Or, to keep things railroady, which valve gear was best, Stephenson, Baker, or Walschaerts…
Eleanor Roosevelt prefered ALCOs.
Absolutely. Her second best was Baldwins.
She railfanned in her 1951 Nash.
I heard rumors she kept her duck in the back seat.
But I bet she had a soft-spot for Fairbanks Morse.
The safety on its spleen was set
Gotta love them TrainMasters.
That’s good, those duck spleens could explode at any minute.
That’s a good thing I suppose, never know when the duck spleens will explode.
“Quack”…BANG!!!
It depends on what you want .You have a large quantity of freight that has to be moved in a short period of time. Do you buy a large number of engines that cost less but aren’t as reliable,or fewer units that are more durable and last longer?
Of course, that is a gross oversimplification of reality. In reality the railroads need both manufacturers to compete with one another to offer the best possible products. Competition by additional firms such as the several now producing the Genset type locomotives or those engaged in manufacturing passenger locomotives also helps develop the locomotive marketplace as do the other rebuilders. Without this competition the cost and quality of locomotives would suffer.
Besides, sometimes the cheaper, more numerous locomotives are a better choice for some railroads or operating situations and a mix of EMD and GE have served many railroads well for decades.
LC
Indeed. Methinks that you can probably count on your fingers the number of locomotives on the rosters of railroads with just one manufacturer represented.
I’ve had both types go bad on the road. When engines from both builders work, they work well. When an engine fails it’s a pain in the caboose no matter who built it.
After an engine has been on the property a while, I think it’s more of a factor of how it’s being maintained rather than who built it.
Jeff
The real question is what’s better to shoot GEs and EMDs with? Canon or Nikon?
I could never figure that out, so I try to stick to shooting ALCos with Pentax. [;)]