i’ve heard sometimes if there is a locomotive shortage a railroad would lease/borrow a loco to another rr -my question is what other rr’s have leased/borrowed loco’s to BNSF?
Railroads do less leasing and more “borrowing” of each other’s locomotives on horsepower hours.
Most of the leasing is from private leasing companies or locomotive builders/rebuilders (GATX, Helm, First Union, Oakway, EMD, GE, etc).
Back before the 1980’s the railroads did more leasing to each other because there were fewer locomotive leasing companies.
Dave H.
Dave’s right…
Most railroad shared equipment is based on horsepower hours, sort of like a bank of use credits. “I have some of your locos, you have some on mine.” And the railroads even out how many hours they run on each other. This and the advent of pooled power on long distance trains, means you can see any big railroad’s locos on any other one.
Most leasing is done through the private companys, like GATX, Capital Helm and First Union.
Nick
thanks -so i can any big railroads loco on another big rr for instance- two CSX gp38-2 on BNSF or a Norfolk Southern Dash8-40b on BNSF -i’d like to have another paint scheme on my BNSF model RR
Sure. I get BNSF and UP power in Philadelphia all the time. Occationally, we’ll have CN power too. Also, don’t forget, CP and CN have extensive operations in the Midwest.
Nick
There seems to be some confusion here over power pooling as opposed to leasing. The accounting on power pooling is relatively informal and is based on horsepower hours. In theory, each road involved contributes enough power to keep the horsepower hours fairly balanced.
On the other hand, leasing involves a ca***ransaction and can involve another railroad or a leasing firm of some sort. Long-term leases usually involve a firm like RELCO, Helm, CIT Financial, Locomotive Leasing Partners, etc. A short-term or spot lease may involve a railroad leasing excess power to another road to cover a traffic surge or if a shortline is involved, their only power needs major maintenance or repairs.
BNSF loans a lot of power to NS, so it is very common to see NS locos. on the BNSF working as “horsepower payback” units. I would think that NS would be the most common one to see, but it would be posible to see almost ANY other road’s loco. as well.
FIRST UNION RAIL CORP.
The locos look like this:
We see lots of NS here in Tulsa Oklahoma on the BNSF Cherokee Sub[8D]!
Mike in Tulsa
I’ve seen a Union Pacific locomotive with a couple of CSX Diesels in Louisville,once. Only Santa Fe engine around here that I’ve seen is at a nearby railway museum.
The accounting for horsepower hours is not exactly “informal”, the railroads keep very detailed records of who owes who and when it gets too far out of whack work between each railroad to balance it up or if a railroad A sees its getting to far in "debt’ to another railroad, it will move the foreign locos home or give the other road more railroad A engines.
Dave H.
On the BNSF you would see more CSX and NS power than you would see UP power since the BNSF would more likely have a runthrough with the two eastern roads than with the UP. CN/IC or CP locos and an occasional KCS/TFM engine could be appropriate.
Dave H.
great thanks everyone, so NS would be the most common to see on BNSF. i would never even consider running a UP loco on my layout as i never really cared for UP. i may run a CSX gp38-2, i like the “YN2” paint scheme. or a NS dash 8-40
i live in north texas and have both bnsf and up close to me and i have seen cp cn ns csx and the leasing companies power here. however on the transcontinental lines if a train originated on ns the power would be kept on through to the other side as these are high priority trains and it goes for the reverse if a train originated on up a ns or csx crew would take it to destination
tom