(See also Companies NOT Included in This Guide.)

Please understand that

my primary focus is railroading.

My goals with this catalog seem simple:

• My primary goal is to describe certificates from all railroad companies that operated anywhere in North America. Companies did not necessarily incorporate or lay track in North America.
• My secondary goal (and please understand that it is secondary) is to list certificates from companies closely related to railroading.

The vast majority of certificates in this catalog came from genuine railroad companies. My definition of 'railroads' includes:

• huge mainline railroads
• short line railroads
• narrow gauge railroads
• tourist railroads
• horse railroads
• electric railroads
• street railroads
• traction railroads
• cable railroads
• subways
• cog railroads
• gravity and funicular railroads
• switching and terminal railroads

I also include several other companies that are very close to railroads. That category includes:

• Logging companies: A vast number of timber operations prior to World War I used rail haulage of every conceivable gauge. Of those thousands of companies, only a small percentage issued stocks and bonds. However, thousands of miles of logging railroad tracks were consolidated and merged into genuine railroad companies. Therefore, several hundred logging companies may, in fact, be ancestors of parts of more recognizable railroad companies.
  
• Bridge companies. I reluctantly include a few bridge companies in this catalog. Ideally I only include them if they, 1) used "Railroad" in their corporate names, 2) and they reported to the ICC as common carriers. I recognize there are a few bridge companies in the database that do not meet this criteria. They are among the earliest companies listed and are generally accepted to be rail-related. Based on responses from polls of my contributors, I have chosen to leave a few companies in the database.
  
• Switching and terminal railroads. Several of these kinds of companies are disguised and operated under shipping or wharf company names.
  
• Plantation and mining railroads. Many large plantation companies and a few mining companies operated genuine railroads. I currently include a handful of those companies when I have compelling information that suggests they operated in conditions close to those of genuine railroads.
  
• Rail museums. I include a few of these organizations in the database when they incorporated as corporations and when they sold stock.
  
• Railroad equipment manufacturers. Many collectors collect certificates from companies that manufactured equipment crucial to the operations of railroads. It is often very difficult to decide which of these companies to include or discard. Even after all this time, I have never been able to devise a hard and fast rule.

In general, if companies seem to belong to corporate categories other than railroading, then I do not include them here.

Obviously it is easier to include companies when they made equipment that was absolutely crucial to railroading. Obviously it is easier to include companies when they included "railroad" in their corporate names.

Here are the categories of companies I currently include. The more crucial a company was to railroading, the more likely it is to appear in my catalog. The further afield a company was to railroading, the less likely I will waste time on it.

• locomotives
• railway cars
• ties
• rails
• signals
• parts

There is a vast "gray area" of companies that cause me very much trouble and wasted time. When companies seem to appear in the "gray area", I always ask whether rail operations were critical to their overall corporate survival. If not, then I definitely do NOT include them. If interested in learning more about this process, be sure to read Thoughts about which companies to include in the database ... and which to reject and Decision Matrix for deciding which companies to include or exclude from this project.

The Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado, for instance, owns and operates several locomotives within its huge rail yard. Its locomotives have appeared in railfan magazines and videos. The company moves more rail cars per day than many switching lines. However, I don't know a single person who would consider Coors Brewing Company a railroad company.

Another example is CF&I Steel. CF&I was a major rail manufacturer, and even operated a railroad between its coal mines and blast furnaces in Pueblo, Colorado. Nonetheless, railroading was only a tiny part of its overall business. Taking the hard-nosed approach, CF&I Steel was steel company, not a railroad.

I suspect some non-railroad companies have slipped through. I will remove them if you remind me they are there.

I initially included all companies in my database that had reported to the ICC as a "common carrier." Over time I have eliminated several companies when in-depth evidence strongly suggested that reportage to the ICC was insufficient reason for inclusion.

Sometimes, it is easier to tell which kinds of companies are excluded from my database. I have another large page on this subject at companies not included in this guide.

In general, I do not include ordinary railway equipment suppliers. There were possibly a hundred such companies. Most were never publicly traded and few ever issued stock. I occasionally include a few of those companies if they issued stock and if they included indication of deep rail involvement in their names.

There are certain types of companies I do not include, regardless of any apparent similarity to ordinary railroads.

• amusement parks, regardless of railroad authenticity or scale
• trolleybuses, loop railways, and subways that operated within airports
• manufacturers for which railroading is, or was, a small part of their businesses
• miniature railroads
• toy railroads
• toy companies
• replicas at any scale
• mining companies that only operated underground trams

For those who ask...no, I do not include toy manufacturer Lionel.