Operations of Passenger and Commuter trains

The are HO scale plans.

It absolutely has happened. There is a picture both in "Under Pennsy Wires" and "PRR Electric Pictorial" of an E44 hauling a GG1 with the GG1 still providing steam heat.

It wasn't the first or only time. Though I can't find it for the life of me, I know I have a photo of TWO Conrail E44s pulling TWO GG1s with a long Amtrak train tacked on the back. I'm 99% sure I saw it online and saved it but I can't find it (it may be in one of my books instead). It appeared to be passing Zoo interlocking, with the big substation prominent in the background.

Apart from the electrical stuff, there are also quite a few cases of the Broadway limited being hauled around with a Conrail diesel of some kind in the years before the F40PHs became prominent. When an E8 failed, it was usually easier to tack on a spare Conrail diesel than to go find another E8. As long as steam heat was being provided, they were good to go. Attached is a photo of an SD40-2 leading the way on the Broadway Limited.

For a short time, Conrail U36Bs (originally built for the Auto Train before its demise) were also used on Pennsylvania "commuter" trains around Pittsburgh (I think), due to the congestion and commuter problems caused by construction of the Pennsylvania turnpike (once again, I think). There are good pictures of this in "Conrail Motive Power Review Volume 1", but I don't have my copy on me right now. In this case, it was technically a Conrail train, with leased Amtrak E8s for steam heat as well as Amtrak coaches. I'm not sure if the E8s were traveling under their own power or if they were just there for the steam heat, but they seemed to be in a push-pull arrangement in most photos I've seen, with the E8 on one end and the U36B on the other.

During the late 70s, It wouldn't be unlikely to see Conrail freight engines on many NJ DOT commuter trains, particularly the Raritan Valley Line trains and to a lesser extent, the North Jersey Coast Line. Apparently, some Conrail GP38-2s and GP7s became "regular power" on the former for quite sometime.

During the SEPTA transit strikes from the same time period, Conrail diesels and electrics were often used to haul SEPTA commuter trains. Reportedly, though SEPTA's MUs were functional (not De-motored as some captions erroneously assume), Conrail's freight engineers were not qualified to operate them, so diesels were hooked up to the SEPTA MUs on the former Reading Company, and GG1s handled the Former PRR trackage. There are good pictures of this in the book "The Reading in the Conrail Era: Volume II", as well as a small roster of the freight locomotives seen on the Reading Commuter trains. I have a few slides of GG1s hauling Silverliner IIs and IIIs around, and I'm 99% certain there is a picture of this in the book "Conrail Under Pennsy Wires". There appear to be plenty of photos of GG1s hauling Reading Green cars around on the internet.

Having Freight power"jump in" to help is an operational "twist" to getting the passenger train "over the road".
Had to do so for this year's fair run,used a pair of U28B's at the last minute with a F-40 with the Superliner set.
Some Decoder issues pop up after NTD this year with the P-32's,the P42's that was planned for this year
were not quite ready.
These pics are on the backside of the layout at the fair,trackage behind the station is dual gauge,and not
viewable to the public for now,#4 the WB Chief with NYC 2282+2823 with 304 on for the HEP.
With AMTK 10000 and a 10-6 sleeper on the rear.

Capital Corridor has fumbled,Iowa Pacific talking with InDOT,along with Amtrak,
which has "sweetened" the pot with "lite" food service on the Hoosier State trains.
Amtrak is dropping cars off of some of the LD trains,after the Holiday season,due to
lower passenger counts,for long overdue servicing/maintance and cleaning.
As noted in a thread on RR.net Amtrak Forum,the ex-El Cap "Pacific Parlor" cars,
some Superliner Sleepers and Lounge cars and a Diner or 2 are on 2 month "vacations"
some are in need of interior "freshing up" due to heavy use in the past few years.
So if you have a car that's a "bad actor" or needs a little work,you now have a reason
to "park it".

That's a great shot,but that was a slow trip,E-44's had a MAS of 50 mph on the NEC back then.

Growing up with commuter trains it's hard not to end up modeling them, but I'll agree that working them in to an operating scheme is less obvious than how to do that with freight trains.

I've been interested in modeling the C&NW yard at Kenosha because it seemed to have more activity. The mainline was elevated, but there is a ground-level yard that held scoots and power for the Kenosha wayfreight. Trains had to be sent down to ground level while going around the wye for the freight spur, so that they ended up parallel to the mainline but facing backwards.

I've also seen commuter and passenger trains helping freight railroads. The C&NW used to tack a GP7 or GP9 onto the BACK of a Crystal Lake-bound scoot on a weekday afternoon to ferry it up to the Crystal Lake yard where it would be based for the local wayfreight. I remember seeing a train in full RTA colors pulling the freight geep, and it would be quietly idling on the back end.

VIA also had a train between Senneterre and Cochrane, IIRC, that was the only thing running over a CN branchline, except for when CN would use it to ferry locomotives. I've never been able to find the old Railfan & Railroad article again that I remembered reading.

Otherwise, if you have a decent-sized layout, I would think sometimes you'll have operators show up that are going to be happier running a passenger train than fighting with a wayfreight. But to me the balance is in finding a segment of commuter ops where I don't need to fleet 30 trains in an operating session. That's where I've been looking at the outer limits of commuter lines. North Western made it simpler because they would have yards where most trains stopped short of running the whole line. I can model Kenosha - Waukegan and dodge the busiest parts of the commuter line.

If you really like branchline trains, you could model something like the Crystal Lake - Lake Geneva line in 1975 or 1979. Freight trains ran all the way to the end, but it was single-track dark territory with plenty of 25mph running.

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