where are they?

[willy6]

all railroads share thier rolling stock.now for the questions.if CSX has a boxcar .......say #456789 out in UTAH on the UP line,who knows where that car is and if it breaks down(i.e. wheel bearings), who pays to repair it and does UP have to pay for using it?[?]

[dehusman]

The railroad that has possesion of the car pays a mileage and hourly charge for the car, called car hire. It used to be called "per diem" and was charged to whoever held the car at 12:01 am midnight.

If a car breaks down on another road, the road that has possession of the car can repair it and charge the owning road standard charges for the repair. This is called AAR billing because the charges are set by the American Association of Railroads.

Dave H.

[ironhorseman]

According to a recent article in Trains railroads don't really "own" their freight cars anymore, they lease them. What the article basically came down to was money. The railroads would rather spend their money on track than freight cars.

See "Risky Business" pg 58 Trains January 2004.

[kenneo]

It's still called per-diem, but it now is charged a per-hour charge for "railroad owned" cars. For "privately owned" cars, it can be a combination of hours and miles, but seldom is. It usually is miles. Unless someone wants to know more, I'll leave it here. It can get a bit complicated.