I live in Rochester, NY, near the old NYC water-level route, which all in all is pretty flat all the way from the Mohawk Valley to Chicago. Yesterday, while waiting for my car at the repair shop, I was watching on the mainline, when an intermodal came past. First thing I thought was odd was the fact that there was only a single AC locomotive at the head whereas I've only ever seen 2 or more. It was a full-length train (easily 100 cars), but there was a second locomotive cut-in about 2/3 of the way down. Now, I know such things are common in mountainous terrain, but I have NEVER seen such a thing on the old NYC main. Is this something CSX is doing now, and for what reason? Could it be that they plan to break-off the 2nd locomotive and all the cars behind it somewhere between Rochester and Chicago?
That train was set up for Distributed Power,lead unit controls that "cut in" unit by remote radio control.
Tends to allow better train control on grades