Why is UP in Florida?

[FloridaPanhandler]

Forgive my ignorance, I don't keep up with current railroading much, but in the last couple of weeks I've seen two trains move through Tallahassee with Union Pacific power.  Can someone fill me in?  Is this power sharing, or a trackage rights agreement?  Did UP by CSX while I wasn't looking?

[GN-Rick]

Chances are, it is either a case of mileage equalization, pool operation, or possibly a lease arrangement of surplus UP power-assuming they have any. Just a guess on my part, the area in which I live is about as far from Florida as one can get in the contiguous 48, so I actually have UP and BNSF to watch-though I still miss GN.

[railfancwb]

Could be a run-through, a power leasing arrangement, or....

I'm in Nashville TN and we routinely see trains with some UP power on the head end.  I've tended to think they are probably run-through operations, and I would not be surprised if you and I have seen the same train from time to time.

[tree68]

I've seen UP power on CSX in northern New York.  It undoubtedly brought in a coal train and stayed to play for a while.  For that matter, I've seen WC and SOO up here, too.

[challenger3980]

Were You close enough to read the road name on the locomotives?, or just seeing Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Grey? The latest issue of Trains magazine (OCT 2007) has an article about the Florida East Coast RR (FEC), and it states that the FEC bought 20 SD 40-2s from Union Pacific five years ago.

 Quote from Trains magazine "UP had done an expensive paint job on the SD 40s" said McPherson."All we did was take off the UP logos and put on ours"

  So what you may have been seeing were the FEC SD 40-2s with the UP paint job and FEC logos.

                                                      Doug

 

[K&ARailfan]

Up here on CSX everything's common.  I've seen UP/SP/DRGW/IRR/SOO/MRL/CP/CN/WC/BNSF/ATSF/BN/FEC/SSW/KCS/BCR/OAKWAY/ GUILFORD/IC/CR/NS and dozens of different leasers just on CSX's W&A and K&A subs (yeah that's alot for just 9 years!) The point is expect anything anywhere at anytime on today's class 1's and regionals.

[spbed]

Just back from Pennsyvania & saw UPRR power there also

[ndbprr]

They went to Disneyworld?  Sorry.

[cacole]

Seeing foreign road power anywhere in the U.S. is no longer unusual with all of the power sharing and run-through agreements.  I see a lot of NS, CSX, Ferromex, CP, CN, BNSF, and leased power mixed into Union Pacific trains here in Arizona all the time.

[FloridaPanhandler]

Thanks for the replies.  They were definitely UP units.  And these weren't large unit trains either, but smaller mixed trains of 30 or so cars each.  I figured this wasn't anything that unusual, but I'd never seen anything but CSX here in Tallahassee before.  The one I saw yesterday had two units--one a modern box cab and the second an older GE U-boat (that's as specific as I can get).

[BaltACD]

A number of scheduled merchandise trains operate from Jacksonville through New Orleans to UP destination point, and vice versa.  It is common for the UP power to run through on these trains to Jacksonville.  The power, once on CSX property is used as CSX finds necessary in the conduct of it's overall operations.  All Class I's are sharing each others power based un computerized system of trading 'Horsepower Hours'.  The locomotive management department of each carrier keep track of the Horsepower Hour figures and weigh the balances into their power assignment decisions.

[Ted Marshall]

 

 

  So what you may have been seeing were the FEC SD 40-2s with the UP paint job and FEC logos.

                                                     

Not in Tallahassee, definitely not anywhere except on the FEC.

[SALfan]

Were You close enough to read the road name on the locomotives?, or just seeing Armour Yellow and Harbor Mist Grey? The latest issue of Trains magazine (OCT 2007) has an article about the Florida East Coast RR (FEC), and it states that the FEC bought 20 SD 40-2s from Union Pacific five years ago.

 Quote from Trains magazine "UP had done an expensive paint job on the SD 40s" said McPherson."All we did was take off the UP logos and put on ours"

  So what you may have been seeing were the FEC SD 40-2s with the UP paint job and FEC logos.

                                                      Doug

Even if they were the FEC engines, they were a good distance from home rails.  FEC's northern terminus is in Jacksonville, about 165 miles from Tallahassee.  AFAIK, CSX and FEC don't have a runthrough arrangement for power.