Its hard to imagine that many locomotives in one place, let alone being in storage. It appears that MANY of these units are relatively "modern." Is traffic really down that much ?
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Are these all the DC traction locomotives that NS is putting in storage?
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| Posted by on August 2, 2019 | |
Those standard cab SD70's were built in 1993 and 1998, so they are between 21-26 years old, they might not look that old, but they are. The SD70M's were built in 2003 and 2004, so are 15-16 years old. The SD70M-2's were built in 2006-2007 and are 12-13 years old. They were all used hard pulling coal trains and are pretty worn out.
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Its really just the annual NS 1:1 Train Club meeting.
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Traffic is not down at all, it is up, it was never down. This is the result of Precision Railroading, whose policies are to haul the most freight cars with the least amount of locomotives and people. This has ultimately resulted in the deterioration of NS.
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NS has steadily increased their stock price over the last three years... while maintaining top tier safety performance. Despite the opinions photos such as this may generate, the folks at the top of NS seem to know what they're doing.
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I have to admit, this photo is rather unsettling. How can this many locomotives become unneeded at once? Sure, the bigger roads will have these kind of dead lines, but nevertheless, this is a hell of a lot of surplus power to be sitting cold. Hopefully, there will be a resurrection of some sort.
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Actually, NS, in recent times, has had it's safety record compromised. The two string lined derailments at Horseshoe Curve are two examples. Derailments like that didn't happen until NS adopted Precision Railroading. Yes, in general, the safety record has increased over the last few years, but recently over the last 8 months, more and more locomotives were put in storage, rolling stock scrapped, and people laid off, which has ultimately resulted in a decreased safety record by NS. NS, along with any other railroad who has adopted Precision Railroading will turn into the modem day Penn Central unless they change their game.
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The concept of running as many train cars with the least amount of locomotives and people has been tried countless times in railroad history, and ever single time it has failed. The only difference is is that Hunter Harrison decided to give the concept a name, Precision Railroading. This will fail, I just don't want to see the railroad industry collapse because in the process.
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While discussing this situation from an economic standpoint, It is a little frightening to realize the amount of capital investment that is just sitting here PRODUCING NOTHING. I have sold my NS stock after realizing a NICE profit. On the more humorous side, just imagine what it would COST to model this scene ? Not that anyone would want to.
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Very hard to believe they are worn out .... Old Geeps from the 60's I would understand but not 20 years old locos , most of them are surplus , period .
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If indeed these units are "surplus" to NS's needs, WHY are they still buying new units from GE ?? I still subscribe to the Bangor & Aroostock theory of " run 'em until ya can't figure out how to keep 'em running any moah."
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These units could also be pending trade-in or sale. The railfan community is not exactly a panel of experts on management and accounting, so we should not assume that idiocy is the reason for a yard full of locomotives.
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Most countries in the world don't even have this many locomotives in them, let alone high tech machines like these! I've enjoyed the informative comments so far, but more info is needed on how RRs can write off these locos after spending hundreds of millions for just these shown in the photo alone. What happens tax-wise and insurance-wise when RRs do this to locos?
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Victims (along with crews) of "Precision railroading".
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How many of these locomotives do not meet the current pollution standards? I would guess they are all Tier One? They might have been pulled out to let the newer, higher tier engines run as well as the Precision Railroading. Gotta admit, does sound good to an investor.
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Any locomotive designated to a higher Tier are less fuel efficient. These engines were built between 1990-2005, so some of these engines don't have any Tier standards, but some have Tier 2 standards. Railroads don't care about the Tier and will only comply if the law requires. These engines are older, and since NS adopted Precision Railroading, these older engines, some of which are not even 15 years old were the first ones put in storage.
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| Posted by Andrew on August 15, 2019 | |
I think that a lot of comments for his photograph have got it wrong. I do not think the age of the locomotives have any bearing on the subject. Here we scrapped diesel locos that were at best a fifth of the age of the steam locos they replaced, but with at least twice the mileage, maybe a lot more. No one has given any information as to the condition of any of the locos in the photograph, only their age. Could they be worn out?
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If these are old, a few of them should be donated to a museum and/or to tourist railroads.
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Nice photo, Trey, but I have to confess your photo makes me feel old. I worked for NS from 1981-2015, and I remember when ALL these locomotives were brand-spanking new; "cream-of-the-crop" motive power! It's sad to see them sitting here idle, and especially when I recall a time (not too long ago) when NS was buying just about every halfway-decent, second-hand SD40-2 they could get their hands on! They were needed so urgently, they didn't even repaint them before putting them in service!
I'm thankful I was able to retire before this "Precision Railroading" crap started. NS has always been tight with a buck, but I understand it's much worse since I retired. Precision Railroading has only one purpose and goal: make the stockholders and upper management even richer. Greed is what rules our world today, and my heart goes out to my brothers and sisters who are no longer working.
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That has to be one third of the roster right there.
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