There are some great quotes in this article. Such as:
Like all the people I met along the way, she never fails to turn the conversation back to the customer. “To use these sophisticated kinds of ‘toys,’ there has to be a business purpose. We try to emphasize the importance of understanding the customer and how they use those machines to make money…
and,
She admits to getting a little nervous before meeting with a customer—“not because I’m shy or afraid. It’s that I know how much work we put into it.”
“Our customers give us our report card,” she affirms. “It’s like when you’re a kid—that’s how I feel when I meet with a customer… We’ve brought our market share up steadily over the last few years as we’ve really focused on understanding customer needs and getting the basics right—quality, delivery and service.”
Please note that the chief technology officer for Caterpillar is a girl very accomp
The PTRA and the HB&T ordered 35 MK1500Ds, all Cat powered, in 1996…so far, the power plants have held up a lot better than we T&E folks thought they would, the HB&T motors went to the BNSF when the HB&T was dissolved, and they run them MUed to everything they have, the units stay in yard and transfer service.
16 years after they showed up, ours have just now begun a scheduled power plant rebuild program.
Only the 9614 has suffered a major engine problem, it spun a crankshaft bearing, but the rest of ours have performed fantastic.
I know of some CAT 3406 series motors that are at over 2 MILLION miles without even an Inframe Overhaul let alone an Out of Frame Overhaul. Called how the Drivers and Companies Treat them. One Company here in town Just traded in a 97 379 Pete with over 2.2 Million on the Clock and the engine had NEVER been opened except for Valve Adjustments every 150K miles. CAT bought that one back to See WHAT THEY DID SO WELL.
I know of some 1693 Series engines that are still Running out there with close to 5 Million miles on them. Hell look at the Bering Sea Crab Fleet how many of them have CAT engines in them. Why 400 Miles from Shore is NOT the place to have one go BOOM. Those engines run 100% power for MONTHS at a time with no Complaints. So why was CAT no popular in the RR industry called they are a little more Complex than EMD and GE and I will be honest the Parts are more Expensive but when the Chips are Down CAT will out last anything made.
All well and good, but I hope this article doesn’t reach the massive amount of employees dumped at the Cat plant in Ontario, they are not a happy bunch.
Cat will do well in the business. I have ran cat engines (natural gas fired) and they are by far the best running engines. They will pretty much tell you exactly what the problem is when it breaks down, The industry is making a huge shift to the 3600 engines because they can meet the tough emissions standards. I would foresee them putting the diesel version in locomotives to meet tier 4 or 5 emissions.What ever they did Cat seems to have found the key to meeting the standards and it is becoming a gold mine for them.