I have seen this engine several times. I cound never understand why NS would run an engine like this C44 on it’s mainline. Did they buy them cheap from BNSF?
They are just being “borrowed”. There are about 100 reasons why NS runs BNSF power but, NS does not own the engines. As for seeing the same BNSF engine… it might just be in a power pool for the train so, you are bound to see it a few times until it leaves that pool.
Railroads often share power. Sometimes it’s becuase it makes it faster to interchange trains, sometimes it’s part of an agreement of running a train across two rails. Railroads will also loan other railroads power if the other railroad is short on power.
When a railroad like NS is using BNSF power they often pay a rental fee and will still fuel and maintain the engines.
There are more techinical terms for all this but I just finished Christmas shopping at Wal Mart and I cannot remember my own name right now, lol.
yep, rr’s borrow each other engines- BNSF loans a lot of power to NS (NS must be short on power) and NS loans them engines to “pay back” for the work the BNSF engines did- i’d think BNSF loans more than other RR’s because they have 5,300+ engines (a lot came from the Santa Fe)
Because it makes their boring trains look better?
Maybe, but NS bought the Pensy.
On a more practical side, the black paint job hides all the coal dust, so it’s not just a lack of imagination, it is in fact a well thought out color scheme.
And yes, there is a good reason for leasing/borrowing/lending locos to other roads, it’s called maximizing profit. That is to say, a locomotive is a very expensive investment; it makes a return on that investment by hauling a commodity to a paying customer. A loco that is not running is losing the owner a lot of money. Somewhere there is a carrier, NS for example, that has more customers than its roster can serve. The next logical step is to marry up the loco that is sitting around with nothing to do, with a carrier that needs it to meet a current demand. It’s a win-win situation for both sides, the loco’s owners don’t loose money (they might even make a buck or two) and the gaining railroad gets a working engine for a fraction of the cost of purchasing.
Hmmm…
I’ll bet this is just a sick joke by the Norfolk Southern paint department. Pay no attention to it, as I think some heads will role over this. [:-,]
We run even more UP engines. These are joint NS/UP or NS/BNSF trains. A lot of these trains go coast to coast. And just recently the NS made an agreement with KCS.
[:D][(-D]
Yeah, at least BNSF runs a little COLOR. Just when you think they’ll go with a better paint scheme, they bring out the grey units. [D)]
Matt
That’s quite true, I saw 3 or 4 NS units in Reno, NV in August and quite a few in Kansas City a month earlier.
Now the question is: Is the NS slowly taking over all railroads everywhere? Are the tentacles of the Goth Black locos spreading nation wide? Will all railroads be serving biscuts and grits??? Just wondering…hoping actually…
No, your just parnoid. Actually the UP wants CSX , BNSF wants the NS, and CN wants to run the whole show. But I dont think it will ever happen.
And that leaves CP and KCS where?
Matt
I think you should be more worried about the goose stepping the Nazi Southern will have you doing than the biscuits in grits.
Goose stepping black clad locos or not, in the end it’s all about getting the money. In this day and age everybody is out to absorb everybody else and form mega-corporations and buy the world.
I guess that answers the original question?
I think their LHS didn’t have that engine in the NS paint scheme. They will custom paint it later.
BNSF wants to try and grab KCS sometime soon- I like NS’s black paint.
good point -BNSF must have a lot of extra engines BNSF has some 5,300+ engines CSX has somewhere around 3,000+ and NS has somewhere around 3,400+
RAILROADS ARE ABOUT NOTHING BUT MONEY!! Sharing loco’s has nothing to do with anything cept turning a profit.[}:)][}:)]
Well said! And with that said, I personaly don’t blame the railroads for making money, or any other company that makes a profit. Profits=success.
(I usualy don’t get too involved in the puny little indoor scale stuff, I’m a garden RRer, but let’s just say I’m partial to the NS and I do have a small 2x4 HO module for something to do on the really crummy weather days when I can’t do any real model railroading.)
NS doesnt just run BNSF, I have seen at least one locomotive from every current Class 1 RR and some fallen flags including SOO, SP, CNW unpatched, Georgia Southwestern, and Rio Grande. Also a lot of lease units. The same goes for every Railroad I have seen except ILLINOIS CENTRAL.
ICMR
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
I have also seen IC on NS track this year.
ICMR
Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]
I live in Erie, PA. yes I work at General Electric where we build the real thing. We have a double track CSX line that runs behind the plant, and a NS line parallel to that, throw in the GE test track and I can watch trains all day, I see just about everything, units from all kind of places going west and east, then we ship some new ones out and they get thrown into a train going wherever, and you get some great consists. Most CSX go to Buffalo for acceptance NS seem to go east to but I don’t know where.