Michigan railroads use of engines

[rettop]

Anytime I see some pictures posted, there are always (mostly) two engines pulling less than ten cars! My brother-in-law worked the C&O out of Ludington for 40 years; he said the engines were not that reliable back then. They would break down out in the "boonies" and have to wait for a rescue engine--little expensive when people when into overtime. Anyways, they started sending two engines out on the locals. Is the motive power still that problematic to rate sending out two engines on a run by the local RR's here in Michigan?

[pudgy]

More often than not, local power is assigned based on whats available at the time, and less about assigned power to a facility. So they may be using large over the road locomotives when 4 axle units would suffice. Sometimes, they may be using power that is going back out on a later train. They leave the units tied together to simplify power for that later train. Sometimes is as simple as not wanting to have to turn a locomotive or run them in reverse while traveling back to their respective terminal.

Sometimes, you may just be seeing a road train with lack of freight, but the locomotives are constantly moved around to avoid power shortages at different terminals. Just like the airlines, the next train needs to have a means of getting somewhere, even if there isn't much traffic going in that direction.