Afficionados of the steam engine will just love this website: http://www.trainweb.org/lfnwfan/html/Larry%27s.htm
Arent we about 60-70 years beyond "hating diesels" by now? ;)
I dont see how the scrapping of diesels would make anyone happy.. :(
maybe in 1950..but not today..
Scot
i think y'all are missing the point here. ltex is one of the major rebuilders/lessors of locomotives in north america. what you see being "cut up" may not be being scrapped at all, but awaiting rebuilding. those that are being scrapped are "organ donors" to keep other diesels running. and just because the carbody and internal components are cut away, leaving just the frame, doesn't mean that locomotive won't be reborn in another configuration. many of the new genset locomotives are built on donor frames. and slugs are almost always rebuilt from existing locomotives.....
rather than being a diesel graveyard, ltex is more like a hospital.....
I was in Little Rock, Arkansas a few years back and they had a unit the they were rebuilding. It was a U.P. unit, but had body parts from S.P. and I think some other railroad. It looked like some of these Autos you see running around with a blue body , a white door, and a red hood. How ever the U.P. painted the unit yellow before it left the shop.
Don't see too much they can use for those F7 B.N.S and that blue E-8 they got out at the ltex yard! ;D I think they should restore them and donate them to a tourist railroad or museum.
The place pictured in the link (LTE Rail of McDonald, Ohio) is exactly 17 minutes from my house according to google maps. My local model railroad club (the Youngstown MRA) would be on the way off of the road I would take to get there, about 12 minutes away.
you'd be surprized how much is salvageable off an f7 or e8. emd built locomotives with interchangeable parts, and the same engines and generators used in the e8 were also used in the sw7 and sw9. there are still prlent of these switchers out there running. same for the f7, its guts can be used in a gp7 or a gp9, though with the gp9 you'd probably lose some horsepower. traction motors off the e8 can have the pinion gear pulled off and replaced with another to give it a more common gear ratio.
lastly, the body panels can go to restoration projects. if you are restoring an f unit you don't have to search for parts the was they are having to do with the alco pa's because there are so many suitable parts available.
Wow - I posted this as "Diesel Hater's website" as a joke. I realize that diesel engines need to be scrapped to make room for new ones. People sound offended!
By the way, hasn't EMD been sold and GM will no longer own the company?
What I find hard to believe is that NYC subway cars are made in Brazil, of all places.
The Electro-Motive Division of GM has been sold . It is EMD still but itnow stands for Electo-Motive Diesel , Inc . Sale closed on April 04,2005 . It was sold to two investment groups, one of which was Berkshire Partners LLC. They are now the second largest diesel manufacturer , being overtaken by GE in the 1980's I wonder if Berkshire Partners is related to Berkshire Hathaway and Warren Buffett who owns BNFS . Info was obtained on Wickeapedia, J2.
yes, it is a warren buffet company.
as for emd being overtaken by ge, it is ironic. just as gm was losing interest in the railroad industry, ge was pouring money into upgrading their product line. ge diesels, particularly the u boats and dash 7s, were notorious dogs. it wasn't until the dash 8s that they really started getting some decent units out there. even so, emd has always built a more durable locomotive.
how badly did gm lose interest? well consider that when emd feilded its first ac demonstrators, the sd60macs, they tested them for sa couple of years before putting them into production as the sd70mac, withradial trucks, and burlington northern's order for 350 units. at the time the first sd70macs were being built, ge had no ac drive units, nor did they have a radial truck design. the sd70macs were cutting edge, years ahead of ge. yet....emd squandered that advantage. ge's equivalent locomotive, the ac4400cw, went into production soon after and quickly overtook the emd's in sales numbers......