Thanks for that explanation of car hire, Steve. I would add that car hire is actually calculated by the hour, and as you noted, some center-beam lumber cars run over $4 per hour. Charges start when the car is interchanged inbound and continue until it is interchanged out, unless there is some other arrangement with the delivering carrier. It makes good sense to get them off the clock as soon as possible.

For those interested, there is a difference between car hire and demurrage. Car hire is the cost to the railroad while the car is on its line. Demurrage, on the other hand, is charged to the customer who dawdles in loading or unloading a car to help offset the cost of car hire. In general, customers have 48 hours to take care of business with the car, after which demurrage is charged at an escalating rate. When I was railroading, it was $20 a day for the first two days, then $40 for the next two and so on. Most customers, after they received their first bill, made it their business to load or unload promptly.

For all those who are historians, but not employed in the railroad industry, "car hire" is what used to be called "per diem" when it was figured by the day, and it lead to the same sort of thinking, at least on the smaller lines, the push to get "foreign" cars off the road before midnight, which was the witching hour when per diem was assessed. The improved data handling capabilities of computers have allowed this to evolve into an hourly calculation.

It's been nearly a year since this thread was active - and I might guess, a similar amount of time since the last steam powered publicly announced revenue freight movement at Strasburg.

Can we get an update - are there still steam powered revenue freight moves? If so, are they scheduled or announced. If not, why not - might be able to guess, but would like to know what made (makes) it possible and perhaps, why it no longer occurs.

And, why not - are the diesel powered moves scheduled? Was surprised how few photographs have hit the public eye - even if diesel, it had (has) it's own character appeal.

How's business?

/Mitch

Mitch,

I'll chime in with an interesting tidbit I had noticed - on Strasburg's Facebook page, they had posted photos of 475 pulling freight in on September 10 - no prior announcement was made or heads-up given - but otherwise I can't recall seeing many (if any) other photos of such an event on their page this year - so was it a rare event to have steam pulling it this year?

Thank you all for your continued interest.

Due to the unexpected demand on NS the first three quarters, http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en/ship-with-norfolk-southern/service-update.html, they weren't able to always comply with their interchange service agreement. We would usually get interchange sometime on the interchange day; we just didn't know when. Given these operational realities, it was difficult to plan for special motive power and extra crew, let alone let our potential patrons know if the freight would be steam-powered or not. NS local communication was good during this time. It was more that together we just didn't know enough to put things in play. So we would call our daily, two-man crew and forego hostling time and a larger crew.

The motive power switch that Big Jim flagged on September 10th had to do with potential expected tonnage. The decision to put No. 475 into play was made at the last minute. We regret that folks missed it; there just wasn't time for PR.

Business is up, thank you. We hope to do regularly steam-powered freight again sometime and will, if things align accordingly.

Well, there's one "plus" to the "unscheduled" nature of these steam freight runs:

It absolutely, positively negates any possible claim that these "steam freights" are just an "act," a scheduled performance for tourists or sightseers. Therefore, it can be said, once again, that the United States still has completely "legitimate" steam-powered revenue freight, albeit still on an unpredictable and infrequent basis.

I would see or hear of occasional "spontaneous mixed trains" on the Gettysburg RR when freight was delivered to the RR interchange when they weren't expecting it and they were running steam to the far northern end of the line (at one point scheduled once a month and then weekly during fall colors). Shall we hope for the day off in the future when the Strasburg finds freight delivered mid-day at the interchange and just backs up the last train of the day to add it to the rear, like the Gettysburg did? <:-)

He brings up a good point. Depending on the engine and number of tourist cars being pulled - if one or two loads show up at the interchange - and the engine could handle it, why not save some crew time, especially if it's the last train of the day, and pull both back to Strasburg? It would make a memorable experience for the passengers, for sure.

For about three passengers, maybe. The rest would be "why did they have to ruin that quaint trip back in time by tacking on those ugly modern cars onto the back?"

The Gettysburg back then didn't harbor any pretensions of being a "time capsule." As I've said many times, they embodied both the best and worst of old-fashioned REAL railroading.

On June 6th there was an unprecedented steam powered freight train with 475. We were on Paradise picnic ground then and decided to take the passenger train down to Strasburg to photograph the freight when coming in. As our passenger train passed the freight in Paradise, I noticed no excitement with the passengers except us three foreigners...We were those "three passengers" that day...

Mike

How was it "unprecedented" compared to every other steam-powered revenue freight that Strasburg has run?

Usually those steam powered freight trains run in the morning way before the tourist schedule starts. That freight train was in the afternoon and it was not announced. I was told it was a test run for 475 as the tender trucks had received new wheelsets. The passenger engine that day was #90.

Mike

Time was when we used to back the timetable train back on to the interchange to either pull cars, or spot cars carried down between the locomotive and the passenger consist. Liability issues now preclude having passenger cars adjacent to Amtrak's "eastbound" main.

A couple of years ago, we experimented in the shoulder seasons with having the timetable crew take a mixed extra to interchange after their last regularly-scheduled train. The yard crew would make up the consist with a coach or combine on the rear and do the initial terminal. There were issues with it - and extra move was required to avoid taking the coach down along to interchange. I forget exactly why we scotched it ... 'Might resurrect it sometime.

Based on some recent photos on FB showing a steam powered freight, they're still occasionally using steam for power. There were also comments indicating that there are presently no plans to resume the mixed trains.

Has there been an official announcement as to why they no longer run, and is there any reasonable chance they would resume in the future?

From my experience as the new Trainmaster here at Strasburg, is it has been relatively hard to predict when NS will actually deliver and pick up our interchange. Yes we have certain days for interchange, and like other places on the NS system, NS is dealing with record traffic levels and having a hard time keeping up. Also remember NS is under Amtrak's control to deliver to Leaman Place and has only several windows through out the day to work interchange.

So it is kind of hard to advertise or sell for something when there is a chance that it might not happen. Why risk creating negative PR because we had to cancel the mixed/sunrise freight because NS could not deliver and you are not able to ride the next day.

There is that possibility we could offer it again and I stress the word "could". As of right now there are no foreseeable plans to offer mixed or sunrise freight runs. Now if NS can get back to a reliable schedule with interchange then the company may look into it again. Mr. Weaver probably can elaborate more since I have only been here a month and half and still getting up to speed here.

Chris Edwards

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