12-03-2010, 07:30 AM
Wow! I had no idea the railroads paid by the HOUR for foreign road cars. Also didn't know about the mileage fees. It makes one wonder how that PRR car sat on a rip track or basically abandoned yard track, through the ownership of 4 railroads (PRR, PC, CR, CSXT) for 50 years, loaded, and not be found. Also, there was a KCS boxcar sitting on a spur in an industrial park just outside of Washington D.C. for 5 or more years. It was "found" when my model train group decided, after discussing this car at a couple of meetings, that we would give the KCS a call. The car dept was very interested in having this car returned to the KCS, which was still in active service but neither NS, CSX, or Amtrak had any record of it in their systems. Who pays THAT fee? Or is it common enough that equipment gets "lost" that those types of things are waived fairly regularly? It must be fairly common... CSX lost a cut of 30 hoppers back in 2001, though I believe they were found on line, so no per diems would have been involved.
-Dave