The SP units are easy. In 1988, the holding compnay that owned the Rio Grande purchased the SP, but essentially the way the name change worked is that the SP swallowed the Rio Grande, since it was by far the bigger railroad. Integration of traffic between the two railroads was slow at first, but by the time of the picture here in 1989, SP units were probably showing up frequently on trains in the old Rio Grande territory.
The Chessie System unit is a bit more difficult. In the 1980s, railroads began increasingly running through foreign road units or swapping power. There are various arrangements, but the usual idea is to keep track of the horspower hours generated by a unit when it was on a foreign road. Then RRs either trade back the hours by lending their locos out or they buy it under what are essentially short-term leases. This does let you run other roads’ motive power on your line and keep things prototypical. However, before the mid- to late-1980s, there was only a limited number of such arrangements made by the Rio Grande.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Yes it’s really interesting to be able to use different locos and still be prototypical, thanks.
Another similar question. Look at this picture:
Cars from Santa Fe, Southern Pacific and others. What’s the reason for that?
My question may seem stupid but remember, I’m from Sweden and I have never seen a US diesel train in real life. In Sweden there is (or was) only one company called SJ (Statens Järnvägar).
Electro, freight cars are interchanged between railroads thruout the US. You’re likely to see about any combo in a given train. I’d say that a good rule would be to have 50% of your rolling stock in your modeled road’s colors.
Have you got this video? http://www.greenfrog.com/product255.html It’s a facinating veiw of the world’s coolest railroad [;)] and well worth the money for any Rio Grande fan.
I like the pics on here guys. Your questions are not stupid. The reason for different cars in a train is a sign that the railroads are working together.
Cars are freely interchanged because there is no one railroad that serves all North America. So a factory in California (on the UP) that ships a carload of manufactured goods (let’s assume in a UP car) to Maine, will result in that car being interchanged with one or two other railroads just to reach it’s destination. From there, the local road at destination looks for another shipment to load in it, rather than just sending it back empty. For shipments entirely within the jurisdiction of one railroad, that road will attempt to use home road cars so that they don’t have to share the revenue with another road.
The railroads keep track of where the cars are and who is hauling them, and there is a revenue sharing system to compensate the owner road and the road doing the hauling.
Electrolove–
You haven’t asked a single stupid question since you joined the forum, so don’t worry about that. And as far as your choice of American railroad to model–I think I can speak for Grande Man also, when I say–CONGRATULATIONS!! Love the Rio Grande–it’s the “Little Railroad That Could”–and DID!!
Tom [bow][bow]
a small addition to Ed’s excellent answer … that railroad in Maine that now has an empty UP boxcar will try to send it towards the originating railroad , even if it has no loads to send directly there . when the car arrives from maine to some other road further west they will empty it and attempt to fill it with a load that will keep it moving west . eventually it will return to the UP and they’ll reload it and send it somewhere else .
You’ll have a great time watching the Grande in action! It’s an AWESOME DVD set. Only problem I have with it, now I want to model the limestone mine on Monarch Pass! Gee thanks Green Frog…[:D]
The selection of Southern Pacific over Rio Grande was only related to railroad size in that the SP went to California. The merger team thought and Mr. Anchutz agreed that the name SP had would have better customer recognition in California where most of the intermodal traffic originated. So it was a marketing issue really unrelated to physical size of the railroad.
Yes, to state it simply. For example, I routinely see Florida East Coast and Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern cars in Canadian Pacific trains running on CSX here in Michigan. Almost any railroads car can show up anywhere on the continent, and you even see cars from long gone railroads (example- I saw an Erie Lackawanna 40’ boxcar sitting in the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern yard in Lima, OH earlier this year while I was still
