What should the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern be named if the merger is approved?
I think Union Pacific should be retained. An Atlantic port named Norfolk with the geographic
Southern word should be replaced. As it will be transcontinental, drop Northern and Southern and insert Atlantic? An early component of the Erie RR was the Great Atlantic and Western. Maybe Union Pacific and Great Atlantic RR? Suggestions?
UP has said that the name wil remain UP as it has done with all of the other mergers/acquisitions it has taken. Expect NS to disappear and the yellow and gray to carry on unchanged.
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It will still be called the boring old Union Pacific because the executives and shareholders aināt got a soul. Boooooooooo.
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Someone here can probably compute the cost of repainting the locomotives and rolling stock of 2 companies instead of one. So thereās that.
Until we see the UP filing to the STB all initial items from UP does not call it a merger but a buyout with NS retaining its separate identity. I can see that maybe marketing be one section of both UP & NS. What might occur is more crews at the interchange points,
The NS filing with the STB asking that CPKC either hire enough T&E for the Shreveport <> Meridian or allow NS to operate trains over it with trackage rights instead of just CPKC haulage tracks may be an indication of this thinking. That would allow to use their own T&E instead of the not dependable CPKC crews. BUT IMO the Meridian speedway will need infrastructure improvements mainly with more sidings & siding extensions for maybe 20k - 25 k lengths instead of present ones less than 10k`.
It isnāt a merger of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern!
Union Pacific Railroad will ACQUIRE (ie. buy) Norfolk Southern Railway! Therefore, as other posters have said, the ānewā name will be Union Pacific.
U P from sea to shining sea.
Why it did not start to get them as soon as KCS took over from Mid-South was a mystery to me when I lived in Shreveport, and remains a mystery to me now.
No mystery - MONEY MONEY MONEY
Whenever you donāt understand why something didnāt happen - it is always the MONEY!
Strategic advantage or good service ALWAYS costs money. The point is to spend it, and the corollary is not to waste it.
A āMeridian Speedwayā with a string of 10mph slow orders, which is where it had gotten through Bossier at the end of the Mid-South tenure (much as I loved the sound of 5 idling 567s in unison!) is scarcely a speedway, no matter how well-graded the line had been. You pay money to make money ā¦ on the other hand, thatās why the men who manage money manage the men who manage men who manage things.
And then we have PSR - where you donāt pay money to make money
Get your money for nothinā
Chicks for free!
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Regardless of what any of us think, the name will be āUnion Pacific.ā The transaction is an acquisition of a smaller road by a larger road, not a merger of equals. I wonder about the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis, the connecting railroad across the Mississippi River. The combined UP/NS would own four sevenths of TRRA, leaving BNSF, CSX, and CN with one seventh each. Will the STB force UP to sell one share to CPKC, perhaps? Or will there be some other scheme to preserve fairness at the gateway?
A major step took place on October 10. I received two stockholder ballots. One was from UP and the other was from NS. Things are moving.
I dumped my personal holdings but still manage a charitable trust and voted them on Friday. I think UP could have done more prior to the merger to build revenue and traffic yet itās management chose a merger instead. That is how I look at this.
Agree, name will stay UP.
What Iām dying to find out is locomotive roster numbering! Will a combined UP-NS use letters, such as 6N45 or 91P2?
UP already uses two locomotive reporting marks. I would guess they would just add another one if needed.
They could always go to a 5 digit number. PTC has provisions to enter a 6 digit number when logging in. I believe the computer reporting systems used to share info between railroads also allows a 6 digit number. I know some computer printouts will list an engine number as 001234.
When the Milwaukee Road received their first electric locomotives they were 5 digit numbers. And as Zug said, they could just use another reporting mark. Iām sure theyāll figure it out
Jeff
I know (well,I think) ADMX has some locomotives with 5 digit road numbers. Iām just curious if all the software will easily allow it. I know one of our little apps only has 4 spaces for engine numbers. Iām sure it can be easily changed - but I think another reporting mark would be easier. Plus who wants to say a 5 digit engine number?? Hard enough remembering 4 at times.
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I believe the AAR standard for equipment identification is Four Alpha and Six Digital. With the X terminal Alpha being to identify private ownership from railroad ownership.
How the individual carriers want to utilize these conventions is up to the carrier.
I believe way back when - the New Haven had their diesels numbered with a leading ZERO that was displayed on the locomotives.