1. CE 515 Railroad Engineering Car Ownership and Distribution Source: Armstrong, Ch 10 “Transportation exists to conquer space and time -”

2. Railroad Car Ownership? Balance – Too few = potential loss of business – Too many = more expenses Car ownership/upkeep is 15% of expenses

3. Originating & Terminating Carriers Originating carrier – Produce more products than consume – Usually short of cars Causes need to lease them Terminating Carriers – Consume more than produce – Have many “emptys” http://redlightnaps.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/thomas.jpg

4. Private Car Ownership Railroads encourage utilities to own their own cars – In exchange, get reduced freight rates – Example: power plant having their own coal cars Reduces railroads’ new car investments and maintenance costs Initials end in “X”

5. Car Rental Systems Bilateral Agreements – Use of another railroad’s cars – Terms and rate are private – Rail Inc (subsidy of AAR) keeps track of all “interchanges” and tracks balances Per Diem – Actually per hour – How bilateral agreements are charged https://www.railinc.com/rportal/web/guest/home

6. Rates Need to be high enough to have return to owner Low enough to encourage the railroad to keep it long enough to find a return load – Will improve overall car use Used to be regulated by ICC http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/blogs/investorcentric/uploaded_images/dollar-bill-question-mark-734386.jpg

7. Rates Equipment Assets Management Working Committee – Recommend rates – Members represent all rail carriers Rates established using formula involving original cost and age of car – Examples: Elderly 50’ plain boxcar:$0.18/hr + $0.054/mile Newer multilevel 89’ flatcar:$1.75/hr + $0.12/mile

8. Service and Distribution Rules Objectives 1.Ensure well-timed movement of empties 2.Reduce empty car mileage Example: – Empties can now take detours to be loaded instead of being always being sent directly back “home”

9. Assigned Service Cars Cover specific products between specific shippers & consignees Car ownership is often shared by different RR’s Cars almost always return empty http://i.ytimg.com/vi/qH8XMxwphWA/0.jpg

10. Leasing Industry Leaders For the most part is comprises of small/medium sized firms – Specialize in one or two types of cars Also large companies – General Electric Railcar Services Corp. Largest fleet in the industry – TTX – GATX Financial Corp http://rscat.com/index.php?gr_1_id=19&gr_2_id=7&gr _3_id=0&doc_id=4&start=all&all_news_In_Chanell=1& details=1 http://tankcarhomepage.railfan.net/photos2/gatx6105.jpg

11. Railbox & Railgon TTX Corp. – Owned by major railroads – Own standardized plain cars for use by railroads – lower rates Railbox (RBOX) : plain box cars Railgon (GONX) : plain gondolas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Boxcar_railbox.jpg

12. Railgon picture http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/NTCGRR/railgon8.JPG

13. Universal Machine Language Equipment Register Date file updated daily Shows availability for all cars Maintained by Rail Inc https://www.railinc.com/rportal/web/guest/umleremis

14. TRAIN II – Telerail Automated Information Network – Keeps location of every freight car – Covers all railroad interchanges in the US and Canada SAM – Shipper Assist Message – Lets shippers receive data from cars carrying their shipments

15. Car Route Optimization AAR continuously does studies to improve car use strategies Database the waybills of 1% of all trains – Over 200,00 per year Generate computer programs to evaluate the effect of car service http://4rail.net/4rmedia/nam/usa_gatx_ca_bakersfield_tankcarLPG_gatx57162__2008_XL.jpg

16. Sources http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-113855705.html Armstrong, The Railroad: What It IS, What It Does http://www.answers.com/topic/rental-of-railroad-cars