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| Autoracks in the sunset |
In the past few years, I've been paying a lot more attention to the freight cars in trains. The locomotives are certainly the stars of the show, but the freight cars are the ones that actually earn money for the railway. Flatcars, boxcars, autoracks, tank cars, covered hoppers, container cars... there is a lot of variety in today's trains.
I was watching a train full of autoracks a while ago and decided to photograph some of the logos on the train. Autoracks carry road vehicles like cars, trucks and SUVs, and in North America are usually multi-level and fully enclosed. Structurally, these are built on top of flatcars, which are often leased from TTX or other companies and are not owned by the railways whose logos they sport.
I took the opportunity in June to photograph one train and document some of the logos on the autoracks. Here they are, in alphabetical order, except for CSX which I listed first. You'll see why.
CSX
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| CSX logo |
I saw four different varieties of CSX logos on that train!
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| CSX - how tomorrow moves |
A lot of people don't like this (newest) variant of CSX' logo. I'm OK with it.
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| CSX - how tomorrow moves - on silver |
This is the same logo, but on a silver background.
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| CSX logo |
CSX underscored.
BNSF
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| BNSF railway logo |
Note the clips holding the BNSF "swoosh" logo onto the car.
CN
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| CN railway logo |
The CN logo is quite simple - the CN "wet noodle" on black.
Conrail
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| Conrail logo |
The Conrail logo was an interesting find.
CP
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| Canadian Pacific railway logo |
No "logo" here - just "CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY" in block lettering.
Ferromex
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| Ferromex logo |
It's not unusual to see Ferromex autoracks through Winnipeg. Autoracks travel a long way!
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| Ferromex Grupo Mexico |
This seems less common to me.
Norfolk Southern
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| Norfolk Southern thoroughbed |
I am an unabashed fan of the Norfolk Southern "thoroughbred" logo. I think it really conveys speed and power, something that a railway should be proud of.
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| Norfolk Southern |
Not so interesting but still nice.
Union Pacific
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| Union Pacific |
The Union Pacific "shield".
Summary
So there you have it - eight railways' logos on one train. Not too bad! The only one I didn't see that I often do is Kansas City Southern.
7 comments:
Funny you should mention that..I snapped a photo of a Kansas City Southern this weekend lol! It happened to be passing by an old barn that I was stopped at.
This is a great time for your post! I'm staying at the new Hilton Garden Inn off Kenaston and have been enjoying all the action on the Rivers sub. Just this morning I was noticing all the different logos on the (mostly empty) autoracks heading west on a mixed train. While my kids didn't seem to care when I pointed them out, I thought it was cool. Don't remember anything like that from when I lived in Winnipeg so long ago.
Barns and trains, Jenn? Almost as good as grain elevators and trains! :)
Hi Jeff, I hope you like the new Hilton (and Winnipeg)! It's a good spot for train watching. Do you have a north facing window?
Long live Conrail!
Hi Steve, New Hilton is fantastic [not a paid review :-)]. I'm on the 6th floor on the north end of the hotel, looking west. Nice long view down the tracks. If it wasn't for all the family to visit, I'd sit at my window all day. I don't have a scanner and can't see any signals from here, so each train is a surprise, especially the Canadian Tuesday evening.
Hi Steve,
Nice post! I'm sure that you know this, but for those that do not, TTX "is not a railcar leasing company. TTX is a railcar pooling company." The logos on the autoracks are those of the railroads that are part of the pool (i.e the owners). That's why we see all of the logos all along the various networks. As railroad logos evolve, so do those on the autoracks. It also explains why we still occasionally see Conrail in the fleet. You can read more about TTX at here. I have yet to see a Pam Am logo. Have you? Let the hunt begin!!! :-)
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