12-08-2014, 06:18 AM
I visited the Southern Railroad of NJ 10 years ago and the crew actually unloaded 2 hopper cars of stone for a company so the cars were not left. This is very rare and only a short line would be able to do this. All cars in your scenario would be spotted for at least one day because the local would not pick up cars until the next trip at the earliest. Demurrage would play a role too. Private cars don't usually have demurrage (as in the plastic cars) and on railroad owned cars the clock starts ticking in most cases in 24 hours. A short line can claim rule 5 which gives them 120 hours before they are charged car hire, and it is up to them how much of the free time gets passed along. We gave our customers 4 days of the 5 so we made 1 day if they held the car for 5 or more.
Charlie
Charlie