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Diesel Locomotive Rosters Second Edition McDonald Soft Cover
Diesel Locomotive Rosters Second Edition By Charles McDonald
168 Pages
The most complete reference to North American motive power, US, Canada, Mexico over 250 Class 1 railroads and short line, including Army and Air Force units.
Second EDITION FIRST PRINTING 1986
Soft Cover
Contents
INTRODUCTION 2
THE ROSTERS (in alphabetical order) 12
UPDATE JANUARY 1986 155
GLOSSARY 162
INDEX 164
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 168
INTRODUCTION
It Sounds melodramatic, but it is fair to say that the changes in the railroads of North America in the four years since the first edition of DIESEL LOCOMOTIVE ROSTERS are as great as those since World War Two. Many well-known names are gone: Louisville & Nashville, Baltimore & Ohio. Milwaukee Road, Southern. and Norfolk & Western. Disappearing into mergers even faster than the major roads are regional lines: Western Pacific, Fort Worth & Denver. Georgia Railroad, and Toledo. Peoria & Western. Short lines have proliferated to take over branches cast off by the large systems.
The impact of mergers and acquisitions on the locomotive fleets in North America has been tremendous. The unmodified first-generation Geep is fast becoming an endangered species. The Union Pacific, for example, has almost entirely eliminated GP7s, GP9s. and GP18s from its roster, and other major roads are moving in the same direction. Second-generation power is also being retired at a surprising rate. Orders for new locomotives are at their lowest point in years, largely because of mergers. but also because of the recession of the early 1980s. In the next few years we will continue to see drastic changes in the locomotive fleets of the major railroads. These changes will affect the smaller railroads as older units are sold to short lines.
Today's used-locomotive market clearly belongs to the buyer. Serviceable diesels are available for the price of a luxury car. Units built in the late 1960s are being sold for scrap, and early GP4Os are glutting the used-locomotive market. Production of new locomotives will remain at a low ebb as long as good second-generation units can be bought for as little as one-tenth the price of a new unit.
Although you will find information in this book as recent as January 1986 the bulk of the material was compiled in mid-1985 from official railroad sources. It represents at best a snapshot of the motive power situation. The railroad scene is volatile and units are traded and retired more frequently than major-league baseball players. Several factors further complicate matters. Mergers bring about renumberings, sometimes to bring logic to a roster and sometimes to simply eliminate duplicate numbers. Some railroads consolidate blocks as they renumber: others renumber in sequence, leaving vacant numbers. Some railroads use the same numbers over and over for successive generations of power: many short lines simply retain the numbers that came painted on their secondhand diesels.
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