Ultimately, I want to give users the capability of finding companies by state or province. However, I have no time for company research. This is an area where rail fans of every degree of experience can help.

Here is a list of all companies in the database that currently lack locations. As always, railroad companies are my highest priority. Other types of companies are lower priority.

Before you send locations, please make sure you have definite proof of location from maps, books, timetables, etc. I cannot stress this enough. Please, do not guess. (I am a geographer and have access to hundreds of thousands of place and feature names in the U.S. alone; I can guess locations as well as the next guy.) We are building a long-term database. I desire correctness over completeness.

I record two types of "company locations":

• states/provinces where companies incorporated, and
• states/provinces where companies operated.

They locations are not necessarily the same.

If contributing locations, a simple list of company names and states/provinces is entirely sufficient. I do not need anything fancy. I do not need supporting evidence. I do not need office locations.

A secondary goal is to upgrade the exact spellings of company names to include "Railway," "Railroad," and so forth. Spellings of company names fall into four categories of decreasing reliability:

• spellings on stock and bond certificates prevail over all other sources.
• spellings on official company documents (letterheads, passes, timetables, prospectuses) are second best, but are less reliable.
• spellings in investment books, including Poors Manuals, are only accurate about half the time; official filings with Secretaries of State are similarly inaccurate.
• spellings in derivative works (history books, newspapers, pamphlets, oral histories, museums, movies, web sites) are notoriously unreliable.

If unfamiliar with antique stocks and bonds, be aware that many certificates show two, and ocassionally three! different spellings on the same document! If you understand that two spellings can appear on official stock certificates, then that should alert you that any spellings you find anywhere else are inherently less reliable. Also remember that company names were notoriously fluid. Some name lasted only days or weeks before alteration.

Thank you for your contributions!

This list is current to 5/1/2012 8:19:14 PM.