Is there any reason for CSX to use Montana Rail link SD-42-2 units. I saw two of them in Syracuse, NY today. Our these leased units or ones sold to CSX?
Matt
Almost certainly leased, but not necessarily to CSX.
Down here in Georgia it’s not unusual to see foreign power on the CSX main line between Atlanta and Jacksonville, FL. I suspect CSX is either using the locomotives as fill in, temporary power, or they could even be testing them out on their lines to see if they work better than what they have.
Erik
CSX has run-through locomotive agreements with all the Class I’s it connects with. As a result all kinds of power can show up on CSX trains anywhere on the system from any Carrier or lessor.
[#ditto] thats why I like watching csx . ya never know know whose engine will be coming by next.
stay safe
Joe
Doesn’t CSX connect with all the class 1’s?
MRL leases a a lot of power. Apparently a good side business for the railroad.
I belive they are SD45-2’s.
I see now. CSX has a power problem. I am surprised at all the foreign power to travel on the Chicago main line.
Matt
Probably could be explained by the old accounting argument…Cheaper to Lease? Cheaper to buy?..Whatever your cash flow dictates. Not to mention the aspect of run through power sharing.
A couple of times a month around here one can see CSX power on UP’s trains and sometimes it is a power and slug set. Which the UP does not seem to do with its own power
Sam
CSX is infamous for leased power, you can see a variety of locomotives around. This is especially nice as it keeps older models you wouldn’t really see anymore on the mainlines. The MRL engine might have been a run through, especially in Syracuse, where anything can come off the Chicago line.
It’s not a “CSX problem”. All the class ones run forign power on there rails. For every UP unit in CSX territory there is probably a CSX unit in UP territory. And we get CSX an NS units out west all the time. We even get MRL units down here.
This is very interesting on the exchange of foreign units. I see alot of leased units also. A new one around here is “LMS” a blue locomotive? Who are they?
Matt
Matt, I wrote this on another thread. You might be interested.
Run through agreements are typicaly between “city pairs” on a particular route that goes through two or more railroads territory (tracks).
Units accumulating or paying back horsepower hours can show up anywhere in any service as the power desk sees fit.
Railroads, especially the class ones, are always borrowing power from eachother. The way they keep things even is called “horse power hours”. For instance lets say UP borrows a NS SD40-2, An SD40-2 is 3000hp and will be counted as 3000 horse power hours for every hour it spends on UP. If it’s there for a day the UP would owe NS 72,000 HP hours. Now say somewhere else NS has borrowed a UP AC6000 for a day. Sience the AC6000 is 6000 hp it will accumulate 144,000 hours in the same time. So now there is a debt owed to NS of 72,000 hp hours. Each railroad keeps track of the balance between them and each one of the other railroads and if the balance gets to be too much, the oweing railroad will send some units to the owed railroad to balance things out. They usually use there own power for this but they could also lease units from a leasor or another railroad to pay back hp hours owed. They could send the owed railroad a whole bunch of units to pay off there debt quickly or more economicaly they send a few units to the owed railroad and it takes a lot longer. In that case a foreign unit might be roaming around the owed railroads property for a while and could end up in the farthest corners of there system. They are typicaly treated as if they were there own units and would assign them as they would any other power (though sometime the power desks will keep them in a certain geographic area or service)
Class I’s because of the the large geographical areas they serve and the wide commodity mix they carry all have ‘Peak’ seasons of traffic. No Class I own’s sufficient power to fully handle their ‘PEAK’ traffic demands, handling Peak traffic above ‘normal’ traffic levels is where leased power gets into every Class I’s power plans.
Additionally, generally the Class I’s do not experience their ‘PEAK’ seasons all at the same time. There are also periods during the year when traffic is less than ‘normal’. During these periods there is more power available than is needed and some power will be temporarily stored or leased out to carriers that are experiencing their peak.
When it comes to assiging power to a train, for the most part, an engine is an engine without regard to whose reporting marks are painted on it.
i beleive “LMS” was a leassing company formed by Conrail, they had Dash8’s, obviously painted blue just like the conrail units. Some of these former LMS dash8’s are no running on CN, but are assigned to the IC divission.