Collectible Stocks and Bonds from North American Railroads             by Terry Cox

A guidebook and catalog of prices (I neither buy nor sell stocks and bonds)
Search hundreds of pages on this web site for information about collecting railroad stocks and bonds.
 

Click to search the special Coxrail database. Information for 23,700+ certificates from over 7,400 North American railroad companies.
  Hints for finding company names  

If you cannot find company names quickly, then please read the search hints on this page. (Please read these hints before writing)

The Process. There are over 25,000 companies listed in this database. Avoid being overly specific in trying to find companies. Instead, search for approximate company names. You will discover that companies were often very inexact in their spellings. Also check my list of deceptive company names (names that sound like railroads, but aren't.

A few Quick Hints
Beginners
  Enter part of the first word of a company name. You may search for whole words if you want, but four or five letters is better.
  Do not use "The" or "And"
  Do not use apostrophes
 

Names that begin with initials can be confusing. Experiment. To find "S D Warren Co", for example, try these word fragments:

s d warr
  Try to avoid spelling errors. Enter parts of words. Word fragments are always better than whole words.
  The fewer characters you enter, the more results you will get.
  Avoid being overly specific. Copany names were tremendous variable. Avoid using words and abbreviations such as railway, rail-way, rail way, Ry, Rwy, railroad, rail road, rail-road, RR.
Experienced users
  Enter exact company codes if you know them
(eg: MIS-716)
  You may experiment with parts of catalog numbers. The trick is to enter the hyphen. For example, STL- or NEW-5. The hyphen tells the search program that you are searching for catalog numbers instead of words. (See also, Catalog Numbering Explained.)

 

Spelling rules:
  Hyphens within names are considered critical. Hyphens were often used to differentiate between successive incorporations.
  Apostrophes and commas are NOT considered critical. They are NOT used anywhere in the database.
  Spelling on certificates prevails. Spellings of town names often changed over time. Just because you know a company had "Pittsburgh" in its names does not mean it was spelled that way on its certificates.
  It is not uncommon to find company names spelled two different ways on the same certificate.
  Spelling exception 1
    If company names begin with "St." or "Saint", all catalog numbered begin with ST.
  Spelling exception 2
    If company names begin with "Mt." or "Mount", all catalog numbers begin with MOU.

The easiest way to start a search is to enter parts of company names.
If you enter these word fragments in the search box like this:



you will be presented with several choices, including these company names:


Hints to get better results even faster
  The less precise you are, the more company names you will find.
  But...if you have a slow internet connection...be a little more precise. You will get fewer names, but your search speed will increase.
  Speed up your searches by entering the distinctive parts of words. For instance, enter "polis" to find "Indianapolis." Or try "xark" to quickly find "Texarkana."
  Avoid typing mistakes by entering only three to five letters of words. You will make fewer typing errors if you enter "Mass" and "Conn" instead of "Massachusetts" and "Connecticut".


Want more speed? See MORE HINTS for still more suggestions for quickening your searches.

 

 
Papermental logo Help support this free site! Please visit my eBay store called Papermental by Terry Cox. My inventory includes (or will include) railroad ephemera, newspapers, magazines, engravings, and all sorts of paper collectibles. The current inventory is about 1,700 items building toward an estimated 3,000.

Please contact me if you have certificates not yet listed. (See How You Can Help) Try to limit images to 250 Kb each.

Please contact the many fine dealers on my dealers page to buy certificates.