at some point will bnsf get rid of all ex. locomotives?

since everything is going "green" including the railroads, by what point do you think that the bnsf railway and other railroads will have gotten rid of all of their old locomotives, and get all new locomotives, such as replacing a sd40-2 with a sd70ace, and etc.
by what year would their be a change, do you think at least by 2011 or 2012?

Great Northern wrote:since everything is going "green" including the railroads, by what point do you think that the bnsf railway and other railroads will have gotten rid of all of their old locomotives, and get all new locomotives, such as replacing a sd40-2 with a sd70ace, and etc.
by what year would their be a change, do you think at least by 2011 or 2012?

Not nearly that quickly....

...because BNSF was seriously considering electrification of their entire rail network! They decided it wasn't cost-effective until gas prices went up.... at the trough in gas prices, before Warren Buffett bought the company, reduced their cost of capital, and encouraged them to think longer term.

I think BNSF will not be overly aggressive about buying new diesels when they have one eye on electrification. They'll continue to replace the obsolete locomotives and comply with regulatory requirements. If they do decide to electrify, of course, they'll do a *massive* locomotive replacement.