The thought just occured to me. I may be wrong but all of the Class Is, except maybe Canadian Pacific, have both GE Evolution locomotives and EMD SD70’s. Why do they buy two different locomotives? Both can be either AC or DC, and they have basically the same amount of horsepower. It’s a nice variety railfan-wise but I don’t really see the point in buying two different types of units rather than sticking with just one.
Any thoughts?
Price, better suitability for a specific application, availability, the purchasing department liked the seats better, keep the other guy ‘honest’, the list goes on.
That about sums it up.
I want to work in purchasing…try out them seats!
Don’t keep your eggs all in one basket, especially with new locomotive technology. Remember the fun with the Acela trainsets?
Are you sure the Canadian Pacific actually purchased these locomotive? If the locomotives were leased rather than purchased, the actual owner of the locomotives might be responsible for all the maintenance of the equipment. The railroad simply pays for horsepower-hours used and nothing else. If this was the case, it would not matter which locomotive brand was taken.
There has also been cases where a single railroad’s order can tie up one suppliers production facilities for months on end. If a railroad had received an locomotive order and then realized they needed a second order tight away, they may switch suppliers in order to take advantage of a faster delivery time.
Just because they don’t have to pay for the maintenance doesn’t mean they would be willing to purchase a new unit that may spend most of its time in the shop picking out bugs.
Depends on which manufacturer has a better kickback program going at order time. [swg]
Some railroads can protect themselves by leasing their units on a power by the hour basis. So, the units are only being paid for when they are at work! If they go down, the lessor then has to make up the lost HP/hours. Then, they can shop freely between builders and get the best value for their $$. If “experts” tell us to do this, it just goes to say that the big 7 will do it too.
Heh,heh,heh.[#ditto][}:)][:-^][:-,]. "Ah yes Smithers, the drones in sector seven are lively,today aren’t they?- Montgomery Burns (Homer Simpson’s evil boss)
The carriers do not want to be trapped into a single source of supply for such an expensive piece of equipment. Competition in the marketplace leads to fairer prices for all parties in the transactions. While each of the carriers may have their own favorite supplier, based upon a number of operational and maintenance factors; considering the overall volume of locomotive purchases each of the carriers make it is in their best interest to attempt to keep the market competitive. Which manufacturer builds the better machine is somewhat subjective and the answer is subject to change depending upon who in the carrier is asked to make the choice…Finance, Maintencance, Operations Management, Operations end user (crew) - each party has their own view upon what makes a good locomotive.
Aaahhh! The Integrated Railroad Nirvana - competition on the supply side, monopoly control on the demand side!
Airlines are the same. Most split their orders for large aircraft between Airbus and Boeing.
Mark