This is something I have been wondering about:
If railroad XYZ has a loco from railroad ABC on its train, and the train wrecked, would railroad XYZ pay to repair it, replace it, or what?
Yes.
Depends on how damaged it is. If its minor, then it might repair it. If its significant then it would return the damaged engine to its owner for repair and would have to pay for it.
Dave H.
A third possibility has been used on occasion that I am aware of. If a foreign power unit is too heavily damaged the operating road sometimes returns a like locomotive to the foreign road and then strips the damaged unit of all usable parts and uses whats left as trade in.
some years ago Amtrak’s Texas Eagle hit a garbage truck just outside of Rond Rock Texas and the lead locomotive was heavily damaged. The locomotive trucks were removed and then the engine and trucks (locomotive - not garbage) were shipped on flat cars back to Elm Grove IL for repairs.
dd
Litigation is a huge part of who pays for what. If XYZ is responsible in some way for the damage, they might wind up absorbing the cost of the locomotive repair or replacement. If it was ABC’s engine and it in some way caused the accident, then ABC becomes responsible. In the case of the Round Rock incident, the locomotive was shipped in pieces back to Beech Grove, IN for complete restoration, which I am not sure has occurred, even as I write this. Since this was a grade crossing accident, I am sure the trucking company was sued, but since the locomotive was Amtrak’s own, what Amtrak did with it was largely their own decision. Scrapping may have been the more prudent course to take.
I would suspect in this litigous society that any railroad with run through power on it has a binding contract with the other railroad covering all contingencies. If it would be my engine on their railroad I would want to repair it myself to know they didn’t cut corners in the repair. If it were their engine on my railroad I would still want to repair it to control the rebuild costs.
Thanks for your answers.