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The backbone of the Silk Road Economic Belt on the Eurasian landmass is the railroad-dominated transportation networks.  After the announcement of the OBOR initiative, a number of cities across China launched Europe-bound freight train services. However, development in this area is hampered by the conflicts between the China Railway Corporation and local governments who compete for the administrative control of logistic centers, and   between state-owned enterprises and private companies who compete for the operational control of these centers. A close examination of the experiences of  Chongqing, Chengdu, Wuhan, Zhengzhou and Yiwu, the five locations with the largest China-Europe Freight Train operations shows what supportive measures local governments have taken, what logistic companies, both state-owned and private, have done to lower costs, and how these freight train operations have facilitated the development of trade between China and European countries.