Hence Grand Trunk…DWP…D&H had to have US Charters and management on paper…as I also recall GT had a division in Maine
They may be incorporated under the laws of one of the states but I would hardly consider them to be domestically owned. It works in the other direction, too. The BNSF line to Winnipeg was operated by a wholly-owned subsidiary incorporated under Canadian law.
Some states required railroads to be “located” in their state - Texas as a case in point.
As I remember it Texas required all RR’s in Texas to have a Texas identification in their corporate name; but they could be controlled elsewhere like Santa Fe located in Chicago controlled the North Texas and Santa Fe or the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe.
Canada at one time had a requirement that companies up there be controlled by a Canadian entity. That’s one of the reasons GATX had GATX Rail Canada or UTLX had Procor.
This requirement was, to my knowledge, eliminated some time back although many companies retain the seperate corporate structure for internal purposes.
CW
Article X of the 1876 Texas constitution was railroad specific:
SEC. 3. Every railroad or other corporation, organized or doing business in this State under the laws or authority thereof, shall have and maintain a public office or place in this State for the transaction of business…
SEC. 6. No railroad company organized under the laws of this State shall consolidate by private or judicial sale or otherwise with any railroad company organized under the laws of any other State or of the United States.
The ICC and the US Supreme gutted a good portion of it, and the state repealed everything but Sec 2 (common carriers) in 1969.
All of CN’s American operations are still legally owned by the Grand Trunk Corporation, which of course is a wholly owned subsidiary of CN. No separate paint schemes anymore, though the GTW and DWC reporting marks remain in use on a lot of freight equipment, along with those of all the other American railroads CN has acquired over the last 25 years.
I believe CP has a similar arrangement using Soo Line.
So the only reason T&NO and GC&SF and so on had to exist was that they started out as Texas RRs and so couldn’t merge into SP and SFe? SP could have built into Texas under its own name, if it could do it without using T&NO?
Or was that theoretically possible, but the necessary approval would never be forthcoming?
T&NO merged into SP around 1960 – how long before that did the constitution change?
Wasn’t the Cotten Belt (SSW) also a Texas company part of the SP?
BNSF seemed to solve the problem by moving their HQ.
It is the state requiring that NOT the United States. As mentioned earlier Texas used to require it.
Texas and New Orleans was another one besides the Cotton Belt.
CB&Q = Colorado and Southern,
MoPac = Texas and Pacific,
AT&SF = Panhandle and Santa Fe, …Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe.
The Texas law was changed in 1965.
I prepared 2019 tax returns for several railroaders working for CN or CP. Their W2’s were issued with the employer being Wisconsin Central or Illinois Central, Soo Line. Not CN or CP.
CN would have purchased the CSX St Lawrence Sub as the Bessemer & Lake Erie, which CN owns.
Soo Line and Dakota Minnesota and Eastern. A couple of years ago (I mentioned it once in another thread) Soo Line and DM&E granted each other trackage rights between various terminals near where they “interchange.” Where the ownership on paper changes between the two.
Both are operated under the CPRS banner. Customers see a seemless railroad, but the old entities still exist on paper for various reasons.
Jeff
A foreign subsidiary for cross border operations is S.O.P. - Payroll, liability, etc, etc. That whole international law thang.
1934 Texas et al v. United States et al put an end to state attempts to regulate the rail merger market, and requirements for in-state railroad facilities.
The Texas subsidiary was the Fort Worth and Denver. There was also the Burlington-Rock Island Railroad.
BNSF lists the Rio Grande, El Paso and Santa Fe Railroad Company (TX) as a wholly owned subsidiary.
The Burlington - Rock Island Railroad was the entity used for the joint line from Dallas/Ft.Worth area to Houston/Galveston, plus one or two branch lines of the route. Over time B-RI was phased out and it became the Joint Texas Division.
The Rock Island’s Texas lines were at one time under the Chicago Rock Island & Gulf Railway name.
Jeff
Does Mopac’s International-Great Northern count?
And a good few other MoPac subsidiaries.