During the Second World War, a number of Norfolk and Western 2-8-8-2’s were sold to Rio Grande as well as Union Pacific Challengers being diverted to the Delaware and Hudson, albeit with detail changes.  Western Pacific also owned some 4-8-4’s which were deliberate copies of the famous Southern Pacific 4-8-4’s of the GS class.

PASSENGER LOCOS HAULING FREIGHTS
GO transit in Toronto have often hired their locomotives to other Canadian Roads particularly on weekends when service is sparse as has Chicago Metra. The locomotives were specifically built as passenger units but double as freight units, I assume with different excitation units as explained in the next  TAPFE

Queensland Railways had a 1000HP locomotive known as a 1720 class loco. They were often used on the shorter commuter trains in the Brisbane area but were also used on various goods trains as well as being second units on the longer distance passenger trains including the “Lander” trains  (Westlander, Midlander, Inlander and Sunlander).


For Commuter services, they had a switch to change the excitation levels of their generators which improved their timekeeping abilities but drivers on other trains often just left it on. As these locos  I assume this is a similar system to North American passenger locos for commuter trains

HOUSES TOO CLOSE TO THE TRACKS
In Oshawa Ontario, a Canadian National line ran down a street where it did a sharp left hand turn across the face of a domestic home coming within a few feet of the corner of the house. In fact the railway line actually appears to cross the pathway to the front of the house
To Wit
https://preview.ibb.co/iw8KvU/CN1.jpg
And
https://image.ibb.co/kFFXFU/CN2.jpg

Hi.  Have you seen the trains in Bangkok, on the maeklong Railway that runs through the street market, everyone knows that the train is due, and moves the goods away from the track just in time. Best wishes Kevin 

THREE GAUGES IN THE SAME RAILWAY YARD
Port Pirie in South Australia  was unique in the world until January 1970 when there were three railway gauges meeting of the South Australian Railways Broad Gauge from Adelaide, the SAR Narrow Gauge from Broken Hill and the Commonwealth Railways Standard Gauge from Pt Augusta. When the SAR Broken Hill was standard gauged, South Australia became twice as unique by having Gladstone and Peterborough having triple gauge yards including the worlds only fully triple gauge points/turnouts in Gladstone yards.  

PASSING SIDINGS AS GOODS SIDINGS
When the South Australian Railways was modernised in the 1920’s by Commissioner W A Webb, many stations on branchlines were converted to passing sidings so that shunting was quicker and easier in both directions.
At stations with very little traffic, the passing siding was the goods siding and any shed on the platform was used to receive less than carload loads but could double as a passing siding in the very rare event that two trains would cross.

ENGINES PREFERABLY RUNNING TENDER FIRST
South Australian Railways had a smallish (by their later standards) 0-4-4T engine known as the K class which in their early days rode roughly going forward and had an undue number of derailments. However they apparently rode much better in “reverse” and due to the 4 wheel trailing bogie tracked much better at speed so the edict came from the top that they always be driven with the boiler trailing. The presence of turntables or triangles/wyes at nearly all terminal stations enabled this to be enacted without a problem.

IMPERFECTIONS IN ROOF OUTLINES
 
During the late 1940’s there was a series of coal miners strikes that affected running steam trains so a number of SAR F class tank engines which were the mainstay of the Adelaide suburban system were converted to oil burning. The oil tank got in the way of the cab roof so a notch was taken out to accommodate the fillers. When the engines were reconverted to coal, the notch was left in situ so it was easy to tell which engines had been converted!

THE OLDEST AND NEWEST LOCOS WORKING TOGETHER
In 1972, Southern Pacific ordered and were delivered and number of their SD45 Dash 2 locos. They also had 5 early F series units left on roster and there was a picture in a 1972 trains magazine showing one of each coupled together ready to work a train.

THE OLDEST AND NEWEST LOCOS WORKING TOGETHER
Bangor and Aroostook Railway in Maine had a penchant for keeping their old locos running so it was not unusual to see relatively new GP38 locos running with F3 series and BL2 locos, especially when the potato harvest was on.

THE OLDEST AND NEWEST LOCOS WORKING TOGETHER’
New South Wales had 4 General  Electric 44 tonners as part of a lend lease during WW2, 2 of  which were still extant on that system when their latest (at that time) were the 442 class Alco locos. The other 2 went to the Commonwealth Railways and could be seen working with their latest (at that time) CL class locos as recently as the mid 1970’s.  The two NSW units were sold to British Phosphate on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean in early 1975 and were shipped through Adelaide

NATURAL FEATURES AS TUNNELS or MIS_SHAPEN TUNNELS
There is a tunnel on a Southern Railway known as Natural Tunnel which the railway used ( and still does as Norfolk Southern) as a mainline tunnel. It is near Duffield West Virginia…
https://thetunneldiaries.com/tag/natural-tunnel-state-park/

TUNNELS, BRIDGES AND STATIONS IN  VERY CLOSE PROXIMITY
There are several examples of having the above general model railway features close by around the world but the one I am most familiar with is the West Richmond Station in metropolitan Melbourne
Here it is!  https://railgallery.wongm.com/melbourne-stations/F115_2634.jpg.html

RAILCARS HAULED BY LOCOMOTIVES
Many modellers of North American outline have taken old Athearn rubber band drive Budd RDC cars and hauled them with locomotives if they have not been inclined to regear them ( funnily enough, I have converted mine to gear drive)
Commonwealth Railways circa 1973/1974 took to hauling their Budd Cars for many services with a GM class locomotive.  Boston and Maine also changed their Budd Cars to locomotive hauled cars for commuter service with the Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority.  GO transit in Toronto had a fleet of 9 Self propelled single level cars which also became locomotive hauled cars both in Toronto and Boston.

USE OF CABOOSES AND GUARDS VANS  IN THE MODERN ERA
Here in Australia, the use of a Guards Van or Cabooses started to become rare occurred circa 1986 a few years after North America. However a number of local trains in the US still use Cabin Cars ( a strange plural of Caboose but there you go) when backing moves are required as well as for work trains.  

LONG TRAINS BACKING INTO DEAD END YARDS
One of the Private operators in Australia has a huge dead end yard that trains in both directions basically back into from a Triangle or Wye track, day in day out.  
Also trains on the Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad also had a couple of yards which required backing into with long trains and all Long Distance Passenger trains into Chicago’s Union Station back in so that the Locomotives are not under the train shed there.

TRAINS COMING OUT OF A STATION THEN BACKING UP TO PROCEED.


The South Australian Railways had a timetabled run from the Port Dock Station which proceeded a short distance onto the Dry Creek Loop Line beyond the “Red Hill Junction” before reversing to travel over the Port Adelaide Viaduct, to Outer Harbour and back via the Loop Line to Dry Creek. A single double ended railcar was used for this service.  A Similar operating scenario was used for trains on the Liskeard to Looee line in Cornwall.

WHEN MEMBERS OF THE SAME CLASS HAVE DISTINGUISING DIFFERENCES
Canadian National gradually built on their fleet of Budd Railcars which all but one had plain rather than fluted front and rear ends.  The one exception had fluted ends because it was bought by CN from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and never modified. The ends were painted in CN red but the CN squiggle was placed above the flutes on the left hand side panel (looking at it face on) below the motormans position.

South Australian Railways 930 class Alco locos came in 4 separate phases over a 12 year period with some  remarkable external differences although they shared the same outline
South Australian Railways 400 class railcar number 432 had air vents on either end of the roof. It was undecided during construction whether it would be a suburban railcar or a 100 class Bluebird Trailer or possibly even a 250 class Bluebird power car and as all these shared common end tooling and frames, that car could have been any one of those three when it was started.