I was driving on the New Jersey turnpike and to my right is the largest port on the east coast. I usually see Conrail and sometimes Norfolk Southern, but yesterday I saw 2 Union Pacific diesels pulling a long line of freights. Is this normal? I guess this means modern Union pacific wont look out of place on a layout of New Jersey trains… not that I care about that when buying an engine, I buy what I like.
Equipment is often leased/cross leased and railroads tend to leave equipment in MU’s if it’s easier on a fast unit train.
The rule on most run through equipment from Union Pacific is that the equipment heading east is normally the older locomotives. Recently built locomotives are kept on the home rails for the first few years.
BNSF on the other hand will have new locomotives on run through trains all the time when they head east.
Andrew
Normal. You will see a mix. Seen and seen pictures of CN mixed with NS. In Roanoke VA, I’ve seen a lot of UP mixed with NS. I have seen one picture and it was called a rairity. CSX on NS line.
Up here on Lake Erie, we have some Shared Facility arrangements. NS & CSX both run together on the Line that goes to Conway yards Pa. That runs North & South. CSX just has Rights to run on that track. They share the coal dumping facility on the Lake & NS actually owns 52 % of it & CSX owns the remainder. That was the deal they made when getting Conrail. Both RRs have mainlines going East & West, with Amtrak running on CSX. It’s kind of a North deal !! [(-D]
Thanks, John
If you thought you saw something strange in Jersey, take a look at this photo taken in Southern Ohio on the NS mainline. This train had just entered Ohio from West Virginia and heading west.
On the Norfolk Southern line through Elkhart, Indiana trains with Burlington Northern and Santa Fe locomotives have become more common. Western motive power has often gone east, but in the past 10 years is has become more common with more mergers and more power sharing.
If you are going to make a 2006 layout with western units on eastern lines, it would be a good idea to stick to models of locos built before 1996.
Andrew
We see occasional Santa Fe trains here on the UP in Austin and many leased locomotives mixed in with the armour yellow, including Mexican roads but with Norfolk Southern the most common. I once saw an Amtrak P42 in a northbound UP freight lashup. It appeared to be ill suited for the task, with smoke pouring from its traction motors. They had to double the hill and leave half the train at the Sneed siding.
John. no CSX on the great NS.[;)]
Up north, you will see CSX and NS using the same tracks due to wrecks and maintenance.
That’s right Buckeye !! REAL RAILROADING up here !! We run in all the elements !! When CSX’S Jacksonville headquarters got their share of Conrail, they found out about the elements up here in the 1st. snow storms !! We had to educate em’ down there !! [(-D]
Thanks, John
[(-D] John! We see the Warbonnet Santa-Fe’s on the former NYC going east to Erie & Buffalo along with Union Pacific engines also. Have not seen any Grits Hopper’s on the NS yet, due to our successful program of keeping the North Grits free![;)][:P][C=:-)][:-^][:o)] Take Care all.
I caught some photos of CSX power running on the NS mainline between Macon and Atlanta, GA. It was heading south from ATL. Just once though, so I guess it is a rarity[:)]
We have at least a daily BNSF unit coal train that heads down to Plant Scherer, a coal fired power plant just north of Macon. I believe the coal is from the Powder River Basin? They mostly run newer AC4400 power - two on the head end and one pushing from the rear. An empty train rolls north each day as well.
I love railfanning surprises like this. A few months ago, two NS AC units were on the point of a very late autorack train that loomed out of the dark while i was waiting at the station for my scoot into Chicago - this was heading to Janesville - 100 miles west of Chicago - a long way from regular NS stomping grounds.
We sometimes see CN engines down here in mid-Missouri on the Been Nuthin’ Since Frisco.
Not that odd an event as Santa Fe was photographed about 50 years ago on the Reading Railroad. Seems like railroads share rolling stock and motive power quite often. Most often railroads lease the right of way, here in south Florida Norfolk Southern runs over FEC(Florida East Coast) tracks daily to West Palm Beach or Miami, NS switches over somewhere in Georgia to FEC tracks. Lee F.