Demystifying railroad accounting, page three

Go to page 1 Go to page 2 The second component of car hire is the mileage payment. Each car has an assigned mileage rate, which is multiplied by the number of miles it runs over other carriers to determine payments. Railroad-owned cars (whose reporting marks are railroad initials) are subject to both per diem […]

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Demystifying railroad accounting

Click the image to download a PDF of this article as it would appear in TRAINS magazine. A boxcar sits idle behind a warehouse. Its contents have been unloaded and the doors are closed. The only movement that can be seen is the heat waves rising off the hot rails in the summer sun. Despite […]

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The Warbonnet visits … Austria?

Eichholz Rail V170 No. 1125, a Swedish-built diesel, shows off its “Warbonnet” markings on an excursion train at Traiskirchen, Austria. Raimund Wyhnal BNSF may have given up the famous “Warbonnet” scheme it inherited from predecessor Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, but a German company is keeping the classic scheme alive. Eichholz Rail, a German railroad […]

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Wired up: The stages of U.S. railroad electrification

Baltimore railroad tunnels

U.S. railroad electrification In 1939, the United States was the global leader in railroad electrification, with over 20% of the world’s total. Today, electrification is a non-factor on almost all American railroads outside the Northeast Corridor. How did this happen? The heady projects from the early 20th century that propelled the U.S. to world leader […]

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Locomotive 2009 rosters

Arkansas & Missouri C420 66

Arkansas & Missouri Railroad roster Legendary among Alco operators, the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad is an independent Class III railroad operating 139-miles of onetime Frisco trackage between Monett, Mo., and Fort Smith, Ark. In addition to freight service, the road also operates passenger excursions. The road’s all-Alco fleet is dominated by 16 C420s of various […]

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Fall foliage hotlines and online reports

Conrail in Berkshires

The Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts are alive with color on October 11, 1997, as Conrail freight SELA rolls through Chester, Mass., behind C30-7A locomotives. Matt Van Hattem There are countless opportunities to enjoy the colors of fall from trackside public parks and railroad museums, and aboard special fall foliage train excursions. The U.S. Forest […]

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A line-up at the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum

The Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum held its annual night photo shoot on June 13, 2009, at Willimantic, Conn. Framed by the museum’s six-stall roundhouse, the six pieces of equipment arranged for the photo are (from left) a GE 44-tonner (built in 1950 for the Long Island Rail Road), a Narragansett Railway speeder, a GE 45-tonner […]

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Ask Trains from September 2009

Q How do railroads figure how much power is necessary for a train?– Richard Panarese, Mesa, Ariz.A Railroads determine power needed for a train based on the route, and the train’s weight and priority. BNSF, for instance, considers the “horsepower per ton” required based on what officials call the train’s “transportation service plan.” The transportation […]

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GE box-cabs in Chile

FCTT in Chile

General Electric B-B electrics 606 and 601 are ready to depart Barriles yard, current terminus of the FCTT’s electrification on July 23, 2007. The short train of gondolas is conveying processed nitrate to the shipping terminal at Tocopilla, 17.25 miles and 1.5 hours away, and 3, 231 feet downhill. Ian A. Dunn Nos. 604 and […]

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