[PRR-talk] PRR-talk Digest, Vol 6, Issue 119

Sun Apr 27 17:58:27 EDT 2008

i cannot say for certain how the prr did things, but i can tell you what i
observed many years later on conrail and ns in the pittsburgh area.....

around here, our locals are usually called "shifters" which is a term
probably used by the prr as well. i know officially conrail called them
wayfreights and they were symbolled as such. for example, wice trains
originated in conway's east yard, the letters stood for:
w= wayfreight
i= division code, pittsburgh division
ce= terminal code, conway east yard

as for power assignments, while centain power is assigned to certain
terminals for maintainance, and even specific units alloted to specific jobs
on the division, units can and do roam on occasion. a good example of this
was conrail's capi out of camden, nj. during the 1980s on weekends, they
often had no road power to dispatch the train with so they would use the
yard and local power, usually gp38s and gp15-1s which lacked dynamic brake.
these units would often make it all the way to the end of the run at conway.
in one extreme case, i saw an sw1001 in the consist, running!

another reason power would often roam is that certain facilities had
specialized tools. power in need of heavy maintainance would be sent to
altoona and the main shops. units needing wheel work would come to conway,
which had a wheel lathe.

one of the fascinating things about motive power requirements on a big
railroad is that with equipment imbalances across the system you never know
what will show up where. right after  the ns takeover we had units from 4
nations in conway at one time (usa, canada, mexico, and a leaser originally
from australia...

jeffery s ward sr

On 4/27/08, prr-talk-request at dsop.com <prr-talk-request at dsop.com> wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
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>   1. Freight "locals" questions (Ted Andrews)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2008 08:11:06 -0400
> From: Ted Andrews <ted_andrews at msn.com>
> Subject: [PRR-talk] Freight "locals" questions
> To: PennsyWest <pennsywest at yahoogroups.com>, PRR
>        <prr at yahoogroups.com>, PRR      Talk <prr-talk at dsop.com>
> Message-ID: <BAY110-W21A3F3BFDDB4FFC30170597DF0 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
> Listers:
>
> I have 2 questions. First, did the Pennsy use a certain name for their
> local, divisional trains. I have heard the words: Locals, Turns, and Drills
> that I have picked of from other railroads (old and new). But id the Pennsy
> favor one over others?
>
> Second, by looking at the MP229's from the 1950's, it could be seen that
> many divisions/regions were assigned various road power. In Lines West, the
> typically road power assigned to divisons were GP-7's, FP-7's, and RS-3's.
> Specifically, the there were Sharks assigned to Crestline enginehouse; in
> the 1955-1956, Crestline was home to several PA-1's which were assigned to
> the Fort Wayne Division. Finally, Columbus, Ohio was home to many
> interesting diesels including C-Liners and Erie Builts. Similar assignments
> can be noted from all over the PRR system.
>
> My question is how were these engines used with respect to the Pennsy
> system pools in Enola? It is my understanding that the pool of engines,
> typically the F-7's (and later GP-9's) were assigned to interdivisional and
> interregional frieght trains. Then how were the engines assigned to the
> divisions/regions used? Were they used in intra-divisional / intra-regional
> trains (ie trains the originated and terminated within the same
> division/region)? Were these engines ever used in the system pool as
> warrented by traffic demands?
>
> I am attempted to put together a motive power estimate of what type of
> power ( and frequency of use) that one could see on a specific line. This
> estimate would not be scientific but just and estimate. Understanding the
> relationship of the division/region assigned engines with respect to the
> system pool engines would help preparing this estimate.
>
> Thanks in advance for any information or guidance that you can provide me.
>
> I will submit this estimate to the lists for comments, criticisms,
> questions, etc. Motive power assignments and use are almost as exciting as
> reefer trains!
>
> Ted Andrews
> Indiana
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> End of PRR-talk Digest, Vol 6, Issue 119
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