Last one built in 1949, what was the cost to build this locomotive in 1949, also, to compare what does a new diesel locomotive cost today?
Pere Marquette 1225 was built in 1941, so it’s about a decade off your desired point of reference. However, according to Wikipedia, “1225 cost $200,000 to build in 1941 ($3,160,181 in current dollars)”.
As I recall, it cost about $6M for the Brits to build “Tornado” from scratch.
A new diesel freight loco is about $2.5M +/-
Like most of your modern locomotives, it just depends on what accessories you have on it. Lima was considered by many to be the best locomotive builder of them all. So if i had to guess, I’d say that it was more expensive than any of the other builders’ comparable locomotives.
-Justin
Thanks for the info, a guy replied to me that an NKP Berk. - 779 was built in May, 1949 and cost $187,000 ($1,242,115) in 1998 prices. It travelled 677,095 miles and was the last steam loco built by Lima.
Many claim it was the best performing and best classic example of a steam locomotive (I tend to agree)
I just checked an inflation calculator, which showed that $187K to be $2,738,150 in 2010 dollars.
From which one might deduce that the price of mainline locomotives hasn’t really changed.