I would like to know why freight cars from other railroads end up being used on different railroad companies consists? I'm in Union Pacific territory in Central California so how is it I see box cars from Wisconsin Central, CSX, Canadian Pacific, etc? I understand freight gets shipped all over the country, but are freight cars just used freely amongst different railroads? Being bounced around the nation for eternity. Or is the specific freight car, say a box car with canned tomatoes used for one shipment and returened to its owner when done?
It's a more than a little complicated, but basically the keyword is interchange.
A railroad on the east coast delivers an empty boxcar to an industry on it's line. The industry fills the boxcar and wants it sent across the continent to the west coast. The first railroad takes it as far as it can, then hands it off (or "interchanges" it) to a railroad that serves the west coast, who delievers it to where the industry (the "shipper") wanted it sent to.
When possible railroads try to send cars back in the general direction of the owning railroad. So if BNSF delivers a loaded Norfolk Southern car to a company in say Denver CO, they'd either send the now-empty car in an easterly direction (towards NS territory) or try to find a shipper who needs an empty car and could use the NS car - preferably headed in an easterly direction.
When a railroad car is on another railroad's line, there are fees called "per diem" charges that have to be paid to the car's owner. It's very complicated, and before computerscame along the railroads had to have armies of clerks who kept track of where each freight car was and how long it had been there, what it was hauling, where it was going to or from, etc.
Thank you so much for the very detailed answer, Makes perfect sense. If only those rail cars could talk about the places they have been and seen!
Hi Conrail-Kid
Your question made me think of European freight cars getting around about as far as in the US , riding through different countries – it's all by scheduling and monitoring logistics keeping control on their where-abouts and getting cars back for overhaul while on their way there are electronic check points at freight yards looking for flat spots on wheel tires , hot bearings , dragging brakes and the like – cars have not just their home base but owner railway marked on their sides near to a complex code telling type of car and series number .
Although not traveling around abroad for that long , passenger coaches in international train destinations also pass borders of neighboring countries – often going together with limits of neighboring railway networks . So , in major cities train stations you will always see some foreign electric locos on your home railway's int. train consist / home electric on foreign int. consist / foreign int. trains visiting your home city and vice versa on scheduled basis . This provides for a minimum of variety in today’s systematically rationalized standardized modern railway scene .
Regards
= J =
CONRAIL-KIDOr is the specific freight car, say a box car with canned tomatoes used for one shipment and returened to its owner when done?
As always, it's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the basic jist of it. If something is loaded in New York for a receiver in Los Angeles, that load may need to be handled by several different railroads. Rather than reload the contents into a different car at each hand-off point, the entire car is passed on to the next railroad.
When empty, the car will usually be sent back in the general direction of it's owning railroad. There are a number of factors that can alter this, and of course privately owned cars or cars in dedicated pools or assignments play by slightly different rules.
Chris van der Heide
My Algoma Central Railway Modeling Blog
Thanks to all who responded. You have cleared up a question that I have wondered about for many years.