Just a question for all out there that know more about trains than I do;

I live in the Vancouver area, in a suburb near the CP Rail mainline. I see tons of trains on their way in to Vancouver, and on their way out. I often see rolling stock from other railways - CN, BNSF, and some others from the US. I'm sure CP rolling stock finds it's way to these other rail lines as well.

My question is, do these companies know where all their rolling stock is at all times? If a CN car required maintenance all of a sudden, would CP just do the work and bill CN? Do these companies ever ask for their stuff back?

Thanks!

Many railroads have pool agreements where they either pool locomotive leases or they have a "you break it you fix it" agreement.

Posted by Agent Skelly Many railroads have pool agreements where they either pool locomotive leases or they have a "you break it you fix it" agreement.

and the break it fix it rule doesnt always apply thats why you have places like cad railway services in lachine quebec that does train repairs for other roads.

Posted by nostra-YOUPPI! and the break it fix it rule doesnt always apply thats why you have places like cad railway services in lachine quebec that does train repairs for other roads.

Of course! But most of the Class I roads have such an agreement.

Interestingly with Amtrak and VIA on the Maple Leaf, if something breaks on the Amfleets that they dint have the part for, Amtrak actually will send the part using UPS Sonic Air from the Albany shop.

Posted by Agent Skelly Of course! But most of the Class I roads have such an agreement. Interestingly with Amtrak and VIA on the Maple Leaf, if something breaks on the Amfleets that they dint have the part for, Amtrak actually will send the part using UPS Sonic Air from the Albany shop.

at CAD i see an awful lot of rolling stock from the american class 1's like UP and BNSF. as for locomotives the pooling agreements are based on mileage, so lets say CN lends out a loco to CSX, before years end CN will run a CSX loco for the same amount of mileage.

So they all know generally where all their stuff is at any given time?

the article about railgon is actually full of info:

http://en.wikipedi...ki/Railgon_Company

Posted by Mowgli-dogMy question is, do these companies know where all their rolling stock is at all times? If a CN car required maintenance all of a sudden, would CP just do the work and bill CN? Do these companies ever ask for their stuff back?

They hope so, usually, and sometimes. Find a copy of the "Official Railway Equipment Register" and read the "Code of Care Hire" and "Car Service" rules in the back of it for more information. Car Repair rules are printed elsewhere.

The recent picture in the picture thread actually brung up something else forgotton:

Useful life - AAR Rule 107 controls inter-railroad handling of damaged or destroyed equipment for the industry. Like most AAR Rules, this rule provides a level playing field with respect to the interchange of equipment that takes place on a daily basis in the industry. Per the 2002 AAR Field Manual: "Rule 107. A. Purpose. The purpose of this rule is to provide an orderly sequence of events to compensate owners when equipment is damaged or destroyed."

Posted by Mowgli-dog So they all know generally where all their stuff is at any given time?

Back in the 1970s when Southern Pacific was still healthy, they had a terrible time keeping track of where their rolling stock was. One of the reasons why is because SP had a good maintenance program and kept their rolling stock in excellent shape whereas other class 1's let them deteriorate. So instead of rolling out maintenance programs they just used the SP rolling stock for extended periods of time.

So that explains how SP equipment gets dirty

Posted by Mowgli-dog Just a question for all out there that know more about trains than I do; I live in the Vancouver area, in a suburb near the CP Rail mainline. I see tons of trains on their way in to Vancouver, and on their way out. I often see rolling stock from other railways - CN, BNSF, and some others from the US. I'm sure CP rolling stock finds it's way to these other rail lines as well. My question is, do these companies know where all their rolling stock is at all times? If a CN car required maintenance all of a sudden, would CP just do the work and bill CN? Do these companies ever ask for their stuff back? Thanks!

Railways can easily trace their equipment, most of the time the system is pretty accurate and can give the location of a railcar once it passes an AEI reader.

Say boxcar CN 123456 passes the AEI reader going into Symington yard, tracing it would "CN 1234 arrived Symington Yard, time+date".

Typically if a load starts off on Railroad A and is going to Railroad B, Railroad A would usually supply the car and it would be shipped and interchanged with Railroad B to get to its final destination. Sometimes once it's arrived and unloaded, Railroad B would look for any shipments headed to Railroad A and ship it in the car, or they could just return it to Railroad A empty but that's not optimizing equipment utilization.

Cars the shipper specifically owns or is leasing, or specialized cars that are limited or assigned to one special commodity might just get returned. General cars like boxcars, gondolas, hoppers etc or cars the railroad owns might just go back into their pool once the load is delivered.

Sweet, thanks for the replies.