What are they

[Orange_trainman]

ok gang i am nrew to this hobby and need some help on designations what dose the designation Mof W, BNSF, UP. and S.P. stand for i figured out S.F( SANTA FE) but do not know the others any help anyone could give is appriciated

[Heartland_Division_C]

MofW - Maintenance of Way (Track, etc.)

BNSF - Burlington Northern Santa Fe

UP Union Pacific

SP Southern Pacific

[#welcome] to the world’s greatest hobby… Enjoy it!

[CPrail]

HEY ORANGE

BNSF= Burlington Northern & Santa Fe

UP= Union Pacific

SP= Southern Pacific

Mof W, Not sure on this one, Usually MOW= Maintanence of Way

I’m sure someone will have an idea.

Mike G

[philnrunt]

Orange- Welcome, and be aware that you have entered a world of abbreviations, especially RR names!

But I guarantee any ones you want explained, just ask and this crew will know the answer!

By the way (BTW, another abbreviation) BNSF came about after the merger of the Burlington Northern and the Santa Fe. The Santa Fe’s real name was the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe, so if you see ATSF, it means the same thing. The BN was made up of a bunch of merged railroads itself, including the NP (Northern Pacific), CB&Q(Chicago, Burlington and Quincy) SP&S(Spokane, Portland and Seattle) and some others.

Again, welcome, and have fun!

[Anonymous]

You’re refering to reporting marks:

Reporting mark standard practices

An AAR reporting mark is a sequence of two to six letters that uniquely identifies the owner of a piece of railroad rolling stock. The ampersand symbol (&) is not considered part of the reporting mark. When a new reporting mark is created, its first letter is selected to be the same as the first letter of the applying company’s name; the remaining letters in a reporting mark are generally derived from the applying company’s initials. For example, the reporting marks for which Union Pacific Railroad (UP) applied all begin with the letter U. As companies are merged, the companies’ reporting marks are normally transferred to the resultant companies along with the original companies’ trademarks and logos. The reporting marks that were assigned to Chicago and North Western Railway (CNW), for example, are now assigned to UP which purchased CNW in the 1990s.

Marks that end in X are assigned to rail car owners that are not common carrier railroads themselves (typically these are private car owners, leasing companies or railroad museums). Marks that end in Z are assigned to trailer owners/operators for use on equipment that does not have flanged wheels but that will be used on North American railroads in intermodal service. Marks that end in U are assigned to container owners/operators for use on equipment that will be used in intermodal service. Marks that end in any other letter are assigned to railroads for use on railroad equipment in interchange service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporting_mark

[ft-fan]

The BN was made up of a bunch of merged railroads itself, including the NP (Northern Pacific), CB&Q(Chicago, Burlington and Quincy) SP&S(Spokane, Portland and Seattle) and some others.

And the Great Northern.

FT

[dinwitty]

heres a big list of “reporting marks”

http://www.hrtrains.com/rdname.html

UP might also go as UnPainted depending where you are looking…