I will try to answer this question. From the earliest days of railroads in the USA, each of the different railroad companies has owned many locomotives and many more cars. There are times that the goods and cargo loaded into the cars have to travel over more than one railroad to get to their final destination. Because of this, there are cars from many railroads all together in one train. Each railroad company helps move the cars along and passes them to the next company at an interchange point. In the last 20 years it has become more common for one railroad company to need more locomotives than it owns and for it to borrow locomotives from another company to help pull their trains. Some times there will be locomotives from many different companies all together pulling one train. The company that owns the rails provides the crew (train men) and the fuel to run all the locomotive. They usually maintain them and repair them also until they return them to the company who owns the locomoties.
Russell is correct on the locomotive use on different railroads. This is now known as 'Pooled' locomotives. Locomotives in 'Pooled' service travel from one terminal to the next with the train. In the 1990's, use of other locomotives was based on power hours. If a Union Pacific locomotive was used by the Burlington Northern for 100hrs, then the Burlington Northern would owe the Union Pacific 100 power hours. Several locomotive could add up to a lot of hours in a months time. Pool power is much easier on everyone. Everyone pitches in on the power to move the train and just worries about the fuel and maintanence while that set of power is on their railroad. On the railroad I work for, we have a run-through agreement with CSX on grain trains. When the grain train gets on our railroad, we have 48hrs to move the train, spot it at the grain elevator, get it unloaded, and have the locomotives back on the CSX. For every hour over the 48hrs the locomotives are on our railroad, we pay the CSX $750 per locomotive per hour. If the grain train is not unloaded, we will add the CSX locomotives to a freight train going back to the CSX to get them off our railroad and back in time. The grain train when unloaded will then be pulled back to CSX with our own locomotives.
Evgeniy, welcome to Trainboard! You have a very nice layout! I love the TV in the wall behind the layout! Vladimav, what is that loco in your signature? I like that a lot!
Others have answered this quite well, but I would like to add a little information. There were a lot of reasons why, in the early years you want to model, cars might end up in another train's consist. There was no central "manager," as you are accustomed to. Instead, it all had to do with capitalism: with how these many different companies could make money. You might see a single boxcar that took a truly complex route over a number of different railroads to get to where you are standing in some small town. Here in the US, railroad companies worked hard to carve out territories for themselves. But they also wanted to connect to the same big cities, because that's how they could make the most money. Their routes were often parallel and they often shared stations and tracks. They went to the same places and they competed for customers. In the time you want to model, you might often see trains that had MANY cars from these parallel railroads. The cars still belonged to the railroads they came from, and they would eventually make their way back to them. But a lot of trains also connected to the same cities even though they did not parallel each other. CB&Q flatcars carrying John Deere tractors might begin in Illinois where they were manufactured. But the customers who wanted those tractors might be in Deming, New Mexico--and CB&Q doesn't go there. ATSF goes there. Fortunately, both CB&Q and ATSF connect to Chicago. So CB&Q takes the cars into Chicago and then ATSF takes the flatcars from Chicago to Deming, New Mexico. Once the flatcars are unloaded, the ATSF has to return them to the CB&Q. Since they're empty, the ATSF can no longer make money from them, so they're not going to be in a big hurry to pull them, empty, straight back to Chicago. The flatcars will get there when they get there, and they might even carry some ATSF freight from Albuquerque to Kansas City while they're on their way. So you see, there are many railroads with their own territories on one hand, and they are trying to serve customers who may or may not be in their territories. The problem is solved by treating cities as hubs. Very large cities like Chicago served as hubs for railroad traffic, something like modern airline terminals. But even smaller towns served as hubs for little regional railroads. So while a really big western railroad like the Great Northern might regularly carry cars from ATSF, CB&Q, and SP&S, it could easily end up carrying a boxcar from a small railroad in the Southeast or Northeast, too. I remember some of these looked very old and neglected, as if they had never made it back to their parent railroad at all. While the railroads competed with each other, they also worked together when they thought it might work out to their own best interests. They made agreements, for example, so that one might be allowed to run its trains over track belonging to another railroad. Or a railroad might lease tracks from another railroad. If they drop off cars on these shared tracks, they might easily end up in the consist of the other railroad when they're picked up. I model the "transition era," and this is how I remember my favorite freight trains from that time. I model "mixed trains" as opposed to "unit trains" which for example might carry long consists of grain hoppers or coal hoppers. But even when you have a long consist of grain hoppers, they're bound to have grain hoppers from another railroad mixed in.
Some car types travel more than others. Boxcars were traditionally the big travellers. Being generic, they could take many types of loads. Some could bounce around the country for years without seeing home rails. Many cars belong to "private owners" - companies other than railroads, that ship products by rail. Notably, in the steam and early diesel eras, most tank and refrigerator cars were private owner. By now, there are about as many private owner cars as railroad-owned cars. Most container and piggyback cars are private owner, as are a large percentage of covered hoppers and a significant number of hoppers.
Wecome to trainboard! You've got a great start on your layout and must have assembled it with great care for your long train to travel so well without derailments. Congratulations!
movement of trains Greatest thanks, for such detailed answer. Now I have completely understood, how movement of trains in the USA consists. Yes capitalism a great cause! The more you work, the you will earn more. In Russia all on the contrary. All railways belong to the state. The relation of people, as to another's things. If something fails, nobody hurries up it to repair more likely. Because, so it is possible to have a rest, in working hours. Getting wages and of what does not care. It is awful! But it so. The only thing that works strictly, it is traffic safety. There work, skilled people. Also they do not wish to get to prison, for the errors. New workings out of technics are not present. The old technics decays. Therefore, it is not pleasant to me Russian railways. To me sometimes becomes, and sad, and ridiculous simultaneously:tb-sad::tb-smile:. When I go in the Moscow underground, sometimes by some lines, I meet cars of 1969 of release. 40 years of everyday operation. Likely at the time of cold war when the USSR, wished to seem the best in the world. Built technics of such reliability that it works to this day. And I laugh, and say, that probably they in those days, have spent all money. And money any more does not remain:tb-err:. For examination, in economy – an estimation unsatisfactorily For movement on the layout, without failures, I very much worked, track when glue. Failures disturb to work. Take away time, break the schedule. To glues track, I have given particular attention. I used all material Peco code 55. Good stuff, but nevertheless not the best. I assume that Micro Enginering it is better:thumbs_up:, but I saw it only on a photo. And to buy material Micro Enginering, it has appeared impracticable for me. On eBay, it practically do not sell. Peco, meets seldom, expensively, and in small quantities, but meets. I next year plan to continue to build the bottom level. And the beginnings to pay attention on Atlas code 55. Not absolutely it is pleasant to me, a rail profile. It does not correspond to a prototype. But I like the price, and a wide choice on sale. Whether well they work, as long train go on turnouts. Often are derailed, or pass smoothly. Atlas 80, it was not pleasant to me.
Track looks best when covered with moving trains. I am using Kato unitrack. This is not proto-typical at all. I ignore it's faults and just enjoy the trains running over it. RICK
That is one very long train! Nice work on getting that track put down so precisely. :mbiggrin: And Welcome!
Hello to fellow new member Nice work Evgeniy, I too am new to this group, and look forward to getting to know everyone in this group. Watchiyour video is almost like looking out my back window. I live along one of the busiest stretches of UP mainline in the country, with a train passing about every five minutes. I belong to a local module group, and the theme to our modules are UP transition era prototype areas found in the the Ogden, Utah area. The modules that I am building, about 16 feet, is the Ogden Union Passenger Station and adjacent buildings and platforms. I enjoy running long passenger trains, and it's fun to watch them run along the club layout. One of our members is modeling the Ogden stock yards, and another is modeling UP's Ogden Roundhouse, including the servicing facilities UP built for their 'Big Boys'. Another member is modeling UP's helper facility at Echo, Utah, where UP kept it's steam helper locomotives that worked it's freight and passenger trains between Ogden and Green River, Wyoming. It impressive to watch a Big Boy and a Challeger pull a long freight out of our yard. Being a member of a module group if you can find one.
Welcome, I too model US railroads in N scale and like long trains! Like your layout and like to see more as you progress. Cheers,
Well, you know here you are speaking of passenger cars, and that is something completely different from freight cars. No matter how the US has tried, it has never been able to "privatize" (make capitalist) any kind of public transportation, and that includes the railroads' passenger cars. All our public transportation is socialized to some extent, just like in Russia. The reason is that it is incredibly expensive to move people, and people aren't rich enough to pay the price for it. So no matter what it is--our highway system, buses, or railroads--the government pays. Even in the "glory days," with the beautiful Pullmans and great service, the government paid most of the cost. Today, the government pays for Amtrak. The one exception is the airlines, which Reagan "deregulated." They have to pay mostly for themselves now--and flying on our airplanes has become truly dreadful. In fact, with my health the way it is, I can no longer fly at all. That's because people can't pay enough, so the facilities and service have gone downhill, just like your underground in Russia. So really, the problem with your underground isn't socialism at all: it's that the government isn't paying what it used to pay during the Cold War, when your government HAD a lot more money. Russia is becoming capitalist, but now, just like the US, it has to figure out how to continue to provide public services in spite of that. (I'm betting the other people-related services are deteriorating, too, like police, fire, and medicine). So anyway, back to modeling. (Though really, this has all been about modeling). I use Peco C55, too. I like it. It lays down well, it's not too expensive, and it has a lot of good switches available. The rail profile is just the same as the Atlas C55 track. Once you have ballasted your track, it will look great. Make sure the ballast is high enough to cover up most of the thick ties. The ties are too far apart, of course. I like to paint my ties close to the same color as the ballast. They blend in then and the difference isn's so noticeable. (And anyway, even the Atlas ties are too far apart). Here in New Mexico, the ties really are almost the same color as the ballast.
My nephew lived in Moscow for three years and always traveled on the underground. The equipment may have been crowded, a little shabby and run down but it was almost always on time. He could depend on getting where he needed to be. His friends who had automobiles had a dreadful time getting anywhere around the city so they usually rode the underground also. They used the autos to get out of town on weekends.
Evgeniy, You do excellent work and I enjoy watching your videos. I hope to see more of your work in the future. Welcome to Trainboard
