I think that I've a passable idea of what a Class 1 RR is, what a Shortline is and even what a Regional is...
So what is a Class 2? Are there Class 2s? Class 3s?
TIA
I don't think there are any Class 2 or 3 railroads, probably for the same reasons there are no "2nd National Banks" or "2nd Baptist Churches" in towns. Human pride means very few (except Avis car rental) are willing to publicly wear the name of 2nd or 3rd.
Even the NCAA college athletics had to form a "1A" Division to avoid moving everybody down a number. I've heard of many Division 3 college athletic programs, but can't remember any Division 2 schools. Are there any? The Division 3 members are proud of their true amateur status, and so the Division 3 name is a selling point for them.
The only time I have seen numerical order names stick is when done by edict from government or above. But I am sure all the would-be Class 2 or Class 3 railroads preferred terms like branch line or short line or regional railroad. And of course, modern day PC or self-esteem promoters would insist on using colors for the various railroad classes to avoid the whole order of precedence thing. So we would have Violet, Mauve, and Chartreuse Class Railroads - in order to confuse ourselves.
What color do you feel like today?
Criterion and list of current Class II RRs in US:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._Class_II_railroads
Heres another answer.As you will see there is 3 classes of railroads.
Class 1,class2 and of course class 3.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
In my area the class II is Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford). They have run an interesting mix of older locos over the years. Apparently they like to run the old horses into the ground, and then try to get a few more miles out of them. I'm not a rail fan, but they don't seem to be a well liked (respected) railroad.
Actually, since I'm going to be modelling transition era, and many others do too, I think it might be interesting to rail fan the Pan Am!!
Jim
This wikipedia entry [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_1_railroad[/ur] gives an over view of the classes. It also notes that:
"Nowadays, the Class II and Class III designations are rarely used. The Association of American Railroads instead splits non-Class I companies into three categories:
The Surface Transportation Board continues to use Class II and Class III, as labor regulations are different for the two classes."
Enjoy
Paul
MAbruce wrote:In my area the class II is Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford). They have run an interesting mix of older locos over the years. Apparently they like to run the old horses into the ground, and then try to get a few more miles out of them. I'm not a rail fan, but they don't seem to be a well liked (respected) railroad.
Just about any train you find on Pan Am, at least in the southern NH/northern MA area, is going to be a GP40 of some sort, although I've been told that the roads 6 axle power, sd26's and sd45's do sometimes make a showing. I've personally never seen them.
Modeling the fictional B&M Dowe, NH branch in the early 50's.
Cannoli wrote: MAbruce wrote: In my area the class II is Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford). They have run an interesting mix of older locos over the years. Apparently they like to run the old horses into the ground, and then try to get a few more miles out of them. I'm not a rail fan, but they don't seem to be a well liked (respected) railroad.Just about any train you find on Pan Am, at least in the southern NH/northern MA area, is going to be a GP40 of some sort, although I've been told that the roads 6 axle power, sd26's and sd45's do sometimes make a showing. I've personally never seen them.
MAbruce wrote: In my area the class II is Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford). They have run an interesting mix of older locos over the years. Apparently they like to run the old horses into the ground, and then try to get a few more miles out of them. I'm not a rail fan, but they don't seem to be a well liked (respected) railroad.
They are still running two SD26's, and I recently saw a picture of them paired in the same train (which is apparently a rare sight). The SD45's are no longer in service.
I think they still run some GP7/9's & GP35's. They do have a lot of GP40's on their roster, and even some of them are high hood units (gotta love ‘em for that).
Back in the 1980's & 90's they used to run an interesting mix including GP38, U18B, U23B, SW1, SW9, etc.
MAbruce wrote: Cannoli wrote: MAbruce wrote: In my area the class II is Pan Am Railways (formerly Guilford). They have run an interesting mix of older locos over the years. Apparently they like to run the old horses into the ground, and then try to get a few more miles out of them. I'm not a rail fan, but they don't seem to be a well liked (respected) railroad.Just about any train you find on Pan Am, at least in the southern NH/northern MA area, is going to be a GP40 of some sort, although I've been told that the roads 6 axle power, sd26's and sd45's do sometimes make a showing. I've personally never seen them. They are still running two SD26's, and I recently saw a picture of them paired in the same train (which is apparently a rare sight). The SD45's are no longer in service.I think they still run some GP7/9's & GP35's. They do have a lot of GP40's on their roster, and even some of them are high hood units (gotta love ‘em for that).Back in the 1980's & 90's they used to run an interesting mix including GP38, U18B, U23B, SW1, SW9, etc.
There is one remaining SD45 on the roster, #681. Here it is in a photo teamed up with one of the SD26's. Photo is from the NERail Photo Archive
Cannoli wrote:[There is one remaining SD45 on the roster, #681. Here it is in a photo teamed up with one of the SD26's. Photo is from the NERail Photo Archive
Well, well, what a nice surprise. The last report I found online was that 681 was out of service and stored in Waterville. Nice to see it in service again (as it is an ex-N&W HH unit ).
Thanks all
Does anyone have any idea how common 6 axle locos are on "lesser roads"?
Dave-the-Train wrote:I think that I've a passable idea of what a Class 1 RR is, what a Shortline is and even what a Regional is... So what is a Class 2? Are there Class 2s? Class 3s?
And the real thing I wanted to contribute: Notice that the definition changes through time. So a Class 2 today was not necessarily a class 2 a couple of decades ago.
jbloch wrote: Actually, since I'm going to be modelling transition era, and many others do too, I think it might be interesting to rail fan the Pan Am!!Jim
Well, you'll have to look up to do that. Back in the Transition Era, Pan Am wasn't a railroad, it was an airline. Its odd transition to the rails started when a group of investors bought the name rights (and little else) from whatever entity owned them after the airline declared bankruptcy and folded. For a while, they ran an airline between the old Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, now partially converted to civilian use, and several cities in Florida. I think they flew old DC-9's, re-badged with the original Pan Am logos. As I recall, they had a lot of bad press because they were playing "work rules" games and creating two separate pay tiers for their pilots to get around the contracts they'd signed.
I think this outfit somehow ended up with the Boston and Maine, but I'm sure someone else can give us a more accurate and detailed update on what happened after they stopped flying planes.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.