How do locomotives travel from the manufacture to the owners? If they have to cross a “foreign road” does that road actually use it in the train, or is there a way of putting a locomotive in neutral and just pulling it around? How did roads do it with steam locomotives? This could probably be a nifty way of justifiying running that foreign power you don’t know what to do with. thanks for the help.
UPS trucks. Just like ours.
I guess we’re being smarty alex.
I would assume since they can pull a disabled unit around that they would just pull it or maybe the new owner takes it on a shake-down ride and drives it home.
Yes they can and are hauled dead to the new owner. Any railway would be crazy to run a new locomotive without the permission of the owner road, and I would put money on a bet that you couldn’t find one that would allow another road to be the first to run theirs.
I have no idea about steamers, but here’s what I know about diesels…
They can be moved Dead in Tow (shut down).
They can be put on a train and used for power.
Usually new locomotives are moved Dead in Tow to thier owners.
Nick
I seem to recall hearing about a few times when the delivering road was power short they worked out a deal where they would not charge the railroad buying the locomotives to move them if they could used to power the train.
jguess733
Hi Up and Away and welcome to the forum. What I enjoy about this forum is that we try to the best of our knowledge, helping others in this hobbie we all enjoy so much. This forum is great as we all try to get along, enjoy.
In the cab of a diesel locomotive there are air and electrical selectors. If the units engine is not running it is like another box car. The electrical seloector is placed in “Dead In Transit” and the air brake selectors set so that the Air brake stand is not operative. When new unit arrived on the road I worked for some powered accross the US and others were DIT.
Have no clue to your steam question.
Interesting, it would have to be a free and clear agreement, could you imagine if it blew up while your road was using it. I never heard of such agreements, but I’ve only worked for 2 railways, and the big boys play differently. By the way when they are dead hauled they are MU’d so the engine brakes can be bailed off if the train experiences an emergency brake application.
[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome][#welcome] to the forum Up and Away.
ICMR
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
Jguess733’s asks a perfectly valid question.
If the buyer is overseas, or if they can’t (or don’t want to) send it by rail, locomotives can also be shipped by cargo ship.
I’m not sure; but could they not ship it by rail on the backs of a couple of flatcars ?
I agree with your comment above Chateau. To add to the suject at hand, I have seen smaller locos hauled on flatcars, but todays AC’s and SD’s weighing in at 400 thousand + pounds, they have to be hauled on their own wheels. I have heard that there is a ship or ships designed to haul locos overseas. I would like to see pictures of this if someone has some.
There would be clearance problems with the added height. Plus the loading and unloading problems. Easier to just run it dead-in-tow. Remember, most of them are coming from Erie PA or London Ont, eastern areas with the associated clearance issues.
Years ago, EMD shipped an irish railway locomotive by air !!!. Mid 90’s,I think, anyway,EMD called a russian company to fly it to ireland. They used Russian transport plane called the AN-224. Look it up on the net to see how big this plane is,it dwarf’s are american C-5 and C-141, the only plane larger than the AN-224 is the AN-225. The locomotive weight was about 90 tons,no problem for the 224.
Patrick
There would be no more clearance problems than with double stack intermodals.
It is more a question of why would you bother to disconnect the traction motors, hand and air brakes, and sanders, remove the locomotive from its trucks. Have one crane hold the locomotive mid air. Then set each truck in place on the flat car, being very careful to get the spacing right. Then carefully setting the locomotive back down on the trucks and finally securing everything with blocking and tiedowns. Then when you get to the customer everything must be repeated in reverse.
Why go through all of that expense, and expose the locomotive to possible damage when it can be easily transported on its own wheels?
Two ways:
-
The Owner pays freight charges to have the engine moved dead in consist to the junction point.
-
The owner makes an agreement with the other carrier/carriers on the route to let the other carriers operate the engine as a working unit and does not charge hphrs.
Dave H.
Even used equipment gets towed dead,some times in middle of train just like a freight cars. Steam is also dead towed.
I’ve seen locos working on their way to the new owner.
Matthew
Yes steam is usually dead towed after removing the side rods. At least that is how they moved the ones from Steamtown when it was in Vermont to Scranton, PA where it is today. BTW, Welcome to the forum jguess733, hope you enjoy it here. Great bunch of folks here!
New locomotives are towed dead in transit to their new owners and are usually behind the trains working motive power. In Durand Michigan I saw a new SD70M-2 still in primer on a train headed south. Everything that comes out of EMD pretty much has to go through Durand, so you see deliveries a lot.
As for steam, they were also usually towed dead in transit. The Baldwin Locomotive works used to do what they called “Prosperity Specials”, coupling together an oder of new locomotives and delivering them all to the railroad in one train.
I believe you mean the main rods. At least, every pic of dead steam I’ve ever seen–both delivery trains and funeral trains–shows them being towed with their main rods in the tender bunkers or otherwise stowed.
When I was filming the NS mainline here last week I was filming a long double-stack pulled by a few C44’s and I caught something comming from the left. It was a C44 pulling a flat car followed by 2 new C44’s completly covered by black plastic tarps. It had another flat car following them. I have it on video but didn’t take any pics. It was the first time I ever saw that.