Why do I see different Railroad company engines on the same train.?

Question

I have seen bnsf with csx

bnsf with canadian national

bnsf with norfolk southern

kansas city southern with bnsf

I know that they have trackage rights on some of the other companies tracks but I don't understand why I see a train with several different company engines on it.

Answer 1

the smaller railroads wre bought out by bigger one's the just leave the paint ont the trains alone

Answer 2

HOGHEAD has given you a correct and complete answer.

It all has to do with power sharing and agreements...rather than trackage rights which is a whole other issue.  

Although its a bit different from freight cars it sometimes seems as if locomotives are being interchanged almost as freely as freight cars lately... Rather than change engines at terminals and what not, the engines are sent on with train.

Answer 3

Trains operate nation wide.  When they are handed from one rail road to another, at times the power just stays on the trains, at least for a while.

In other instances, some carriers make short term leases of power to another carrier.

Some carriers pool their power to their mutual benefit, especially in the short term when they may be experiencing unusually high volumes of tonnage to move.

But, for the most part, foreign power on a given road usually doesn't go off their property for a long way.

AAR biling can add to the sting of watching your locomotive fade into the distance on the point of a foreign line train, however.  If the power fails, needs parts replaced, needs inspection or service to conform to Federal Railroad Administration mandates, etc., the parent company of that piece of equipment gets the bill.  The same is ture for freight cars.

Hope this helps you out.

Answer 4

It really doesnt matter if a CSX engine lashes up with a BNSF engine.  They all go together in a co-operative way.  Although there are rivalries, it is the choice of the home railroad (the one that owns the trackage) that decides which engines to use.  it is not exactly a game of playing favorites here.  whatever gets the freight moving and getting it to wherever it goes is going to be used, regardless of lineage.