US RS10/18s?

[wazzou]

Isn't the EMD 567 and/or 645 still made also, at least for marine use?

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Oh yeah, I'm not saying they're insignificant on rosters. My point is that if you were the CMO of a railroad and were choosing what to standardize on for secondary service through attrition (ie, retirement) and rebuilding (for what you want to keep) you'd keep the stuff that is more common and has a larger manufacturer standing behind it. For reference, you can still get OEM parts for SW1s built in 1939. Probably using the same phone number you called to order them too.

There's a lot more to managing a locomotive fleet than we usually see as railfans. Things like lease agreements, warranty options, support availability, parts availability and inventory, their value on the secondary market, etc... Those things were generally against Alcos in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It's also why the current Alco users are generally all-in on them, or they represent a very significant part of their fleet (think Delaware-Lackawanna, A&M, Apache).

[RRRover]

Brand new and rebuilt Alco (and FM) prime movers and parts are still available. The worldwide market for rail and marine use is fairly large.

http://www.fairbanksmorse.com/locomotive/

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Brand new and rebuilt Alco (and FM) prime movers and parts are still available. The worldwide market for rail and marine use is fairly large.

http://www.fairbanksmorse.com/locomotive/

Yes, but 20 or 30 years ago, would you have bet your job on that being the case? I sure wouldn't have.

In the same way that in the tech world "nobody got fired for buying IBM" became "nobody got fired for buying Microsoft", I think the railroad industry is the same way with "nobody got fired for keeping EMDs".

[Spades]

I should research this more, but I thought the death spiral for Alco began when GE stepped away from the partnership.

[johnb]

The NKP had 35 RS11's and the SP had 34.  They were the largest numbers after the N&W's 99 (and of course the N&W inherited the NKP's 35).  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ALCO_RS-11

Counting the 3 demos, the SP had 37, including the only RS11 with a steam generator and 6 low nose locos.

[wcfn100]

including the only RS11 with a steam generator

New Haven units also had steam generators.

Jason

[johnb]

New Haven units also had steam generators.

Jason

did not know that

[Iain]

Oh yeah, I'm not saying they're insignificant on rosters. My point is that if you were the CMO of a railroad and were choosing what to standardize on for secondary service through attrition (ie, retirement) and rebuilding (for what you want to keep) you'd keep the stuff that is more common and has a larger manufacturer standing behind it. For reference, you can still get OEM parts for SW1s built in 1939. Probably using the same phone number you called to order them too.

There's a lot more to managing a locomotive fleet than we usually see as railfans. Things like lease agreements, warranty options, support availability, parts availability and inventory, their value on the secondary market, etc... Those things were generally against Alcos in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. It's also why the current Alco users are generally all-in on them, or they represent a very significant part of their fleet (think Delaware-Lackawanna, A&M, Apache).

Norfolk Southern hated buying from EMD in the 1960s, but they needed power and Baldwin was gone.  From every NS employee I've ever talked to, up to the Southern takeover, they all prefered the Baldwins.