With the series of Mergers with in the RR industry, Does anyone know if GM is producing Diesel Electrics engines. at same volume as before?.
Reason I ask is:
Diesel Engines are very durable.
Electric Generators even more so.
Other than Maintenace and overhaul, I would think these Diesel Electrics would last over 25 years with good care. The only issue would be fuel efficiency increases.
I remember hearing that after WWII, most of the rolling stock and engines had to be replaced en mass, due to heavy usage and NO replacement being built due to armaments priority.
General Motors is out of the railroad locomotive business. EMD is no longer owned by GM, but was sold a year or so ago. The new company retained the EMD name, but the D now means Diesel instead of Division.
Probably the two largest reasons EMD’s diesel-electric loco market has shrunk is competition from GE, and the ability to produce higher-horsepower units.
I’m not a market analyst so I can’t comment on the competition part of things, other than to say GE has certainly taken market share from EMD.
But the horsepower thing is easy. You always hear about railroads doing a three-for-two or a four-for-three replacement of older, lower-hp locos with newer, more powerful ones. It saves them fuel and maintenance costs.
And the old ones? If they’re EMD’s, they go to either a short line, or a rebuilder for the lease fleet. Old GE’s go to the scrapper. For some reason, they just haven’t caught the interest of the second-hand market.
La Grange is still open, But final assembly is London only. La Grange does the Prime movers, and does maintance(To my Knowledge). I belive it is also R&D