I frequently see auto racks with TTX reporting marks that also have a railroad logo affixed.; CSX,UP. etc. I understand that TTX is a consortium of class I’s, and I would think they would be the recipients of car hire. Are those cars with logos specifically leased to that railroad and do they get paid car hire, or is the logo just painted on them and TTX the corporation being paid car hire?
TTX owns the Flatcar, the railroad who’s logo is on the rack owns the rack assembly attached to the the car. The rack has a shorter lifespan.
TTX cars may also have their ‘accessories’ changed over the years as the requirements of business change. Cars that have auto racks, if the demand for racks decreases, can have the racks removed and appliances fitted for some other form of loading that is in demand.
Thanks Balt ACD, but the question still remains unanswered.
We have a TTX flat with CSX installed auto racks that is on BNSF trackage. I can understand TTX getting paId car hire, Does the company who installed the auto racks also get a portion of that?
I think that was what I forgot to mention in my original post.
Car hire is paid on both pieces of the equipmnt - TTX gets car hire for the flat, CSX gets car hire for the appliance. They come on separate bills. Usually in the $1.00 to $1.50 per hour for each piece.
Autoracks are pooled, that is each railroad provides cars based on how my loads and how much mileage is accrued on their railroad. They may supply cars that they own or cars hired from TTX. At one time there was separate pools for each major manufacturer, more recently the three domestic manufacturers shared a common pool. I don’t know if following the turmoil in recent years that is still true, but likely it is. So a car can be loaded in an NS provided autorack at a plant on CN, moved by CN to Chicago and interchanged to UP for unloading in Arizona without ever passing over the rails of its owner/lessee. If one of the major railroads manages to corner contracts from the majority of the automobile manufacturers, then the percentage of cars supplied by its regional competitor will drop radically. This is the reason there are relatively few BNSF cars in the general pool compared to the size of the railroad. The UP has the majority of the contracts for the Western US from Ford, GM, Chrysler, and some of the foreign manufacturers. So they have to supply a lot of railcars, but NS, CSX, CN, CP, and even a few BNSF provided cars can be found running in UP trains.