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39-536: The New England Central Railroad ( reporting mark NECR ) is a regional railroad in the New England region of the United States. It began operations in 1995, as the successor of the Central Vermont Railway (CV). The company was originally a subsidiary of holding company RailTex before being purchased by RailAmerica in 2000. In 2012, the company was purchased by Genesee & Wyoming , its current owner. The New England Central Railroad main line runs from New London, Connecticut , to Alburgh, Vermont , at

78-581: A SD40T-2 (colloquially known as a tunnel motor) of Southern Pacific Railroad vintage in 2013. In 2023, NECR acquired 7 former CSX C40-8Ws , making them the first General Electric locomotives on their roster. As a Genesee & Wyoming subsidiary since 2012, NECR has sometimes shared locomotives with nearby G&W subsidiaries Connecticut Southern Railroad and Providence and Worcester Railroad (the latter purchased by G&W in 2016). Since 1995, Amtrak has operated its daily Vermonter service between Washington, D.C., and St. Albans, Vermont , using

117-674: A 2-digit code indicating the vehicle's register country . The registered keeper of a vehicle is now indicated by a separate Vehicle Keeper Marking (VKM), usually the name of the owning company or an abbreviation thereof, which must be registered with the Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF) and the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and which is unique throughout Europe and parts of Asia and Northern Africa. The VKM must be between two and five letters in length and can use any of

156-721: A deal valued at $ 1.39 billion. Approval of the purchase was granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board on December 19, 2012. While awaiting the decision, Genesee & Wyoming put RailAmerica control in the hands of a trust. They assumed control on December 28, 2012, and the company was in the process of integration to G&W. RailAmerica controlled the following railroads. It acquired some through purchase of other holding companies: RailLink Canada in July 1999, RailTex in February 2000, ParkSierra and StatesRail in January 2002, and

195-461: A hyphen. Some examples: When a vehicle is sold it will not normally be transferred to another register. The Czech railways bought large numbers of coaches from ÖBB. The number remained the same but the VKM changed from A-ÖBB to A-ČD. The UIC introduced a uniform numbering system for their members based on a 12-digit number, largely known as UIC number . The third and fourth digit of the number indicated

234-685: A predecessor of the CNW, from which the UP inherited it. Similarly, during the breakup of Conrail , the long-retired marks of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and New York Central Railroad (NYC) were temporarily brought back and applied to much of Conrail's fleet to signify which cars and locomotives were to go to CSX (all cars labeled NYC) and which to Norfolk Southern (all cars labeled PRR). Some of these cars still retain their temporary NYC marks. Because of its size, this list has been split into subpages based on

273-682: A project to decrease running times for Amtrak 's Vermonter , which operates over the route. Construction was funded by a $ 70 million grant from the federal government, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act . The NECR main line was heavily damaged in several locations by Hurricane Irene during August 2011. A six mile segment in Vermont was taken out of service entirely by storm damage, with downed trees and flooding affecting other segments as well. Rail service returned to all customers by September 13, with full repairs completed later in

312-725: A third branch exists in Claremont, New Hampshire (formerly the Claremont-Concord Railroad). Within Massachusetts, the NECR mainline passes through Millers Falls and the important junction at Palmer . In Connecticut, the line serves Stafford Springs , Willimantic , and Norwich before terminating at the Port of New London . From the Canadian border, several mainline trains move traffic along

351-538: A trio of SD40s acquired from Conrail during the 1990s. After RailAmerica took ownership of the NECR, a number of GP40-2L locomotives (the L indicating a wide Canadian safety cab ) were added to the fleet, plus two SD9s of Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway heritage. When RailAmerica was placed under new ownership in 2007, more locomotives were transferred to NECR, including GP40-2s and six-axle SD40-2s . Additional SD40-2 and SD45 style locomotives from other railroads joined NECR's fleet by 2012. NECR also obtained

390-415: Is a proposed passenger train service between New London and Brattleboro via the NECR main line. Reporting mark In North America , the mark, which consists of an alphabetic code of two to four letters, is stenciled on each piece of equipment, along with a one- to six-digit number. This information is used to uniquely identify every such rail car or locomotive, thus allowing it to be tracked by

429-649: Is also operated from the Canada–US border to Boston, in partnership with the Providence and Worcester Railroad . The NECR hauled around 37,000 carloads in 2008. NECR maintains significant operations at several locations along their line. Its main office is located in St. Albans, Vermont , along with the main office for the Connecticut Southern Railroad (CSOR), with which NECR shares many management functions. St. Albans

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468-637: Is also the location of the main shop and dispatch office. Vermont's largest rail yard is the St. Albans yard, which handles upwards of 40,000 cars each year. Other significant operations are at White River Junction and Brattleboro , both of which are the location of offices and smaller yards. Palmer, Massachusetts, serves as the main yard and office for operations south of the Vermont line. The New England Central Railroad started operations with 12 GP38 locomotives, and exclusively operated Electro-Motive Diesel products from its founding until 2023. These were supplemented by

507-954: The Providence and Worcester Railroad , which interchanges freight with the New England Central, in 2016. NECR purchased the shortline Claremont-Concord Railroad in 2015, adding the latter's line in Claremont and its freight rights on a state-owned line in Lebanon, New Hampshire . New England Central's main line connects the Long Island Sound port of New London, Connecticut , to the Canadian border in East Alburgh, Vermont . The company's line connects St. Albans , Essex Junction , Montpelier , White River Junction , and Brattleboro within Vermont. Branches connect Essex Junction to Burlington and White River Junction to Lebanon, New Hampshire , and

546-643: The TTX Company (formerly Trailer Train Company) is named for its original reporting mark of TTX. In another example, the reporting mark for state-funded Amtrak services in California is CDTX (whereas the usual Amtrak mark is AMTK) because the state transportation agency ( Caltrans ) owns the equipment used in these services. This may also apply to commuter rail, for example Metrolink in Southern California uses

585-689: The ticker symbol RRA . It was relisted in October 2009 with the ticker symbol RA . On June 30, 2010, the company announced that it had acquired Atlas Railroad Construction , a construction and maintenance company operating in the Northeast and Midwest United States, for US$ 24 million. In April 2011, RailAmerica made its first shortline purchase in over five years by initiating a deal with Gulf and Ohio Railways to acquire three Alabama shortlines for $ 12.7 million. On July 23, 2012, Genesee & Wyoming Inc. announced that it intended to purchase RailAmerica in

624-504: The 26 letters of the Latin alphabet . Diacritical marks may also be used, but they are ignored in data processing (for example, Ö is treated as though it is O ). The VKM is preceded by the code for the country (according to the alphabetical coding system described in Appendix 4 to the 1949 convention and Article 45(4) of the 1968 convention on road traffic), where the vehicle is registered and

663-558: The AAR, maintains the active reporting marks for the North American rail industry. Under current practice, the first letter must match the initial letter of the railroad name. As it also acts as a Standard Carrier Alpha Code , the reporting mark cannot conflict with codes in use by other nonrail carriers. Marks ending with the letter "X" are assigned to companies or individuals who own railcars, but are not operating railroads; for example,

702-1046: The CN interchange in St. Albans, NECR interchanges with Vermont Railway (plus Canadian Pacific Railway through a haulage agreement ) and its subsidiaries Green Mountain Railroad and Washington County Railroad in Vermont and New Hampshire, with CSX Transportation and the Massachusetts Central Railroad in Palmer, with Pan Am Southern in Brattleboro and Millers Falls, and with the Providence and Worcester Railroad in Willimantic and New London. The railroad's traffic consists largely of general freight, including lumber products, metals, chemicals and stone products, although COFC (container on flat car) and TOFC (trailer on flat car) business

741-546: The Canada–US border, a distance of 366 miles (589 km). Several short branch lines bring the company's total trackage to 384 miles. Primary sources of traffic include lumber, metals, chemicals, and crushed stone. The Central Vermont Railway (CV) had long been owned and operated by Canadian railroads, first the Grand Trunk Railway and from 1927 the Canadian National Railway (CN); CN was in turn owned by

780-574: The Central Vermont. CN announced it wished to sell the Central Vermont in 1993, and in October 1994 shortline railroad holding company RailTex Corp. offered to buy the CV via a new subsidiary named the New England Central Railroad (NECR). The transaction was completed in early 1995. The Central Vermont Railway transitioned to the New England Central Railroad starting on February 3, 1995, with

819-454: The NECR. Until 2014, the NECR was used north of Palmer, Massachusetts , and since 2014, north of Northfield, Massachusetts . With state and federal funding, Amtrak and the New England Central Railroad completed repairs and upgrades to much of the NECR mainline in Vermont in 2012, allowing the Vermonter to reach a maximum speed of 79 miles per hour (127 km/h). The Central Corridor Rail Line

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858-657: The VKM BLS. Example for an "Einheitswagen" delivered in 1957: In the United Kingdom, prior to nationalisation, wagons owned by the major railways were marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway concerned; for example, wagons of the Great Western Railway were marked "G W"; those of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway were marked "L M S", etc. The codes were agreed between

897-531: The acquiring company discontinues the name or mark of the acquired company, the discontinued mark is referred to as a "fallen flag" railway. Occasionally, long-disused marks are suddenly revived by the companies which now own them. For example, in recent years, the Union Pacific Railroad has begun to use the mark CMO on newly built covered hoppers, gondolas and five-bay coal hoppers. CMO originally belonged to Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha Railway ,

936-448: The first letter of the reporting mark: A railway vehicle must be registered in the relevant state's National Vehicle Register (NVR), as part of which process it will be assigned a 12-digit European Vehicle Number (EVN). The EVN schema is essentially the same as that used by the earlier UIC numbering systems for tractive vehicles and wagons , except that it replaces the 2-digit vehicle owner's code (see § Europe 1964 to 2005 ) with

975-516: The government of Canada. The Central Vermont's owners kept it a separate company, complete with its own fleet of green and yellow painted locomotives. Operations on the line entered a general decline in the 1980s in tandem with falling freight volumes, which persisted despite the introduction of modern locomotives by CN in the early 1990s. In 1992, the Canadian government began the process of privatizing CN; as part of privatization, branches and less lucrative lines were identified for divestment, including

1014-559: The month. The 45 railroads formerly owned by RailAmerica , which had previously taken over RailTex lines, were transferred to Connecticut-based shortline holding company Genesee & Wyoming in December 2012. This change of ownership caused a shuffle of locomotives around their rail system, and the original NECR yellow-and-blue paint scheme is slowly being replaced by the Genesee & Wyoming scheme. Genesee & Wyoming subsequently purchased

1053-511: The old CV, which had suffered through years of declining traffic and the loss of profitability. The company's rapid success led to it being named 1995's Short Line Railroad of the Year by industry trade journal Railway Age . NECR's motive power initially consisted of former Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad EMD GP38s , although by the late 1990s, leased locomotives, largely former Conrail EMD SD40-2s , entered service. Shortly after NECR's founding,

1092-557: The owner of a reporting mark is taken over by another company, the old mark becomes the property of the new company. For example, when the Union Pacific Railroad (mark UP) acquired the Chicago and North Western Railway (mark CNW) in 1995, it retained the CNW mark rather than immediately repaint all acquired equipment. Some companies own several marks that are used to identify different classes of cars, such as boxcars or gondolas. If

1131-405: The owner, or more precisely the keeper of the vehicle. Thus each UIC member got a two-digit owner code . With the introduction of national vehicle registers this code became a country code. Some vehicles had to be renumbered as a consequence. The Swiss company BLS Lötschbergbahn had the owner code 63. When their vehicles were registered, they got numbers with the country code 85 for Switzerland and

1170-600: The rail properties of Alcoa in September 2005. In addition to those listed below, RailAmerica's prior owner, Fortress Investment Group , purchased the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) in September 2007 from Florida East Coast Industries . Although Fortress maintained a level of common control between the two railroads, FEC was never made a formal part of the RailAmerica family, and Fortress did not include FEC in

1209-520: The railroad for cargo storage. In 2000, RailTex was acquired by RailAmerica , which was subsequently bought in 2007 by Fortress Investments . Neither change in ownership affected the NECR to any great extent. On November 9, 2010, the railroad began construction on a project to raise speeds on trackage within Vermont to 59 miles per hour (95 km/h), with speeds on the route south of White River Junction being increased to 79 miles per hour (127 km/h) for passenger service. The upgrades were part of

New England Central Railroad - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-406: The railroad it is traveling over, which shares the information with other railroads and customers. In multinational registries, a code indicating the home country may also be included. The Association of American Railroads (AAR) assigns marks to all carriers, under authority granted by the U.S. Surface Transportation Board , Transport Canada , and Mexican Government. Railinc , a subsidiary of

1287-637: The railways and registered with the Ministry of Railways , Government of India . RailAmerica RailAmerica, Inc. , based in Jacksonville, Florida , was a holding company of a number of short-line railroads and regional railroads in the United States and Canada . In 2007, RailAmerica was acquired by Fortress Investment Group . Before that, it traded on the New York Stock Exchange with

1326-727: The railways and registered with the Railway Clearing House . In India, wagons owned by the Indian Railways are marked with codes of two to four letters, these codes normally being the initials of the railway divisions concerned along with the Hindi abbreviation; for example, trains of the Western Railway zone are marked "WR" and "प रे"; those of the Central Railway zone are marked "CR" and "मध्य", etc. The codes are agreed between

1365-794: The reporting mark SCAX because the equipment is owned by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority —which owns the Metrolink system—even though it is operated by Amtrak. This is why the reporting mark for CSX Transportation , which is an operating railroad, is CSXT instead of CSX. Private (non-common carrier) freight car owners in Mexico were issued, up until around 1990, reporting marks ending in two X's, possibly to signify that their cars followed different regulations (such as bans on friction bearing trucks) than their American counterparts and so their viability for interchange service

1404-505: The state of Connecticut and the company worked to develop more business at the Port of New London, where the State Pier had recently collapsed. The railroad was commended by a local newspaper for "an aggressive effort to bring rail and shipping business through New London." The pier was rebuilt and opened in 1998, with NECR's tracks directly serving the port. The port's operator leased four acres from

1443-572: The system. Trains 323 (northbound) and 324 (southbound) operate between St. Albans (connecting with Canadian National trains from Montreal) and Brattleboro, making stops to pick up or drop cars at junctions as needed. Train 611 hauls mainline traffic between Brattleboro and Palmer. South of Palmer, train 608 operates south to Willimantic and back, while train 610 covers the line between Willimantic and New London. Local trains are based in St. Albans, White River Junction, and Palmer, serving customers in those areas or performing switching at NECR yards. Besides

1482-435: The transition completed three days later on February 6. The new railroad was marked by improved service compared to the old Central Vermont, as well as more flexible crew arrangements, both of which led to a resurgence of the line. Within a year of NECR's takeover of the line, declining traffic flow was reversed, with the railroad handling more than 30,000 carloads annually within two years of commencing operations, in contrast to

1521-564: Was impaired. This often resulted in five-letter reporting marks, an option not otherwise allowed by the AAR. Companies owning trailers used in trailer-on-flatcar service are assigned marks ending with the letter "Z", and the National Motor Freight Traffic Association , which maintains the list of Standard Carrier Alpha Codes, assigns marks ending in "U" to owners of intermodal containers . The standard ISO 6346 covers identifiers for intermodal containers. When

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