Eastern Railroad Discussion > Tier 4 emissions question

Do the Tier 4 requirements that take affect in 2015
apply to capital rebuild programs, as NS SD60E, or
just to new locomotives.

Just new locomotives.


Chris Toth
NSDash9.com

What about the GP20 somethings from EMD that are new except for the trucks?

Posted from iPhone

My in-house expert gave a long-suffering sigh of pain at me showing her this question...

"Tier 4 requirements apply to new, new-built or rebuilt-to-new locomotives".

Obviously, the lawyerly language starts to kick in. The applicable federal regulation is 40 CFR 1033 (She thinks off the top of her head....) The link if you're really interested is www . ecfr . gov for the full text of federal regulations.

It's complicated on rebuilds, because there's a content calculation whether it's a "rebuild in kind", which does not have to meet Tier anything, or if it's "rebuilt to new", in which case it has to meet Tier 4. There's also a different between switchers and line-haul, a horsepower break.... It's hideous and has cost me a great deal in alcohol bills at the dinner table.

IMO, the regulations have driven a robust used locomotive market for those who want a reliable, nearly new locomotive but don't want to meet Tier 4. You can carefully design your rebuild to remain as "rebuild in kind".

NS1703 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do the Tier 4 requirements that take affect in
> 2015
> apply to capital rebuild programs, as NS SD60E,
> or
> just to new locomotives.

Steve Krause
Chillicothe, IL

The financial consequences of buying a new locomotive or rebuilding an old locomotive also involve depreciation on the locomotive. That could trigger a change in how the expense etc of the (new, rebuilt, repaired, etc) locomotive is treated on the railroad's financial reports.

I suspect that the differences between a major repair, mid-life rebuild, and rebuild in kind and rebuild to new will probably go through a similar process.

Ironically, the result might be extended use of older, higher polluting equipment.