11-28-2009, 10:23 AM
FRA law requires that foreign road cars be returned to the originating road asap by the most efficient route possible. That doesn't mean that they go back immediately, because a railroad may have a shipment to go the "wrong way" and only have a car available from a foreign road so they use it. The railroads generally co-operate in sending one another's rolling stock back where it came from. The other thing to keep in mind s that land is not free and neither are rail cars. No railroad is in business to store locomotives or rolling stock, and especially not someone else's rolling stock.