How do railroads determine if a locomotive will be saved or scrapped after a derailment? I have seen some locomotives that looked doomed after a wreck but were fully rebuilt and then I have seen locomotives that didn’t look too bad at all but were scrapped soon there after. What factors determine the difference between scrap or save?
Or bury, should be included. Indiana Wabash fans know of what I speak.
Often it depends upon the nature of the damage. Also, it depends upon the financial status of the locomotive. How much is the unit on the books for? How much has been depreciated (if the unit is owned). If the unit is leased, what is the RR’s liability to the lessor under the terms of the lease? In some cases, such as the recent CN wreck in BC it may also depend upon the costs to recover the locomotive from a difficult site. Assuming it is recoverable, damage such as major frame damage, fire damage, and major component damage may still result in the unit being retired and stripped or scrapped.
LC
“How to dry a drenched diesel” by David Lustig, on pages 26 and 27, January 2006 Trains, was an intersting piece covering recovery of locomotives in New Orleans.
This was posted recently on the MRL Group about SD70ACe 4303’s troubles-
“The guilty component was the AC/DC inverter. It literally melted.
I couldn’t help but think back to what Kern had told me the day
before. It seems one of the challenges both the folks at EMD and
the MRL are working to overcome is the high degree of carbon residue
coating the helpers due to the smoke in the Mullan Tunnel. There is
just enough conductivity in that residue to cause circuits to do
some antics not covered in the owner’s manual.”
Would this be covered by the warrenty ?
It depends on the contract governing the sale. Even if not directly in the language of the contract’s warranty section, the Uniform Commercial Code requires goods sold to be fit for the particular purpose they were inteded. I am reasonably certain Montana has adopted the Uniform Commercial Code.
Thus, I think it could be argued that EMD understood that the units were to operate in such tunnels; thus, they would have to build them to withstand such stresses. However, this provision of the UCC can be waived by the parties’ contract, and EMD might have reguired MRL to waive this provision upon the sale.
Hope MRL didnt’t get rid of their SD-45s quite yet.
Gabe
Even though a locomotive may appear to have fared well in a derailment from the outside, you don’t know what has happened to internal parts such as the prime mover, traction motors etc.
In the end, it’s not much different than a car or truck. Is it worth the cost to make it right. Nowadays, a lot of cars with seemingly minor damage get “totalled.”
It doesn’t take much to bend a frame, drive shaft, or connecting rod.
Unless you are an insurance company responsible for the repair or replacement . . . then anything is fixable.
Gabe
And with non-OEM parts too…
Of course that is when one is dealing with automobiles, not railroad equipment…
LC
I take the situation in my company, but in a RR I immagine it will not be very different…
Beside just looking at what is less expensive, there will be quite a lot of ‘tactical’ and ‘strategic’ thinking (as ita has already been said, you can repair everything, if you want):
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It is there a big need for the engine(s) damaged? Or are we in a traffic lull and we are happy to get rid of the engine, take the insurance money and keep it? Replacement will be bought when needed… sometime later .
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How is ‘hard’ for the involved department/division to get a replacement? Repairs and acquisition of a new engine are probably on 2 different budgets, with different decisions procedures (and timeframes). Often the repair budget is less bound to decisions from higher management or budgeting timelines, and lower management can make its decision taking account also for ‘local interests’ and not only ‘stockolders advantage’.
So if you need it, and you think you will get no (fast) replacement approved from your higher management, you repair it (even if it costs similar or even a little more) to have it back to work, while a new replacement will have to wait the next year/semester investment budgetting season before even ordering it.
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how fast can the producer deliver? there are times were delivery times are very long…
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is there available capacity in your repair shop? Sometime you just want something to do to keep yourself busy… what is better than a big wrecked engine to be worked on in the lull times, and be spared to fire some peoples?
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scrap price?
Bent frames are the worst, hardest to fix, everything else attaches to the frames. Cab, shell, motor, generator, tanks, trucks, etc.
If its bent, or worse corkscrewed, then I suspect management would have to carefully consider whether its worth the fairly involved methods needed to straighten it out, or just start saving everything salvagable off of it.
Further to this you may be aware of the former CSX Dash-8 frame residing under a Union Pacific C40-8W, CSX had a Dash-8 involved in a wreck where the frame was basically cleaned off. but the frame had only minor damage. UP had a wreck with the reverse problem, so they bought the frame from CSX, and put the two together, Franken-locomotive.
I would guess it might also be related to how much can be done by the owner withouut affecting other ongoing maintenance and projects, and how much would have to be “Out-shopped”. If you can do it with internal crews, who you are already paying, it would be cheaper than out-sourcing the project. But with the tendancy to work with minimum workforce, and to contract special projects so you can let the manpower go when the project is complete, there is no telling how that would figure into the equation.
The bottom line is…the bottom line.
Virtually anything is Fixable…
the real detirminate is the price of the fix and if their is enough enconomic life left in the unit after the repair.
And I would imagine which dollars are available…Capital dollars buy new, expense dollars repair… or so my boss tells me.
No one has mentioned the fact that a locomotives frame is a very sustatial peice of metal. The type of impact that causes the frame to be bent often results in substatial damage to most other components as well. The UP example is the exception to the rule. Traditionally if you bend the frame you scrap the engine. Less damage is decided on a cost effective basis. Will the repairs cost less than the market value of the repaired engine. If the cost is more the decision is a no brainer.