Terminal railroads

[Paul M.]

I was reading a back issue of TRAINS magazine in an article where they were talking about 'captive shippers'. They mentioned a couple of exceptions to the rule that an industry would only have on railroad serving it: one exception was the Powder River Basin shared line, an another was a 'neutral terminal railroad'

What's a terminal railroad? How would it differ from a short line?

[Yampa Bob]

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Terminal_railroad

[glennk28]

A "Terminal Railroad" is generally a switching railroad serbing a large metropolitan area and owned by the several railroads serving the area.  It avoids the congestion of multiple lines trying to serve a small area.  Many are also called "Belt Lines"   gj

[jettrainfan]

like American crow for the Cleveland Ohio steel mill

[pdlethbridge]

There was a big one along the docks in Brooklyn until the late 50's.
http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/BEDT.html

[hotrainlover]

pdlethbridge
Page 14 on this site, looks a lot like Bachmann's 0-6-0t saddle tank!
Gives me a great idea....
http://www.trainweb.org/bedt/BEDT.html

Thanks,
Lee

[jward]

a classic example of a terminal railroad exists in pittsburgh as the union railroad. it served most of the us steel plants southeast of the city, along with many other industries including a gm autoparts plant, and a cement plant. though only about 30 miles in length, it once connected with 7 different railroads. the amount of traffic this railroad once handled required over 100 locomotives.......

[Paul M.]

Would a terminal railroad, say in the 50's or so, own its own locomotives and cabooses?

[jward]

sometimes nut not always. some terminal railroads borrow locomotives from one or more owning lines. when they do own their own locomotives, they are often painted in the colours of one of the owning lines. an example of this was the staten island in new york city. it was owned by the b&o and its locomotives were painted royal blue, but with staten island letterinig where the b&o would be. another example, while not strictly a terminal railroad, was the p&le in pittsburgh. it was owned by the new york central, and its locomotives were painted like nyc locomotives, but the lettering said new york central system, and a small p&le was under the number on the cab.

[ebtnut]

The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis had its own locos and paint scheme.  This road was formed to handle the switching duties around St. Louis Union Station.  The Washington Terminal Company in D.C. was much the same.  They had some PRR-designed 0-8-0's in the late steam era, and a fleet of Alco RS-1's that ran into the Amtrak era.  Another B&O example was the Baltimore and Ohil Chicago Terminal RR.  They used some B&O hand-me downs, but had a few engines specifically built for the service.