I’m sure it’s been asked before, but trying to phrase the question in a way that the search engine coughs up the correct answer…[banghead]
Question came to mind while watching videos, and noticing a NS engine on a UP train on Donner Pass.
A) Is there a formal system for getting it back to home rails, or is it ad hoc, i.e. “I need an engine for a train heading east and NS 8013 happens to be sitting on a siding”
B) HQ sees that 8013 is due for it’s NNNN hour service, but it’s out west with UP somewhere. Does HQ notify UP to send it home, or does UP send it to the nearest maintenance center and bill NS for the work? Or does NS see that a maintence interval is coming up soon, and makes sure to keep the unit on home rails?
C) In the same vein, 8013 blows a turbo while out west. Does UP fix and bill, or does the engine get deadheaded back east for repair.
D) Lastly, engine is involved in a wreck. It’s not totaled, but damage prevents a deadhead and the fix requires several weeks/months in the shop. Do they stick it on a flatbed and ship it home?
The Class 1 carriers have ‘run-through’ agreements concerning the ‘sharing’ of power. Changing power and crews at major interchange points creates delays for both carriers involved, therefore the carriers have made agreements with each other to run the power through, therefore all that is required at the interchange point is the crews to change from one carrier to the next, just like going through either carriers division points. From a record keeping standpoint the power is interchanged just like the cars in the train.
The standard for inter carrier accounting for power is ‘Horsepower Hours’ a SD-40
Specifically, I don’t know, I believe that the ‘Run Through Agreements’ are most likely patterned after the AAR’s Car Hire Rules https://www.railinc.com/rportal/documents/18/260773/OT-10.pdf . I would expect the carrier ‘causing’ the damage would be monetarily on the hook for the locomotive’s repair - no matter who actually performed the repairs. If the locomotive was damaged beyond repair, the causing carrier would be on the hook for the value, which I suspect would be some standard value based on original purchase price and time in service, similar to how car values are determined under the Car Hire Rules.
Every locomotive in service carries a “blue card”. It’s called that because the actual FRA form is blue. It is a record of when required mechanical inspections were made and who performed the inspections and where. Different items have different expirations, the most commonly known one is the 92 day inspection requirement.
Every day the locomotive is in service, it’s required to be inspected for safety defects that might have developed. These daily inspections can be done by engineers. One thing on the daily inspection is checking the blue card to make sure the unit hasn’t expired on the required mechanical inspections. (UP uses a computer generated blue card. It’s much simpler, it just says, “Do not use after (date).” You don’t have to check the dates and then figure out how many days have elapsed since it was last inspected.) If it’s past due on the inspections, the unit can’t be used for power on trains. It can ride along, isolated or shut down. Just not producing tractive effort to pull the train. Since it’s of no use to a foriegn railroad, it’ll be routed to home rails so they can deal with it.
So the foreign road does not do the inspection and bill the owner? Once it reaches the inspection date, it’s added to the first train heading in the right direction??