Reddit reviews Railroad: What It Is, What It Does : The Introduction to Railroading
We found 4 Reddit comments about Railroad: What It Is, What It Does : The Introduction to Railroading. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Cars (and engines) whose initials end with an "X" are owned by third parties. Those cars are frequently owned by shippers or leasing companies that operate as railcar pools that the railroads share. Cars owned by railroads are freely interchanged between railroads, but may be subject to demurrage, if they're delayed offline.
Railroads often share locomotives and keep track of horsepower hours. If one company owes another, they will often send engines specifically to be used as payback.
There is a great book out there, The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does, that does a great job of explaining this stuff.
Locomotives: The Modern Diesel and Electric Reference
This one has a good history on the progression of modern Diesel locomotives in North America.
The Railroad: What It Is, What It Does
Borrowed this one from a co-worker many years ago. Pretty sure it had quite a bit of engineering related details.
You might see if you can get a copy of this book from the library: https://www.amazon.com/Railroad-What-Does-Introduction-Railroading/dp/0911382585/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=75DWX1ZKQKX2KE46GGSP
BNSF has a "Railroad 101" training course for employees in support departments that covers the basics of railroad operations and service concepts. This is the book they use for that course.
If you can find a copy, you might also read the book Hunter Harrison wrote about PSR while he was at CN. I don't agree with the model, but since it's the hot thing in railroading right now, it's good to have an idea of what proponents of PSR claim that it is. If you can't find the book, CP published a white paper that summarizes the basic concepts which is available online.
This one is very good and pretty cheap:
https://www.amazon.com/Railroad-What-Does-Introduction-Railroading/dp/0911382585
It's a good survey of all the tech. The AREMA guide is OK, but pretty narrow.
Beware Google. Lots of railfans and model railroad fans put a lot of incorrect info online.