Why not deadhead it on a regional to NYC or WAS, and put it on a Silver from there? Just seems inefficient to go through Chicago...
It depends on where the equipment is coming from, where it is going, how much dwell is allotted for the train, the train length and what kind of crews are available.
They basically try to make the moves where you have the crews and dwell time available. Additionally, they prefer end to end service. There is nothing inefficient about sending equipment on a train that originates intact at Boston to CHI, where it terminates intact. They can add it to the Capitol that turns intact to a train that terminates in WAS.
This is the thing I keep repeating that most of you don't understand. Not every train that "originates" at a station is made up at that station or terminal. A lot of them are "loopers," meaning they arrive, turn/loop/wye/run around and depart with little deviation. As such, they don't necessarily have the time for manipulation of the consist.
These are the considerations that are weighed when these decisions are made. How much time is there to get this is equipment between sets? Do we have the manpower at this facility? Do we have the equipment at another facility? Do we have the track space to store the equipment in the interim?
All of these things are weighed which why some moves have gone through SPG, some have gone to CHI while other have gone to BOS.
Since NYP only has one train that arrives from BOS and terminates, they are reluctant to use NYP since they don't want to tie up the terminal, that is undergoing construction with switching moves.