UP locomotives out east?

[iceman977th]

I thought UP only ran out west...do they run on the east coast often? I saw a GE UP unit tag along with an NS manifest in Kenova the other night...

I know they lease units, but I thought UP only ran out west.

[westr]

You're right that Union Pacific is a western road that doesn't extend further east than Illinois. But its common for locomotives of the major railroads to be seen on the others, through leases, pools and other motive power sharing, sometimes far from home. I've seen a number of NS and CSX units on UP and BNSF out here in Oregon and Washington.

[Gadfly]

You just now noticing that? They've been doing that for years on run-thru trains. Look out west and you'll see NS power on UP trains, too. It's pretty standard practice these days.


Gadfly

[iceman977th]

Yes, I just realized that. I'm slow, and not only that, I just started railfanning. Cut me a break.

I know they share units, but jeez, they had to pull some all the way from the West Coast? O_o

[westr]

Although it certainly could have, the UP power didn't necessarily come all the way from the west coast (California, Oregon, Washington). UP's a major player throughout the midwest and in cities the NS serves like Chicago and St. Louis that may be west of you, but are in fact closer to the east coast than they are to the west coast. Once NS has the power, they'll use it where they need it until it has to go back.

[Otto Vondrak]

I thought UP only ran out west...do they run on the east coast often? I saw a GE UP unit tag along with an NS manifest in Kenova the other night... I know they lease units, but I thought UP only ran out west.

Here's a map of where UP runs:

http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/maps/sysmap.shtml

But their equipment is capable of running anywhere on the American railroad system.

-otto-

[atsf sp]

I've seen complete UP power on three trains in 7 hours on the Empire Corridor of CSX.

[slchub]

Here is a great link to a service offered by the UPRR and CSX which will allow some trains to retain their respective initial locomotives until they reach their final destination.

http://www.uprr.com/customers/ag-prod/e ... ndex.shtml

http://www.csx.com/?fuseaction=customer ... xpresslane

Most of the time the locomotives get swapped out at the UPRR/CSX interchange but there are times that you'll see an entire consist make it's way through from end to end.

Hope this helps.

[cifn2]

I thought UP only ran out west...do they run on the east coast often? I saw a GE UP unit tag along with an NS manifest in Kenova the other night...

I know they lease units, but I thought UP only ran out west.

I was told it all evens out in the long run, for example the CSX ends at St. Louis, MO that is where the train does its work, or sent on to the UP, or BNSF. It is easier to keep the same power and keep it going than to pull the power and change it out, so anyways it continues with the same power through its route say to Nebraska or WY for grain, coal or whatever. The CSX will likely get some UP or BNSF engines for the trip back to even out the need for them to pay or the other railroad to have to pay them for leasing. It all levels out, and if it doesn't the railroad's pay each other for the time they have that engine in their possession, I don't know how the companies keep track of them but I am glad its not my job!

[lakeshoredave]

just an example of railroads paying horsepower hours back. also like a previous poster said, some of these trains are true coast to coast trains, but they change railroads in chicago or st. louis, and the power stays on from coast to coast. an example of this would be csx train Q090.

[GWoodle]

I thought UP only ran out west...do they run on the east coast often? I saw a GE UP unit tag along with an NS manifest in Kenova the other night...

I know they lease units, but I thought UP only ran out west.

I see a lot of UP units running on the CSX/L&N Memphis line. AFAIK they continue SE to Atlanta.

[2nd trick op]

Here alnng the NS Reading Line (Enola/Harrisburg - Oak Island/Newark) we encounter UP and BNSF power on an almost-daily basis, plus occasional KCS and CN units. But I've seen only one set of CSX power in almost three years, and I suspect that was a detour.

[GulfRail]

UP Locomotives have always managed to come east. In the early days of dieseldom, the UP operated the City of Saint Louis with the help of the Wabash, so UP diesels were regularly seen on the Wabash in both freight and passenger service. Being Harriman roads by nature, the Illinois Central and the Union Pacific pooled power in the 1950's and 1960's. Infact, IC GP40's were seen as far west as Cajon Pass and DDA35's would wander into Chicago's Markham yard! But this pooling stopped in the mid-70's because of the fact that the UP had to divest itself of the IC's stock (as a condition of the ICG merger, since UP made a hostile offer to take over the IC in the late 1960's). Back on the subject of the Wabash/UP relationship. This continued in the 1970's, and UP diesels could be seen on the Wabash's new parent as far east as Bluefield, WV.

[ST214]

On Pan AM Railways, we see UP units occasionally on NS run through trains AYMO/MOAY. These trains are a container/trailer/autorack train that runs between Chicago,IL and Ayer,MA.

In fact, MOAY right now has UP 3936, UP 4569 and UP 7860. This power will head west on AYMO tomorrow.

[2nd trick op]

Well, we got a real suprise driving to work this morning.

I should begin by adding that I found it necessary to move from my former location along NS' busy Reading Line to a place in Northampton with a view of the Lehigh Line between Allentown, Jim Thorpe and Wilkes-Barre.Train frequency is down from about 30 moves a day to 6 or 8, but .....

While firing up the car today, the southbound half of the regular Allentown-Binghamton freight duo passed; Two BNSF units on the front, then an NS unit .....

and finally, A GE Genesis pssenger unit probably returning from Erie on the head end. As I was over a block away, I couldn't determine if it was powered up or not, and couldn't confirm the owner, but the all-white paint scheme ruled out both Amtrak and NJT. So it was likely either Metro-North or a unit intended for export.

Anyone else catch this one?