road names - do they matter anymore?

[lionel2986]

I was driving on the new jersey turnpike and saw a bunch of freight trains near the port. There were Conrail engines, CSX engines, southern box cars, Norfolk and Western engines, railbox, SOO, and they were all mixed together. It didnt make logical sense because I researched these companies and some of them didnt even have lines that ran through new jersey. There were a bunch of other road names mixed in that I can’t remember because they were so random. Southern boxcars being pulled by CSX engines. I would think the southern boxcar is originally used nowhere near new jersey. Do railroad companies not care about the labels on their cars anymore and just buy rolling stock from other companies and never bother to repaint them with their logo?

[csxt30]

Oh no, it works differently than that !! The cars by almost all the railroads in the USA & Canada & even Mexico, go all over & on all the RRs. What they call interchange, or rather to interchange with all the RRs. Engines are even leased or borrowed by one another also. All the cars use the same air break systems & couplers & have the same gauge, plus come under the same FRA & ICC rules & more.
Thanks,

[lionelsoni]

Railroads have been interchanging cars for well over a century. It is usual to see cars from roads all over the US, Canada, and Mexico in any freight train. They also lease locomotives from each other. There are also companies and associations of railroads that exist only to rent out cars and locomotives. You will also see cars and locomotives of railroads that have been absorbed by other railroads. These are often not repainted.

[FJ and G]

I still get Trains magazine and have an interest in 1:1 railroads today; but I suppose the passion has somewhat diminished with the line abandonments and the modern mergers and impersonal nature of the business where pride seems to have disappeared and Amtrak is one of the only games in town. Guess I lost interest after the end of the Santa Fe and the Burlington Northern.

Nonetheless, I am still a big advocate of rail and think that it, and monorail, can solve the congestion, pollution, and energy problem. But I'm in the minority.

[Anonymous]

I don't think they do from a PR standpoint with the general population. Business all ready know who their local rail lines are. In this area it's UP, BNSF & KCS. I ocassionally see a consist of NS engines pulling a mixed bag of cars on the UP tracks. I asked a conductor waiting by a siding why and he stated the cars were headed to Mexico and it was just easier to put a UP crew on the NS engines at the interchange rather than cut the cars loose and couple up the UP engines. He said that whenever I saw the NS engines in town there were some UP engines riding the NS rails with a NS crew. Said it was a "gentlemens" agreement between the companies.

[JeffPo]

Here in central North Carolina, I see CSX, Norfolk & Southern, Conrail, Union Pacific, and BNSF, mixed in various configurations. All kinds of rolling stock mixed in, with a lot of old Southern and N&W.

Regarding public relations, I've noticed Norfolk & Southern doing some television ads lately.

[lionelsoni]

Dave, monorail has been the railroad of the future since the Listowel and Ballybunion opened in 1888--and always will be. I think that, the more railroads, the better; but there's just no good reason not to use two steel rails.

[Anonymous]

I tell you one thing... living out west now... it was a real treat for me to see my Minnesota SOO out here in California last spring!