I have a quick question I have noticed on a lot of coal hoppers they have the lettering “example PSCX”
I know the PSC stands for Public Service of Colorado, but what does the X stand for? here is another example NPPX Nebraska Public Power, but again what does the X stand for? Also does any one know where I can pick up some PSCX coal hoppers in HO scale. My dad used to work for them i have one which I bought on ebay, I would like to buy at least 10-15 more, or maybe I could buy some undecorated hoppers and then paint them and letter them, if I knew what company sells the decals for them.
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Welcome to the forum there, heavymetal. I thought you were going to ask, “What does the ‘X’ in CSX stand for?” It don’t stand for nuttin’ . . . . . or at least no one seems to know what it stands for, CSX’s reporting mark is CSXT; as a railroad CSX’s reporting mark must end in something other than an ‘X’.
In the case of CSX, one report was that it stands for ‘Chessie System and Others’ because it is the result of the merger of several railroads over the years, and that the official designation is CSXT, with the T meaning Transportation.
The X usually does stand for private ownership. It gets somewhat confusing whan the parent RR owns a subsidiary that is considered privately owned. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy’s refridgerator cars were labled BREX, BRMX (among others) and they belonged to the Burlington refridgerator lines as “privately owned” and leased from that company. I’m pretty sure some other RRs operated cars in the same fashion.
You really can’t help yourself can you, lol. At least your typing a little smaller. One more thing I’m curious about that is along the same lines. I’ve seen some steam engines with an X and then it’s road number. Does that mean it’s a extra train for freight or passengers?
I’ve noticed that too, also on some early diesels (and electrics) too. I’m pretty sure you are right on the mark that it means that train is running as an “extra”.
I’ve also seen it where there will be two loco in a consist and the second loco will have “x” plus the first loco’s number in its number board.
Either that or it could just be the address to the DCC decoder! [;)]
I recall a story about the travails of a fireman on an SP head-end helper who mis-identified his train by leaving his loco’s number after the X. It should have been the (second in line) road loco’s number…
A lot of ???X reporting marks are on cars owned by corporations which are wholly owned by railroads, but are not themselves railroads. PFEX and its variants may have been the first - Pacific Fruit Express, which owned the reefers but not the rails they rolled on.
The Department of Defense owns miles of railroad track in various places - all inside of base perimeters and none available for common carriage. Their rolling stock is marked DODX.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where extras were unknown)
The reporting marks - up to four letters and a number - are the official legal indication of the car’s owner and identity, and are required to be displayed. Other things like heralds and slogans are just extras. For example I belong to the Minnesota Transportation Museum, and many the cars and engines we have on display and in use are painted and lettered for their original owners, but have a small MNTX and a number stenciled on them, indicating the car or engine is no longer owned by NP or SOO or whoever but by our organization.
That being said, the majority of the time the X means the car is involved in some sort of lease arrangement. It’s not unlike a company leasing an automobile , rather than buying ones. Maybe a power company wants coal cars for it’s use, but doesn’t want to buy and maintain them. They can lease them and put their lettering on it, with the X in the reporting marks indicating it’s a leased cars.
As in Ricky’s example, the about 100 years ago the railroads were required to divest themselves of their reefer business because it was viewed to be a monopoly. So all the railroads, either singly or in groups, set up reefer car companies and leased their cars to them, creating lines like Western Fruit Express (GN), Fruit Growers Express, etc. So on paper the Burlington Refrigerator Express was a separate company from the Chicago Burlington and Quincy RR, or at least it was separate enough to meet the federal requirements of a separate compan
