Transfer Trains

[Anonymous]

Greetings to all the members that stick around the Trains Mag forums. I am not around here much, which is probably why I don't know this. I hear reference to "Transfer Trains" quite a bit, and I was wondering what they are.

From what I know, it seems as if it's a special train, consisting of yard units, that transfers cars from one local yard to another local yard. Am I correct?



Thanks in advance,
Matt

[Anonymous]

Correct ! When I was with NS in Columbia, S. C. we would run a string of cars over to the CSX yard in Cayce, S.C. every day or two. This was called a transfer job.

[Big_Boy_4005]

There are entire railroads devoted to transfer. The Minnesota Commercial used to be called the Minnesota Transfer.

As the number of class ones has been reduced through mergers, a lot of the transfer business has dried up. The Commercial still does some, but they have also taken over daily operations to metro area customers relieving the class ones of those chores.