LAST EDITED ON Jun-04-03 AT 08:14 PM (EDT)
I've got some questions regarding the geographical assignment of prototypical locomotives in the US, namely where and how the big RR's base their motive power:Dear fellow simmer community,Some questions and thoughts regarding North American RR operations have accumulated with me over the past few months of exploring US routes and rolling stock in MSTS. As I am not at all familiar with the details of operations and methods due to the fact that I grew up a little too far away from it, where I got used to different rules and railway operation procedures, I dare bringing some of these questions forward in a series of posts. I think that your answers might also be of interest to others, be it that they too are not familiar with North American RRs, be it that they are new to the rails per se. The other topics are to be found in the following posts, which I decided to split in the sake of keeping each subject focused:Questions regarding Multiple Unit (MU) running of prototypical locomotives at http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID1/5339.html
Questions regarding prototypical speed limit policies for various train types at http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID1/5337.html
Quesitons regarding realistic scheduling of my AI trains on US routes at http://www.train-sim.com/dcforum/DCForumID1/5340.htmlNow for my questions regarding geographical assignment of prototypical locomotives:This question of mine actually only refers to the “big railroads”, a.k.a. the Class 1s that run transcontinental or at least long distance, but not to shortlines. While it seems logical that engine crews are assigned to certain (sub)divisions of such a large RR, which means that they basically operate trains on their home turf only, so that every 100+ or so miles a relief crew from the next “base” takes over, I wonder how the RRs handle the assignement of the engines. Is an engine basically assigned to running on a specific portion of the roads network only, so that it will be returning to its base frequently, i.e. at least every few days, or do the engines actually travel from Eastcoast to Westcoast, without being assigned to a specific home base that serves as the technical and logistical centre of that specific engine? From what I know of the geographically rather small railway companies of Europe, each and every engine (and wagon, for that matter) has its home yard which is responsible for that piece of equipment, and to which the engine or wagon frequently returns for inspections and maintenance, or just for “parking”.Does a similar approach exist with the large North American RRs? If so, which is the typical radius an engine works in? For how many days would it typically be “wandering” inside this radius before it returns to the actual base?If there is no such fixed assignment, things become more interesting: How is the maintenance and inspection of engines organised? How are enough engines dispatched - it’s a long dead-head from California to Montana or Texas, if there’s an engine shortage - to the various bases? Plus: Do engineers have a common rating to drive any type of engine? If not: How do RRs make sure that enough engineers rated to drive a specific engine type are around at the respective bases when suddenly a lot of these engines turn up simultaneously on their meandering journey through the continent?It seems logical that the looser the tie of engines to specific areas are, the more spare units are needed to ensure that enough motive power is readily availble whenever there is a call for it. So what would you say is the typical ratio of spare engines of the large US railroads, or worded differently: How many percent of the total number of main road engines are working on a typical day? Ok, I hope that is enough food for tought, I am looking forward to some interesting answers…Lukas a.k.a Swissie
(Edited for the links to other threads posted parallely)
Alert | IP
Printer-friendly page | Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top
