On the Webcam today, I saw on 2 engine consist pulling a train on the BNSF tracks. CSX has tracks to nearby Chicago, but how does their engine get to be on the head of a BNSF train? I model an earlier era, so I can't tell you which engines they were.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Power run through from another train and/or paying back "run time" from borrowed units or run through from a different train. This is common practice for modern day railroads. I recently saw a UP locomotive in Deerfield, MA on the head of a train with Norfolk Southern locomotives behind, pulling a train of autoracks on Pan Am Southern (joint Pan Am Railways/Norfolk Southern venture) (former Boston and Maine tracks).
It is easier to leave a set of locomotives on the head end of a multi-line unit train than it is to swap new locomotives each time the train changes railroads.
The previous response summed it up.
Railroads have had "run through" operations where the locomotives interchanged with the trains and the same engines were shared by two railroads. However it really became common after dieselization.
Railroads have agreements between them to share power on trains. The agreements say which railroad provides how much power and on what routes. They pay for the power with "horsepower hours" (hphrs). A 3000 hp engine from railroad A on railroad B accrues 3000 hphrs for every hour it is on railroad B. If the engine is on railroad B for 3 days, 72 hours, that would be 216000 hphrs. At the end of the month all the railroads tally up how many hphrs they owe each other.
If one railroad gets far behind in hphrs, which could be because the mileages/times aren't even between the railroads, they might have to give the other railroad a few extra engines as "free runners" that the other railroad can use to repay hphrs.
If you see another road's power on a train all the time, that's usually run through power. If its a onesy-twosey engine every once in a while its a free runner.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
Thanks guys.
Juice Train? It's kind of like the old milk train. Fresh orange juice from Florida is shipped by CSX to the rest of the nation. This is a high priority train. There is no time to switch engines. The same locomotives stay with the reefers the whole trip.
j...........
Not the juice train. I have since seen an all CSX consist and a 2x1 CSX:BNSF consist. It happens more than I thought, but I get timed out at that site so I miss a lot of what goes on.
Henry,On today's railroad its common to see run through power and the reason is simple.
A BNSF freight out of (say) Seattle Wa can run to Norfolk Va without having to be interchanged and made into another train. BNSF hands the complete train to NS.. A NS crew enters the cab and off they go.The return train may see NS power on the train and is interchanged in tact with BNSF.
You see what is happening?
No need to interchange cars. This eliminate some interchange switch crew jobs.
No need for a yard crew to make up a train-cars may be added or remove enroute but,no need for any heavy yard switching.
There is nothing more then the railroads wanting to close or downsize yards and in the process eliminate yard jobs..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Not having to pass cuts through 2 classification yards (railroad A used to classify the cars into an interchange cut for railroad B, then railroad B used to classify the cars from the cut into outbound trains) saves days on the overall trip, which benefits teh customers.
Dave,Absolutely.. Terminal dwell time cuts into the in transit time and shippers/receiver biggest gripe is why their 2 boxcars full of lading takes 3-4 weeks to travel 500 miles..
Around 10 years ago CSX/NS closed Buckeye yard and later NS closed/downsize Conway. There's several other yards that been closed or downsize over the past few years.
Railroading as we knew it is gone..
Remember rushing trackside to see a lease D&H locomotives on (say) the C&O? Now its so common it recieves a "So what's new?".