# What's the term for when one railway hauls another railway's freight?



## Pokemonprime (Aug 13, 2016)

Like, if a CSX train hauled a BNSF hopper car, or similar. I can't remember and it's driving me crazy. I thought it was "interchange" but apparently that refers to something in railyards.


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## time warp (Apr 28, 2016)

Per diem?


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## MikeL (Mar 21, 2015)

time warp said:


> Per diem?


That's what I thought too, but it may only refer to the accounting aspect.


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## thedoc (Oct 15, 2015)

MikeL said:


> That's what I thought too, but it may only refer to the accounting aspect.


Per diem is the charge for the use of the freight car, and the road moving the car gets a portion of the freight charge. Cars that are not owned by the home road are sometimes called "foreign road cars" and if they are delivered to the destination by the road and are then empty, they are usually sent back to the owners ASAP at the closest interchange. An interchange point can be anywhere where the 2 roads are close enough for a connecting track.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Moved to correct forum.


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## Genetk44 (Feb 26, 2016)

Pokemonprime said:


> Like, if a CSX train hauled a BNSF hopper car, or similar. I can't remember and it's driving me crazy. I thought it was "interchange" but apparently that refers to something in railyards.


Theft!?


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

I have been wondering about the, most likely, very
complex computer systems required to keep track
of each car, know when and where it is sent, how
long it is used, and also handle the transfer of freight
money collections between railroads.

There is a large downtown St. Louis building called
the Railway Exchange. Many railroads had offices
there. Before the time of computers, I'm going to
assume that runners carried waybills from railroad
to railroad. I assume, also, there was a lot of
telegraph/teletype usage.

Anyone know exactly how they did it, and how they
do it today?

Don


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

The term "*Interchange*" does indeed refer to (the processes or mechanisms of) cars being swapped between railroads. This happens every day at thousands of locations across the country.

A "*Foreign*" car isn't necessarily from another country but just any car on your railroad that is owned by a different railroad.

"*Per diem*" was the daily charge paid the owner(s) of any foreign cars on your railroad. (Today these charges are tallied on an hourly basis and called "*car hire*".)

There aren't really any additional terms for this beyond "interchange" and "foreign" road car, as this is how the entire system is designed to work and isn't really some sort of notable situation. Indeed many smaller railroads might not own ANY of their own cars...

How this was all kept track of pre-computers is probably an interesting and involved discussion. It certainly involved mountains of paperwork (documenting all cars exchanged at specific points) being sent up from the local level up the chain to the "bean counters" at the corporate headquarters and an army of clerks.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

thedoc said:


> Per diem is the charge for the use of the freight car, and the road moving the car gets a portion of the freight charge.


And just to be really particular, all roads involved in routing a car from Point A to Point B get a percentage of the shipment charge based on their portion of the length of the route.

But the railroad that owns the car being moved that would receive the per diem could even very well be none of the railroads who are involved in routing the car.

There are rules about sending empty cars back towards home, but it was also allowable (and extremely common practice) to use it for a load on your own railway as long as it keeps travelling in at least the general direction of "home" in order to minimize the number of empty cars not earning revenue moving around. (With exceptions for assigned service or specially equipped cars.)

The Per diem/Car hire also don't really apply if the shipper or customer owns or leases their own cars instead of the railroads supplying them. (These cars also can't just be used by the railways for any available shipments.)


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