Western Railroad Discussion > All GE's all the time

Where is the diesel diversity while railfanning? Living along CSX's B&A line, all we get is GE's. Watching TRAINS Rochelle video cam, almost 99 percent of Bnsf trains are all led by look alike GE's.

Disclaimer, as an old fart railfan, we could watch D&H and LV Alcos, modern NYC diesels.

Some fanfare for CN's first delivery of its 200 unit order. Is it me or do all those GE's look alike? (I know rivet counters will point out differences.)

Kudos to GE for dominating the market that EMD once had.

Progress Rail, Cat, EMD hasn't done much to stem the GE tide.

Well....I'm an ole fart too. I grew up in the F and geep era and remember the good old days growing up along the Santa Fe in Texas! Sadly, the Fs gave way to the CF-7s GP20s,30s,35s. SD40s,45s,45-2s. On the GE side were U25Bs,23Bs,U33 and 36Cs. While Alcos were around back then, we saw very few of them here in north Texas. YES, I agree, GEs today can become boring pretty quick. As for much in the way of NEW power, I think EMD is pretty much dead and gone! Let's all be glad that many class 1s are coming to there senses and rebuilding at least some of what we grew up with! It may be new paint along with a new prime mover and stuffed with computers but many do remind us of the good ole days!

We shouldn't be too surprised with the current situation - product development cycles often work this way. Diesel engine/locomotive technology has matured/been optimised, in those early days it was a horsepower war and there were major leaps in performance. All that low hanging fruit has gone... and so there's less diversity, fewer players.

Gitcher GE pichers while you can, now they're all Wabtecs... === === = === JLH

Up close, listening to a GE or EMD throttle up is very interesting, GE's especially--they sound almost like an ALCO.

CAT for years has wanted to be in the loco business. Well, now they got it---and they're still struggling. They bailed out of the big rig diesel market when they couldn't make it work, so the same may happen in the RR engine market...

nygiant Wrote:

> Disclaimer, as an old fart railfan, we could watch
> D&H and LV Alcos, modern NYC diesels.

...which even older fart railfans would have complained about bitterly and wondered where the all good stuff went (steam).

Where is the diesel diversity? Northern California. In one day's drive from the Bay Area, you can see power built by Brookville, NRE, Railpower, Knoxville Locomotive Works, MotivePower, Siemens, and pre-EMD Progress Rail in addition to EMD and GE. Of course, that's all relatively new stuff and mostly on shortlines and passenger haulers, but it is diversity.

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Up close, listening to a GE or EMD throttle up is
> very interesting, GE's especially--they sound
> almost like an ALCO.
>
> CAT for years has wanted to be in the loco
> business. Well, now they got it---and they're
> still struggling. They bailed out of the big rig
> diesel market when they couldn't make it work, so
> the same may happen in the RR engine market...

GE's and ALCO's sound simular because they're both 4 cycle engines.
EMD's were 2 cycle until very recently.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Up close, listening to a GE or EMD throttle up
> is
> > very interesting, GE's especially--they sound
> > almost like an ALCO.
> >
> > CAT for years has wanted to be in the loco
> > business. Well, now they got it---and they're
> > still struggling. They bailed out of the big
> rig
> > diesel market when they couldn't make it work,
> so
> > the same may happen in the RR engine market...
>
> GE's and ALCO's sound simular because they're both
> 4 cycle engines.
> EMD's were 2 cycle until very recently.

It should also be noted that both the GE FDL and the ALCO 244/251 are the same displacement. 668 cu/in per cylinder, they are not related designs in any way but do share the same displacement size.

highgreengraphics Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gitcher GE pichers while you can, now they're all
> Wabtecs... === === = === JLH

They are still GE locomotives until an official announcement is made with details of the name change.