USA Pics

Did you give it gas?:hehe: The SD70's require you to fill them (in Surveyor) with a full complement of Loco Diesel Fuel and Loco Sand.
 
Coming soon to the DLS

I've just about finished up my Austin Western Railroad route, and plan to upload it to the Download Station soon. Here are a few shots from the "Red Line:"

A few locos and cars in the Abbott Yard:
AbbottYard.jpg


An Austin MetroRail DMU at the Leander Station:
MetroRailAtLeander.jpg


Working an industrial spur on Austin's north side:
WorkingIndustrySpur.jpg


An AWRR local passes by a band doing a promotional photo shoot, distracting the photographer:
PassingByPhotoShoot.jpg


A pair of leased GP40s backs some gondolas into an east-side scrapyard:
BackingIntoEastsideRecycling.jpg


Two MetroRail DMUs at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. station:
AtMLKStation.jpg
 
A few more

Here are some more shots of the AWRR between Marble Falls and Llano, Texas.

Picking up slabs at the Granite Mountain Quarry near Marble Falls:
AtGraniteMountainQuarry.jpg


Adding to a rock train at a quarry near Scobee:
AtScobeeQuarry.jpg


A local to Llano entering Kingsland, with the Colorado River in the foreground:
LocalEnteringKingslandTX.jpg


Crossing a bridge in Kingsland:
LocalEnteringKingslandTX-2.jpg


Passing over a rusty truss bridge near Llano, with the Llano River in the background:
CrossingTrussBridge.jpg


Backing some cars through the Llano wye:
BackingThroughTheLlanoWye.jpg


Loading hoppers at Llano Feed & Supply:
AtLlanoFeedSupply.jpg
 
This might be a stupid question, but it seems everyone has shots of whole trains by the one company, eg. 2 UP loco's pulling a train of UP hoppers passing another UP goods service - or they're making a company specific route. What percentage of the US is run like this? Are there areas in the US where you can only see single companies operating? Do they own the lines and not lease them to rival companies?
 
Quite the opposite really. In the good ol' U.S of A., they really like clumping together one or two other railroad companies on their trains. For example, you could have a CSX freight train, with a CSX loco at the front, but with Conrail and New York Central behind it, or a BNSF freight with a UP and ATSF or SP loco on it. Them there Americans are kinda weird, you know (No offence, Americans!):hehe:
 
This might be a stupid question, but it seems everyone has shots of whole trains by the one company, eg. 2 UP loco's pulling a train of UP hoppers passing another UP goods service - or they're making a company specific route. What percentage of the US is run like this? Are there areas in the US where you can only see single companies operating? Do they own the lines and not lease them to rival companies?
Not sure of exactly what your asking, kinda lengthy answers to many scenarios but i'll try and make the answers quick...:)

Since I'm a UP nut, I'll use them just for examples;) .

Freight cars on US trains can be from a multitude of roads, not just the road doing the run. A UP train would have cars of their own, and cars from other roads all in the same consist.

TRACKAGE- Yes, tracks are owned by specific roads, HOWEVER, other roads can purchase "trackage rights" to be able to run on tracks they do not own. ALSO there are situations called "runthroughs" a runthrough for example can accure on special excursion runs, IE- a train running on tracks it doesnt own.

Scottling gave a description of at least three types of cases where engines from another road are seen on the "Home Roads" tracks:

1- Borrowed Power- Lets say UP doesnt have enough of its own motive power to make a run, they have other roads that are contracted so they can borrow their power if needed, and it works the other way as well, "Shared Power".

2- Leaseing- If a road is low on motive power they may choose to lease Power from a Leasing company, example: Furx or MJRX

3- TAKE OVER POWER- you see much of this with UP(and in MANY of my screenshots) , Usually you'll see a UP engine followed by SP, Rio Grande, or CNW engines, all those company's were bought out by the UP and instead of UP painting them all at once, they would either "patch" the engine and run it in their consists, or just flat out do nothing to it and run it in their consists.

I hope that helps,
- Deano :wave:
 
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Thanks for the answers guys. :)

One last question though;

Do freight cars make there way well beyond their owners service area, eg. A Canadian National boxcar in a southern state?
 
You can see cars from all over and some old ones that are still running. Narrow gage railroads did not do this as most did not link up. You also see "unit" trains that would be all one type of car and road name. Back in the days when the US had some 250 railroads you would see a lot of deferent road names. Passenger trains are almost always one road name.
 
Thanks for the answers guys. :)

One last question though;

Do freight cars make there way well beyond their owners service area, eg. A Canadian National boxcar in a southern state?


I'm in central Texas, and though UP and BNSF are the only Class I roads in the area, I see cars (and occasionally locos) from CN and CP all the time, plus CSX and NS. I also see rolling stock from UP and BNSF predecessors and acquisitions, such as ATSF, BN, CNW, SP, and so on.

I don't often see cars from smaller "foreign" roads, though. It's mostly the bigger roads' cars. My GUESS is that smaller roads tend to do more business in their own areas, so their cars don't often travel very far from home, but my knowledge of the railroad business is vague, at best.

Since this is a screenshot forum, here's another shot from the Austin Western. A local is passing by a stockyard on the outskirts of Llano, TX:

PassingLlanoStockyard.jpg
 
A question for anybody out there that would know this. I've been working on a Rio Grande route for a while, but I don't have a wide range of motive power or rolling stock for it. I've seen a lot of pics of that Rio Grande B39-8 (or at least I think it's a B39-8) and I have seen it somewhere, but I forget where it was. Could anybody tell me where I can find it, and if you want, I would like to know where to get some good Rio Grande freight cars, narrow guage and standered guage. You don't have to give me any freight cars, I mainly want to know where to get that engine. Thanks for your help!:)
 
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