I just visited the EMD website again and thought something was missing. They are showing a DC loco, an AC loco and one switcher. I thought they had a 6000 hp AC loco and a smaller model switcher as well. Did they stop making these? Does this have anything to do with the selloff of EMD? Or did I miss the webpage redesign?
EMD used to make SD80MACs and SD90MACs (and would probably make more if a railroad wanted enough). Here is the story as I understand it, railroads found them to have too much power for one locomotive, so they prefered the SD70 series and EMD dropped the higher horsepower locomotives from its catalog.
Those are the only ones they have that currently meet Tier II emissions regulations. If a customer wanted an SD90MAC, and was offering a major order, EMD would jump though hoops to provide.
Right now, the market has settled down on 4000-4400 HP AC and DC locomotives, so that is what EMD went to work on meeting Tier II
THNX.
GE is still putting out 6000hp loco’s, but I guess they can aford to keep the assembly lines going. They are the market leader know. No offense, but I like EMD better. Maybe with thier new owners they can get R&D money.[;)]
I don’t think GE has produced any 6000 HP locos for a few years. Only CSX and UP have any that I’m aware of. But, since it’s basically a 16 cyl version of their lastest model, it wouldn’t take much to get it certified and into production, I suppose.