Railworks America

Hi guys

I have a quick question for you. I got to thinking the other day as I was driving an NKP steamer around the Horseshoe curve - "Lovely, but I wonder if this sort of thing happened in real life?"

So my question is this- For each of the real-life RW routes, which road names a) would you have seen in the era of steam/changeover to diesel and b) would you see today? Would you see locomotives off-territory and if so, how far adrift might they get? Would the same rules apply to freight wagons or would they be seen further afield than locomotives? Would engines from different companies be used to double-head often/seldom/never?

Thanks!

I was thinking along those lines also; I'd like to know what railroad/leasing companies freight stock you might find on an average day in Canada, for instance ( other than the obvious CN/CP ). Also how common is private owner stock?

As far as steam locomotives working off their "home road" almost never. The one exception would be on a trackage rights deal. Steam locomotives were high maintenance items and railroad "A" would not want to fill their shop up with railroad ''B's" equipment. Also steam locomotives varied greatly from road to road as far as what and who built them. Some railroads, N & W fro example, built their own. Freight cars were a different story. They would be found every where. Today it is different. Their are only 2 major builders here so most class 1 railroads are equipped to repair them. They are also far more reliable than their steam was. Pooled power and train run through power is not uncommon at all. Does that answer your question?

Partially!

So which locomotive road names would be found (past and present) on

1) Barstow to San Bernardino

2) Ohio Dover Division (and Massilon when it's available)

3) The NEC

4) Fort Kent to Eagle Lake

5) Horseshoe Curve

That'll be enough for now - I'll have a look at the freeware routes later!!

johnmckenzie wrote:So which locomotive road names would be found (past and present) on

1) Barstow to San Bernardino

2) Ohio Dover Division (and Massilon when it's available)

3) The NEC

4) Fort Kent to Eagle Lake

5) Horseshoe Curve

That'll be enough for now - I'll have a look at the freeware routes later!!

1) Today: mainly BNSF, but also many UP, Amtrak's Southwest Chief
Past: Atchison-Topeka & Santa Fe

2) don't know

3) Today: mainly Amtrak, some CSX/NS freight trains (on the section which is represented in RW)
Past: Pennsylvania RR, then Penn Central, then Amtrak together with Conrail (freight)

4) Today: no operations since 1979, but if it would be still in use, I guess that NS, CN or Pan Am would be prototypical
Past: Fish River Railroad, later Bangor & Aroostook (source: http://www.nps.gov/maac/planyourvisit/rrstation.htm)

5) Today: Norfolk Southern, Amtrak's Pennsylvanian
Past: Pennsylvania RR, then Penn Central, then Conrail

johnmckenzie wrote:Hi guys

I have a quick question for you. I got to thinking the other day as I was driving an NKP steamer around the Horseshoe curve - "Lovely, but I wonder if this sort of thing happened in real life?"

So my question is this- For each of the real-life RW routes, which road names a) would you have seen in the era of steam/changeover to diesel and b) would you see today? Would you see locomotives off-territory and if so, how far adrift might they get? Would the same rules apply to freight wagons or would they be seen further afield than locomotives? Would engines from different companies be used to double-head often/seldom/never?

Thanks!

Hi John,
Freight cars travel from shipper to consignee. Let me give you an example. ABC Washing machine company in Los Angeles sells a boxcar load of washing machines to a big box appliance store in Newark, NJ. The washing machines would be loaded into a BNSF boxcar and they would remain in that boxcar until they were unloaded by the big box store in New Jersey. The railroads in the United States, Canada and Mexico all interchange freight cars with each other. Once the car is empty, it maybe returned home empty if a return load does not exist. The same holds true for locomotives on run through trains. Next example. BNSF loads a double stack train in Los Angeles with containers destined for Europe. When the train gets to it's interchange point with Norfolk Southern, NS simply adds one of its engines to the front of the train (because of signal systems) and the train continues on to the East coast port. The railroads do keep track of the mileage and try to balance this mileage with the other railroads. Trying to make a long story short, it's not an everyday event to see a BNSF or UP unit going around Horseshoe curve, but it does happen. That also applies to CN, CP, CSX, KCS... The number one thing, these engines would never be leading because of the cab signal issue, but that is another story.

Here are two examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEfDMciX4M and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv2MZM6iOSk&feature=related

Something else that happens from time to time, railroads will lease engines from other railroads. Let's say it produce shipping season on the UP and they need to ship 10 more tains than usual but they don't have the extra motive power. They may lease the additonal power from either a leasing company or another railroad. I hope I answered some of your question, without being too confusing?

Regards,
Rich S.

Perfect, thanks

Interestingly enough I posted something very similar for my route last Friday:
http://thegradecrossing.blogspot.com/20 ... rains.html

johnmckenzie wrote:Hi guys

I have a quick question for you. I got to thinking the other day as I was driving an NKP steamer around the Horseshoe curve - "Lovely, but I wonder if this sort of thing happened in real life?"

While this didn't happen during the days of steam, NKP 759 did operate a 18 car steam excursion from Harrisburg, PA to Gallitizin, PA on September 12th and 13th 1970. She took the 1150 ton train over Allegheny Mountain UNASSISTED!

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 24&nseq=70

The Fort Kent route (or at least parts of it) are still in use today; see this thread: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3499&p=32310&hilit=fort+kent#p32310

Another thing to add to any modern day road would be unit trains, especially but not limited to coal. I live in a town where CSX runs 35 to 40 trains a day, and Norfolk Southern running 15 - 20. You never know what power is going to up on a CSX train or in what position. Leading or trailing. CTC territory so no problems with cab signaling. NS runs coal trains through here with pure BNSF power. At least 2 loads and 2 empties a day. The trains originate from the Powder River Basin and are run straight through to Georgia. Again ABS & CTC so no cab signal issues. CSX used to tun taconite trains to Birmingham AL from Wisconsin with pure Wisconsin Central power. And with a lot of railroads being power short, they are leasing from anybody who will let them. I have taken who knows how many pictures setting by CSX, and if I did not tell you where it was, you would have no clue whose railroad it was.

Kali wrote:I was thinking along those lines also; I'd like to know what railroad/leasing companies freight stock you might find on an average day in Canada, for instance ( other than the obvious CN/CP ). Also how common is private owner stock?

While I don't live in Canada, private owner stock (if you mean owned by a certain industry) is very rare, most cars are either owned by a class I railroad (CSX, CP, CN, NS, KCS, UP, BNSF) or by a leasing company (GATX, TTX, etc.) Hope this helps.

85% (if not more) of freight cars today are from leasing companies. Locomotives are easier since there are not that many companies. The big hitters are:

HLCX/HATX/HGLX - Helm Leasing Corp.
EMDX/EMD - Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc.
CREX/CRIX - CitiCorp Railmar, Inc.
CEFX/CITX - CIT Finance Inc.
GMTX - GATX Rail.


With smaller companies being:

NREX - National Railway Equipment.
LTEX - Larry's Truck Electric.

There are many more, but these are the most common companies the RR's turn to.
With the upturn in the economy (yes it is growing), railroads are starting to lease power, NS and CSX are among the biggest users of "rent a wrecks."
Also using leased power saves the warranties on the newer GE's and EMD's. That's why you see brand new locomotives sitting stored.

Railroads also borrow "other" things from each other: Doors being one: http://i.imgur.com/wJKpL.jpg

Funny story: If a locomotive has nice comfy seats crews will "replace" them with junk ratty ones and fit the new ones to their locomotives.

Steam locomotives did wander from home rails. Examples being the PRR leasing ATSF 2-10-4's. And N&W and SOU sharing locomotives on passenger trains.

Chessie8638 wrote:With the upturn in the economy (yes it is growing), railroads are starting to lease power, NS and CSX are among the biggest users of "rent a wrecks."

CP also uses a lot of leased power here. This is where they can run all their aging EMD's that they have acquired through takeovers and lease deals, as they can't use it much up in Canada. Lots of NREX, HLCX, CITX, and CEFX locomotives on the CP. See for example this photo I took back in February, no units of the same color or origin and all on-line! Units, in order, were as follows, CITX 3059, NREX 5823, HLCX 8163, HLCX 6241, HLCX 6206, CSX 7643, and NREX 7246.

Over here some leasing companies like NACCO will relivery stock on hire to a particular customer for some flows - off the top of my head I can think of Imerys who own china clay quarries & ship across Europe. Does that sort of thing happen over there, or will you just find stock in the leasing company livery?