Union Pacific in Adrian, MI

[tyler_phillips]

This may be a dumb question, but since I obviously don't know the answer, I'll ask it anyway. Today I saw two Union Pacific locos leading a North bound NS Triple Crown train pass through Adrian. #1, Why would there be two UP locos running this train and not NS locos? #2, I thought UP only ran out West?

[Saturnalia]

It's pretty common to see foreign power. Railroads give and take power hours quite often. If for instance, a train is really hot at interchange, they'll go through without swapping power. The units might just then tour the other's system before winding back up on the home network. Sometimes railroads will take what are essentially mini-leases as well.

[Mr. Tops]

It's pretty common to see foreign power. Railroads give and take power hours quite often. If for instance, a train is really hot at interchange, they'll go through without swapping power. The units might just then tour the other's system before winding back up on the home network. Sometimes railroads will take what are essentially mini-leases as well.

A train doesn't have to be really hot for power to stay on at interchange. It's whatever is in the interchange agreement that the power stays on. Power availability also comes into play. We get junk trains on UP from NS and we send em back. 15E comes to us with NS power most of the time and it stays on all the way to N. Little Rock on MPIPB. If NS has any UP power, they can, but won't necessarily send it back on 15E. NS power usually comes back up QNLPI, NS 10E, but UP may send the NS power on a tour-de-railroad and put UP power on 10E.

In Chicago, what used to be "Express Lane Service", QNPSKP out of North Platte, came into Barr and the UP power stayed on straight through to Selkirk as Q390, recrew and go. Now, UP sends pretty much the same train to Barr as QNPCXP, but the power is cut off and goes to Yard Center. From there, CSX power is added and I'm not sure what happens to the train, if it is split up into different trains or what. UP power still stays on the "salad shooter" Q090/Q091 from Washington to New York.

It really comes down to what power is available and ready to go when the train departs. The plan may be for NS power to return north on QNLPI but if there is no NS power available, then it gets UP power. When the NS power is readied, it may end up on another train. Pretty much anything goes. Time spent by power on a foreign road is kept track of and, repayed through "horsepower hours". So, if UP keeps NS power for "x" amount of time, then NS gets UP power for "x" amount of time as payment. It doesn't necessarily have to be UP power they repay them with either; it could be CSX power that is repaying HPH on UP and now UP is repaying HPH to NS with. Gets confusing...

[chapmaja]

Is it even more confusing that you described? The term is horsepower hours, not just hours. My understanding is this is a combination of the hours a unit spends on another railroad, and the horsepower of said unit.

This is an example of my understanding.

Two UP engines stay on a train interchanged with NS in Chicago. They are both 4000 HP locomotives (8000 total HP). These two units spend a total of 100 hours on NS before being interchanged back to UP. The total for these locomotives "leased" to NS would be 800000 HP hours. To repay this "lease", NS sends a pair of 2500 HP units to NS to pay off the "lease". These two units (5000 HP total) would need to spend 160 hours on UP to make up for the higher HP UP units 100 hours on NS.

The reason I heard for the HP hours being used was some railroads would "lease" high HP units, but send lower HP units as a replacement. Using straight time one railroad would gain a significant advantage over the other.

What I have also heard is many railroads have a financial agreement that can charge a certain dollar amount per HP hr not made up each month. Say NS uses 1 million HP hours from UP, that are not made up. UP would then send a bill for x amount per hour to NS as a lease fee.

It is even more confusing than this because of certain agreements that may be in place between the railroads.