Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
q2K BHP
Black History Portal
THE BHP WIRE —
HIDDEN TRUTHS
What's New!
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Katherine Johnson’s mathematical calculations helped guide some of America’s most important early space missions while she confronted the racial and gender barriers faced by Black women in twentieth-century America.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
Railroad classes are the system by which freight railroads are designated in the United States. Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$504,803,294 for Class I carriers and US$40,384,263 for Class II carriers. (Smaller carriers were Class III by default.)
| Year | Class I Threshold | Class II Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | $378,774,016 | $30,301,921 |
| 2010 | $398,673,376 | $31,656,908 |
| 2011 | $433,211,345 | $34,656,908 |
| 2012 | $452,653,248 | $36,212,260 |
| 2013 | $467,063,129 | $37,365,050 |
| 2014 | $475,754,803 | $38,060,384 |
| 2015 | $457,913,998 | $36,633,120 |
| 2016 | $447,621,226 | $35,809,698 |
| 2017 | $463,860,933 | $37,108,875 |
| 2018 | $489,935,956 | $39,194,876 |
| 2019 | $504,803,294 | $40,384,263 |
| 2020 | $900,000,000 | $40,400,000 |
| 2021 | $943,898,958 | $42,370,575 |
| 2022 | $1,032,002,719 | $46,325,455 |
| 2023 | $1,053,709,560 | $47,299,851 |
| 2024 | $1,074,600,816 | $48,237,637 |
| 2025 | $1,094,774,354 | $49,143,204 |
There are six Class I freight railroad companies in the United States: BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Canadian National Railway, CPKC, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad.[2] Canadian National also operates in Canada and CPKC operates in Canada and Mexico.
In addition, the national passenger railroad in the United States, Amtrak, would qualify as Class I if it were a freight carrier, as would Canada's Via Rail passenger service. Mexico's Ferromex freight railroad would also qualify as Class I, but it does not operate in the United States.
Initially (in 1911) the former federal agency Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) classified railroads by their annual gross revenue. Class I railroads had an annual operating revenue of at least $1 million, while Class III railroad incomes were under $100,000. Railroads in both classes were subject to reporting requirements on a quarterly or annual schedule. In 1925, the ICC reported 174 Class I railroads, 282 Class II railroads, and 348 Class III railroads.[3]
The $1 million criterion established in 1911 for a Class I railroad was used until January 1, 1956, when the figure was increased to $3 million. In 1956, the ICC counted 113 Class I line-haul operating railroads (excluding "3 class I companies in systems") and 309 Class II railroads (excluding "3 class II companies in systems"). The Class III category was dropped in 1956 but reinstated in 1978. By 1963, the number of Class I railroads had dropped to 102; cutoffs were increased to $5 million by 1965,[4] to $10 million in 1976 and to $50 million in 1978, at which point only 41 railroads qualified as Class I.
In a special move in 1979, all switching and terminal railroads were re-designated Class III — even those with Class I or Class II revenues.
In early 1991, two Class II railroads, Montana Rail Link and Wisconsin Central, asked the ICC to increase the minimum annual operating revenue criteria (then established at US$93.5 million) to avoid being redesignated as Class I, which would have resulted in increased administrative and legal costs.[5] The Class II maximum criterion was increased in 1992 to $250 million annually, which resulted in the Florida East Coast Railway having its status changed to Class II.
The thresholds set in 1992 were:
Since dissolution of the ICC in 1996, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) has become responsible for defining criteria for each railroad class. The STB continues to use designations of Class II and Class III as there are different labor regulations for the two classes. The bounds are typically redefined every several years to adjust for inflation and other factors.
Class II and Class III designations are now rarely used outside the rail transport industry. The Association of American Railroads typically divides non–Class I companies into three categories:
In the United States, the Surface Transportation Board categorizes rail carriers into Class I, Class II, and Class III based on the carrier's annual revenue. The thresholds, last adjusted for inflation in 2025, are:[6]
In Canada, a Class I rail carrier is defined (as of 2004[update]) as a company that has earned gross revenues exceeding $250 million (CAD) for each of the previous two years.[7]
Class I railroads are the largest rail carriers in the United States. In 1900, there were 132 Class I railroads, but as the result of mergers and bankruptcies, the industry has consolidated and as of April 2023[update], just six Class I freight railroads remain.
BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad have a duopoly over all transcontinental freight rail lines in the Western United States, while CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway operate most of the trackage in the Eastern United States, with the Mississippi River being the rough dividing line. Canadian National Railway (via its subsidiary Grand Trunk Corporation) operates north–south lines near the Mississippi River. Canadian Pacific Kansas City, doing business as CPKC, runs from southern Canada, then goes south through the central United States to central Mexico.
In addition, the national passenger railroads in the US and Canada—Amtrak and VIA Rail—would both qualify as Class I if they were freight carriers. Mexico's Ferromex would qualify as a Class I railroad if it had trackage in the United States.
| Railroad | Trackage | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Canada | United States | Mexico | |
| BNSF Railway | Yes | Yes | No |
| Canadian National Railway | Yes | Yes [Note 1] |
No |
| CPKC | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CSX Transportation | Yes | Yes | No |
| Norfolk Southern Railway | Yes | Yes | No |
| Union Pacific Railroad | No | Yes | No |
A Class II railroad in the United States hauls freight and is mid-sized in terms of operating revenue. Switching and terminal railroads are excluded from Class II status. Railroads considered by the Association of American Railroads as "Regional Railroads" are typically Class II. The Florida East Coast Railway, the Iowa Interstate Railroad, and the Alabama and Gulf Coast Railway are some examples of Class II railroads.
Class III railroads are typically local shortline railroads serving a small number of towns and industries or hauling cars for one or more railroads; often, they once had been branch lines of larger railroads or even abandoned portions of main lines. Some Class III railroads are owned by railroad holding companies such as Genesee & Wyoming or Watco. The Maryland and Delaware Railroad, the Finger Lakes Railway the San Pedro Valley Railroad, Buckingham Branch Railroad, and the Cleveland & Cuyahoga Railway are some examples of Class III railroads.
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Railroad classes are the system by which freight railroads are designated in the United States. Railroads are assigned to Class I, II or III according to annual revenue criteria originally set by the Surface Transportation Board in 1992. With annual adjustments for inflation, the 2019 thresholds were US$504,803,294 for Class I carriers and US$40,384,263 for Class II carriers. (Smaller carriers were Class III by default.) There are six Class I freight railroad companies in the United States: BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation, Canadian National Railway, CPKC, Norfolk Southern Railway, and Union Pacific Railroad. Canadian National also operates in Canada and CPKC operates in Canada and Mexico. In addition, the national passenger railroad in the United States, Amtrak, would qualify as Class I if it were a freight carrier, as would Canada's Via Rail passenger service. Mexico's Ferromex freight railroad would also qualify as Class I, but it does not operate in the United States.
Locomotive classification on the Pennsylvania Railroad took several forms. Early on, steam locomotives were given single-letter classes. As the 26 letters were quickly assigned, that scheme was abandoned for a more complex system. This was used for all of the PRR's steam locomotives, and — with the exception of the final type bought (the E44) — all electric locomotives also used this scheme.
The Pennsylvania Railroad's class H8, H9s and H10s steam locomotives were of the 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type, the last three classes of such built by the railroad. The three classes differed only in cylinder diameter and thus tractive effort, each subsequent class increasing that measurement by an inch. The first H8 was built in 1907 and the last H10 in 1916; within a few years they were replaced on heavy freight assignments by 2-8-2s and 2-10-0. They became the railroad's standard light freight locomotive, replacing all other class H 2-8-0s, and a number remained in service until the end of PRR steam locomotive operation in 1957. 968 class H8 of various subclasses were constructed, along with 274 class H9s and 273 class H10s. A number of H8 locomotives were rebuilt to H9s specification. Class H10s was built primarily for PRR Lines West, and featured a typical Lines West tender with sloping side coal boards at the top, to enable a bigger load of coal to be carried. Some locomotives of this type were leased to the PRR-owned Long Island Rail Road, becoming the primary freight-hauling type on that system.
The Pennsylvania Railroad's class L5 were the railroad's second generation of production electric locomotives after the DD1, and the last to use a jackshaft and side rods to drive the wheels. The L5 was a single-unit locomotive instead of the twin-unit DD1. The wheel arrangement in Whyte notation was 2-4-4-2, or 1-B-B-1 in the AAR scheme. Twenty five were built in 4 distinct subclasses. The lead unit of the class was equipped for AC operation with an overhead pantograph (later two), while the other 24 were third rail DC units to work on the existing PRR third rail electrification in the New York area. The class was built with an eye towards future long distance electrification with the idea of a single class that could be used interchangeably between the present and future AC electrified zones and the DC electrified zone in New York City. The PRR also used the L5 order to try out electrical equipment manufacturers other than Westinghouse, which had provided the propulsion equipment for both the DD1 and FF1 classes. The original classes were to be simply L5 for the AC units and L5a for the DC units, but as the additional equipment suppliers were brought on the scheme changed to include the intended function (passenger), the current used and finally the electrical supplier. Westinghouse supplied the majority of the units with 1 L5Paw class and 12 L5pdw class. General Electric and Brown Boveri each supplied 6 classed L5pdg and L5pdb respectively. The L5 was not as successful as the DD1 as the side rod electric locomotive concept proved to be unsuited to the demands of long distance electrification. Even in the existing short haul service the L5's long rigid wheelbase and poor weight distribution caused it to be withdrawn significantly before the older DD1s.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
