I noticed a NS train I saw a few weeks ago. It was a short 15-25 car train and it was more then likely a local headed for the big industrail complex located about 15-20 miles west of where I live.
What bugged me about this train though was that it was powered by an ES44AC and an SD60M. Isn’t that a bit of an overkill for the train? Certainly there were some SD40’s or even a pair of GP40s available for them to use?
Why would they use those two locomotives instead ?
You use the power that is available to protect on time originations and customer commitments. Without knowing the operational facts that caused a situation, it is impossible to judge the logic that was applied to end up with the result that was seen. The appropriate power for any particular movement is not always the power that is available for that movement.
I once saw a CN train that was three engines and a single tank car. But before it passed me it had dropped several dozen cars off at an intermediate yard, and obviously there wasn’t anything to pick up that afternoon.
That NS train could have needed the extra power for cars that have been dropped off, or will be picked up. And even if it is a local train, it probably uses the same or similar power every day, and it might be 20 cars now, but 50 cars when it comes back in the opposite direction.
They probably just used the power most readily available to them. Uncoupling the locomotives so only one can go also requires work, and the crew may have decided to run them both, anticipating that they would need to be recouple the units anyway.
They use what is available; they use two units often so that cabs can be facing direction of travel in either direction; the units are on a cyclical assignment as a pair; the train you see may have left cars someplace back and/or is picking some cars someplace ahead; the next assignment may need the power; the road foreman of engines doesn’t trust the engineer to be able to work with only one unit’s power…
Where I used to work they would get in unit coal trains, which then left as empties, as well as military trains. The local crew would usually just used the road power that brought the train to the local yard (all they normally have is a single GP38). If they happened to pick up any cars on the way back to the yard, you’d have seen a couple of big locomotives, possibly even foreign power, dragging a few assorted cars along behind them.
If you are looking for seriously overpowered “trains”, you should have seen this one: two NS locos being towed by two CSX locos. The NS units were about 70 miles as the crow flies from home rails when I saw them. Don’t have a clue why this was done, but saw it from my office window at work.
Were the NS units being towed or were they pulling too? Pool train, borrowed units, stolen units, run off time share, …many reasons for such to happen.
I saw something like this a few months ago too. Two CSX locomotives came light through Alexandria VA, heading south on the old RF&P line (where Potomac Yard used to be). About an hour later, they came back north with a pair of NS locomotives in tow.
This way guys. No! This way! [swg]
Don’t have a clue whether the NS units were pulling or being towed. Would think they were being towed, but thal is just my opinion, not based on actual knowledge. I was roughly 100 yards away and four floors up, so had no auditory clues.
Here’s another thought, maybe the ESs were needed at the final destination.
Could be. The four units were headed east, toward Jacksonville.
For this exact case? Who knows? Need more detail.
But, in general, there are places where road power is used on locals as part of the plan to maintain high utilization. If the power is just going to sit anyway, why not put it to work?
Why two units? One is having a cab facing each direction. Another is avoiding the need to cut and couple. Generally, NS likes using SD40-2s for locals like this - where utilization and productivity are low - , where they can.
In this instance, the CSX engines went to the NS connection at Alexandria to get the NS engines and take them to Benning Yard (in DC) so that the NS locomotives could be used on the Ringling Bros. Circus train that was departing Benning for a destination on the NS. By putting the engines on the train at iit’s orign the locomotives would not have to be changed upon the delivery of the train as CSX was not going to give power to the NS on the Circus train.
While train watching I will frequently see a 120 or so car train pulled by two Dash9 or similar units and then a 30 or 40 car train with four units or more at times. What others have said rings true…balancing power requirements, keeping to schedules of delivery of commodities, etc., etc. can and do likely play into such equipment utilization…it’s not something that us “civilians” can always immediately appreciate or comprehend so we leave such things up to the pros.
Don’t forget the units will be needed to pull a train of undetermined size from
the terminal they are headed to. Also the units may have set off or are scheduled
to pick up more cars. I worked as a supervisor of power control for a class 1 and
assure you we strive not to waste power. Lay people do not understand the
railroad operating situations.
Maybe so, and I have seen the same on the UP West, but if so, then some of those procedures of balancing, etc. result in inefficient usage.
Don’t forget tranfers to/ from a locomotive shop for scheduled inspections and/ or maintenance, repairs, rebuilds, etc. When I was closer to the NS Reading line I’d see an end-cab switcher once a week or so, apparently in that kind of a move.
If it is made by man - it will break.
In many cases, what appears to be a heavily overpowered train, may actually be borderline on being able to handle its tonnage - while the train may have 7, 8 or 9 units, only one or two of them may be capable of producing power, the rest are be hauled to the shop for repair. The carriers have centralized most of their shop functions in a few full service shops that can handle virtually all running repairs, upto and including replacing the prime mover. Carrier power plans generally have some secondary scheduled manifest trains that are dedicated to ferry power to the active shops for repair.