Autorack branding? Noob question

[fr8fiend]

Hey all,

I have a question about the branding on autoracks. It’s common to see a cut of racks with TTGX reporting marks, presumably owned by TTX. It’s also common for these cars to be branded with the logos of various railroads, like UP, CSX, NS, etc, despite bearing the TTGX reporting mark.

What’s the purpose of this? Are these cars in fact owned by TTX, and if so, why do they brand them this way?

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Someone will undoubtedly correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the cars are owned by TTX (Trailer Train Corporation) and the racks are owned by the railroad whose logo is on the rack. TTX is owned by a group of railroads. The autoracks with flatcar bases that have the name/reporting mark that matches the name on the rack are owned by that railroad - Grand Trunk is one that had its own flatcars underneath some of its racks.

Things may have changed, but there were at least 3 sets of TTX reporting marks on the autoracks - TTGX, ETTX & CTTX.

[Saturnalia]

Someone will undoubtedly correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that the cars are owned by TTX (Trailer Train Corporation) and the racks are owned by the railroad whose logo is on the rack. TTX is owned by a group of railroads. The autoracks with flatcar bases that have the name/reporting mark that matches the name on the rack are owned by that railroad - Grand Trunk is one that had its own flatcars underneath some of its racks.

Things may have changed, but there were at least 3 sets of TTX reporting marks on the autoracks - TTGX, ETTX & CTTX.

This is pretty much the case. TTX is a consortium/joint venture for equipment pooling. They often own and maintain the CARS which includes all of the wheels, braking, etc, and then railroads then "add" their RACKS on top of them. In reality, most of the cars are built from the rail up as an autorack and stay that way. The whole split ownership thing started way back in the day when railroads first developed autoracks using existing flatcars. In this business, old habits die hard, so 70 years later they're still often doing it the same way.

There are of course also cases where the railroad owns the car and the rack - BNSF has lots of them - and also where TTX owns the car and the rack together.

[fr8fiend]

Very interesting. Thanks for explaining!