JayBee wrote:I understand what he is looking for as I study European railways. It sounds as though he wants to try and experience haulage behind(or in front of) as many members of each agency's locomotive fleet as possible. European spotters produce lists of the equipment turns as a way to maximize "Haulage". For example they track the equipment by its cycle so set #1 goes out on Train #100 the first train on Monday morning, it then returns to its starting point as train #117 later in the morning, then outbound on train #130 at the beginning of the Evening rush, and so on. Then that same set of equipment starts out on Train #102 the second departure on Tuesday morning, etcetera. But I am unaware of US fan's generating the same information on US passenger trains. A big reason is the low utilization of equipment by US Transit agencies with many sets of equipment getting as little as one round trip per day. Some Agencies do operate off peak services, but typically one set makes the off peak runs.
Equipment cycles are a by-product of any service planning exercise; every agency has them, and they use them to plan periodic maintenance, fueling, deadheading, etc. Most of them do not publish that information publicly, unfortunately. Sometimes, with a simple enough operation (and all of the operations listed by the OP are simple), one can easily figure out the cycles - which trains/equipment sets are "starts" (generally, those in the AM), which trains/equipment sets turn for which trains, which trains/equipment sets are "end of cycle" (a little tougher sometimes, if trains are going out of service at the end of the PM peak at a relatively close headway - the question is which ones are headed to the yard/storage and which are staying in service to provide post-PM peak service). There's also the matter of mid-day storage (determining which train sets go out of service after the AM peak, and which stay in service to provide mid-day off peak service. It's sometimes an interesting exercise to do this stuff yourself, if you have time; you'll need a car, though, to do it. If one doesn't, you can always inquire of the agencies. Some will be willing to share, others will not.
That's a very simplified explanation, so I hope it's clear.