What’s the deal? I’ve been seeing Norfolk Southern loco’s sitting on the tracks here in CA - running on the central coast.
Funny thing - I only recognized these loco’s from model railroads, and now they’re rolling by on the tracks!
Maybe they’re leased out to the UP? Sometimes I seen BNSF and UP power on NS here in Pittsburgh.
Wow that is cool that you see the NS in Cali because I have one NS for my Cali UP layout since I see them running MU’d in Ohio. I actually see alot of UP engines as far away as here in Pennsylvania too. I love UP but the NS is a very nice loco being all black with white lettering.
It’s a common practice nowadays, for partnering railroads to keep each other’s locos with the same train from origin to destination, to avoid spending time to swap out motive power on time-sensitive runs. Locos are now operated beyond their home turf the same way freight cars have always been.
Methinks NS and BNSF may have a run-through agreement. I’ve seen BNSF units in Tennessee, and mixed lashups of BNSF and NS units between Seligman and Kingman, AZ.
With computerized accounting it’s easier to quick-lease and pay for a ‘foreign-road’ unit than it is to cut it off a through train.
hearin that makes me smile cause now i can get and run some BNSF on my rail which ive been waiting for, im not very prototypical but i like to keep it somewhat real, just getting tired of seeing conrail and ns all the time
Have seen BNSF and UP units here in Central Florida, as well as NS and CSX.
Bob DeWoody
I’ve seen them ALL at the local crossing of the CSX [formerly B&O] Old Main Line - BN, ATSF, BNSF, UP, and - yes - even archrival NS! Not to mention the Conrail ‘patches’ and a gazzillion different-colored HELM lease units…
Ive seen them all also. I have also seen many lease units as well as shortline and regional units on NS track. I have even seen a Georgia Southwestern unit here in Southern Illinois.
Victor
Happy Railroading.
The cool thing is the lashup I saw that prompted this thread was an NS loco, followed by a UP Loco, followed by one dirty looking SP loco.
Cool!
NS units have been on the BNSF Birmingham-Long Beach stack train that traverses the BNSF Cherokee Sub through Tulsa for quite some time. Sometimes the NS unit is in the lead. I run most every Class 1 on my layout given the reasons pointed out in previous posts.
Mike in Tulsa
BNSF Cherokee Sub
Where U been?
This has been going down for a while. All lease units. NS seams to have a lease deal with BNSF while UP runs alot of lease units from CSX but I’ve seen both on each line.
I saw my FIRST CN unit, a dash-9, on a eastbound UP coming thru Pomona.