So many road names on same rail?

HI folks - Mark in Cleveland Ohio here. We have some very busy rail lines these days... seems to be a train on the tracks by work about every 5 minutes. On the way to work this morning - I was amazed at the variation and number of auto-carriers rolling by as I stopped at a red light. 2 CSX locomotives - hauling auto transport cars of: CN, CSX, BN, SP, UP, plus a few more. In these modern times - is this normal to have so many raillines moving cars in the same region? Seems to me to be very scrambled! Who owns what? How do they get the transport cars back to the owning companies? Ok - folks thanks, all the best, Mark.

 

Yes, it is very normal to see a mix of names like that, on both the engines and rolling stock.

When railroads first started, they were either the only thing going, or in intense competition with each other. You had to ship your goods in their cars on their line. So that meant if your goods had to travel by more than one railroad to reach the destination, they had to be unloaded at the end of one RR, and loaded onto the next. Very time consuming and expensive.

Customers were not overly impressed at having to pay this extra cost, so the concept of "interchange" was created whereby standardized cars would be hauled on whatever railroad they required to reach their destination. The owner of the car is almost always the name on the side, and there may be some associated instructions on what to do with the car when it is empty. Otherwise, the cars move about where needed - almost seemingly at random. They may even be repaired by another RR, which would then bill the owner. I would guess that some do not make it back to their "home" for months or even years.

Locomotives are now also shared through a similar "pool power" scheme, so you may see a mix of locos pulling that "mixed" train.

In the CPR yard in Smiths Falls (Ontario) I have seen lots of different road names - Wisconsin Central, UP, CSX, CN, CP, one from Washington (can't exactly recall), several different tank car lines, Burlington Northern, as well as maintenance of way equipment from Sperry.

Andrew

 

Mark - If you think that there are a large number of different road names in today's freights, you should have been around when there were 100+ "Class I" railroads. Add to that thousands of short line and "X-cars" (private, not RR owned cars). Each of those "100+" railroads had their own colors, reporting marks, slogans, etc.

Today, I believe people talk about the "Super 7" railroads, and from the look of most freight trains, I can believe it. Most of the freights around here seem to be composed mostly of the owners cars (CSX and NS) -
especially NS. Most of the CSX trains I see have at least one or two St. Marys RR cars.

Before abolition of the ICC, the railroads, in addition to AAR Car Service Rules - which I believe had the force of law, the ICC would and could issue "Car Service Orders" which commanded railroads under penalty of law, to move empty cars at ICC dirtection. This was especially true during grain harvests to correct a "shortage of cars" which was a yearly occurence.

Until the 1980's, basically cars came under AAR Car Service Rules which
seemed to recognize three basic classes of cars; "free runners" which were mostly the "X-cars", home-road cars; move the car back toward the owning railroad (with a load if possible), and "Pool Cars", which was an agreement between the shipper and railroads associated with the shipment, to supply a "pool" of cars based on revenue and/or mileage.

To me, the whole subject of how the make-up of freight trains was subject to these laws and rules is a fascinating subject, and I believe now, much changed.

 

The railroads of the United States, Canada, and México are all subscribers to the Association of American Railroads' Car Service and Car Hire Agreement, and act as a unified railway system. Railroads pay an hourly and mileage charge for the use of the car belonging to another railroad (car hire). This is settled monthly and negotiated between the parties. (Talk about fun, I was involved in this, among other things).

Many cars are "free runners", but the rules say that an effort should be made to return cars toward the owning railroad. Others are assigned to specific shippers, like auto racks. Each railroad is expected to contibute to the pool in proportion to the revenue received. In other words, you get 40 percent of the dollars, you provide 40 percent of the cars.

Locomotives are also freely interchanged these days, but compensation is different, it is per horsepower hour and payment is normally in use of anothers' locos, not money.

 

Is the horsepower-hour calculation based on rated HP or actual HP? What I mean is, an elderly SD-40 in need of an overhaul may be only capable of putting out 2000 HP, but it might be being charged at its design HP when it was new. This wouldn't seem fair if Operations had to add another loco to the team just to make up the difference.

 

It is based on a locomotive's rated horsepower as shown in UMLER (Universal Machine Language Equipment Register). I assume this would take into account rebuildings and modifications, but not condition. Reciprocity prevents outright cheating. "You send me junk, I'll send you junk..."

 

When did the Class I's start freely interchanging locos? Was it a result of dieselization?

 

Using "pool power" began in the sixties but did not really take off until the 1970's. It was stil pretty regional though, you would not really see a Chessie loco on the West coast. Like wise, a WP or GN loco would be hard pressed to end up in the east.

In the mid-80's pooling power exploded and from then on you never could really predict what you'd see on a class I.

Brad

 

Very true.....in any given month I can be assured of seeing at least one logo from every Class 1 on the Continent! along the CSX NO&M Sub. That includes all US Class 1's, CP, CN, an occasional un-repainted BCR (though not lately), TFM, FerroMex, even some regional US roads like Guilford, WC, MRL, etc. Would make for great photo ops, if only they would slow down and park for a minute or two.....:sad:

 

I wish it was like that here! In the late 90s, I used to see SOO units through Calgary, and the occasional leaser. It's been a long time since I've seen a SOO engine. CEFX AC4400CWs are common, but the only engine I've ever seen on a CP train that wasn't actually owned or leased by CP was one UP AC4400CW.

 

Not so locally. In this area most of the freights have either all CSX or SOU power. Right after the Conrail split would often see one of their "Techno-Toasters" mixed in with CSX power (also all "techno-Toasters).

After years of passing Southern's yard twice a day, never saw any foreign power at all.

Have mixed feelings about "pool power". While I understand the economic aspects, the aesthetics leave an awful lot to be desired.

 

While I dont totally understand the economics of pooling, If aesthetics were the issue, we'd still have 50+ class I railroads running nothing but streamlined Steamers and Hood units!