of Canadian National (CN), including the former Grand Trunk Western (GTW), Illinois Central (IC), and Wisconsin Central.
Kansas City Southern (KCS).
Norfolk Southern (NS).
The former Soo Line (800), owned by Canadian Pacific (CP).
Union Pacific (UP).
Class II or Regional railroads are linehaul railroads with at least 350 route miles and/or revenue of between $40 million and the Class I threshold. There were 31 regional railroads in 2002. Regional railroads typically operate 400 to 650 miles of road serving a region located in two to four states. Most regional railroads employ between 75 and 500 workers, although four have more than 600 employees.
The following railroads qualify as Class II roads . Alaska Railroad Corporation, Missouri & Northern Arkansas Railroad, Central Oregon & Pacific Railroad, Kansas & Oklahoma Railroad, Kyle Railroad, Nebraska, Kansas & Colorado Railnet, Guilford Rail System, Providence and Worcester Railroad, Florida East Coast Railway, Montana Rail Link, Palouse River & Coulee City Railroad, Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway, Iowa Interstate Railroad, Iowa, Chicago & Eastern Railroad,
Murphy Siding; After the top 8, it depends on each person’s choice who is next. You have the choice if you want to count DME and IC&E together or separate.You probably don’t want to count Canadian mileage. You could add Mexican trackage to KCS if you wanted to. Do you want to count Railamerica as a bunch of railroads or put them together as one even if they don’t connect? Usually route miles are counted ( where a mile of double track is counted as one mile). Some people count track miles which includes sidings and yards. You could have a terminal road in Chicago listed as 10 route miles / 120 track miles. As to who is #9, without looking through my stuff, it might be Montana Rail Link. MRL might be bigger than DME, but both are smaller than IC&E. Then you have to think about leased mileage. Before 1980 the Rock Island owned track between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa NM and leased it to Southern Pacific. This was usually only counted as SP track. Next you have trackage rights to consider. DME has rights from Wosley up to Aberdeen over BNSF on the line the State has owned (up to now). Usually this is counted as BNSF and DME track.Then there is haulage rights, which come in different types.The top 7 are easy, but then it gets messy. CP operates over Indiana Harbour Belt to reach their Indiana line but owns 49% of the IHB, so you could count all of the IHB under CPs total if you wanted. Another American Railroad operates about 23,000 miles which we have not mentioned. They carry a different type of cargo. Should they be in the top 5 ?
Operating revenue is probably the best way to measure it. A short densely used rail line should be worth more than a longer lightly used line milage wise.
Which raises the question… Which RR is the smallest. 
Meaning, which one that is commercial, privately owned, and operating.
Dave
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I think Dakota Southern may be less than 1 mile in Mitchell, SD. There was a Union RR in eastern Oregon that was pretty short as well. There have been a lot of small operations start up on spurs the last few years.
There’s also that one that serves the paper mill up on that island in B.C. I forget the name of that place, but they get cars there by barge. I would think that has to be in the running. Although, maybe that would have to be considered more an industry, then an actual RR.
Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Directional RR Radio Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/
Actually, the Dakota Southern owns 189 miles of track, starting in Mitchell and ending in Kadoka, but they only run as far as Murdo.
Aaron
They have not operated out of Mitchell for about 6 years.
They do make the rare move now and then out to the west end of the line to get stored cars, and actually, they made a move out to Murdo a couple of months ago to get some stored grain cars that were out there. Plus, I heard that they actually moved some grain out of Chamberlain about a year ago.
Aaron
doesn’t the ***'n of American Railroads lump all Canadian & U.S…
railroads together for statistical purposes?
Where does the Ontario Northland & Quebec NorthShore
and Labrador fit into the mix.
Without listing all the Shortlines, (I can’t keep up with all
the changes ), What’s the latest total ?
The Ontario Northland is considered a Class II railroad as is QSNL based on mileage. The QSNL is owned by Iron Ore Company of Canada so I am not sure they released actual carloads or tonnage numbers