LOOKING FOR A LOCO BUILDER, FOR A new switch engine

I am wondering, how many folks out there are building new locos. I have been approached by an industrial rail operator, who is interested in purchasing a new loco, not re-manufactured, in the 100 ton range, around 1000 HP. He prefers diesel/electric. Loco will controlled with a "conventional" cab set-up, no remote operations needed. Any info is appreciated. GE and EMD are not an option, so please don't offer those two names. Regards

Only one I can think of would be Brookville Mining Equipment, has a long history of building "critters" for the mining industry. They do show a locomotive about the size you are looking for on their website.

http://brookvilleequipment.com/index.htm

Brookville built 2 critters for Metro North, the DES70b.
A 70 ton 800 hp two axle switcher.

National Railway Equipment is scheduled to unviel there new switcher this week or next. It is said to be a "new" unit, with a center cab and two engines. Runor has it that it will use one engine until the demand for more horsepower is detected (probably by throttle position and motor load), at which time the second engine will start and come on line automatically.

UP os said to be the first customer. Sounds like something from the movie "Back to the Future!"

Thanks guys, for your continued offerings, on this topic. When the customer decides to purchase, I will post his info, and where you can photo his new engine, when he gets it. You will actually be able to say "I "sold" him that engine", as he has no idea that anyone is offering new stuff. Regards

Last week I saw an ad for a new industrial switcher on the Trains forum. Looked like it weighed around 25 tons and is battery powered.Anybody else see the ad ? Joe

Lookup the posts on the green goat and check out their web site.

If anyone is building one, would there be a choice as to powerplant Like a ALCO 539 or 251?

I would think that NRE would be a good choice for a brand new switcher in the 1,000 hp range using the Alco 6-251. The catch might be to meet EPA Tier II requirments since it is not clear if FM/Alco is working on bringing up the Alco engine to those specs.
NRE has all the means of producing an end cab switcher since they have all the ALCO drawings including the T-6 which I am sure could be used as a starting point.
Of course, my question is how many are you willing to buy since the engineering , manufacturing costs,etc would be quite high for a single unit.
It would be nice to see a "new" switcher be built, BUT, the cost would be too high to justify it unless you could find alot of customers willing to pay alot of money for a new unit vs a used or rebuilt unit.
I think the reason EMD and GE stopped making switchers was that the cost was equal to that of a road unit.

Golden Arm Go to www.jlconsulting.ca and contact me. I have some info for you that I can E-mail. Thanks

I am completely ignorant of the specifics of building a new locomotive. Someone help.

Why would a substantially smaller locomotive (say, the T6 mentioned above) be as expensive to build as, say, a C630? I'm thoroughly confused about this.

I can understant engineering and design costs, but once the unit starts getting constructed, that should significantly change things. And yes, I know the more that get built, the cheaper the R&D costs become.

Can someone help me out?

Dave Becker

pablo wrote:I am completely ignorant of the specifics of building a new locomotive. Someone help.

Why would a substantially smaller locomotive (say, the T6 mentioned above) be as expensive to build as, say, a C630? I'm thoroughly confused about this.

I can understant engineering and design costs, but once the unit starts getting constructed, that should significantly change things. And yes, I know the more that get built, the cheaper the R&D costs become.

Can someone help me out?

Dave Becker

I can give you a simple answer to the above:Labor
Labor is the same regardless of locomotive size and since you make more money(profit) on a C636 than a T-6, you are able to get a quicker return on the investment.
I hope this helps.
Alcoman

Probably not inportant anymore, but Brandt Roadrail Corporation has a 1050HP Cat powered diesel electric "Power Unit"(switcher) available. Its UGLY but seems like a decent industrial switching solution. http://roadrail.brandt.ca/products.php? ... oduct_id=7

There are plently of switchers out there for sale. Look in Railswap under locomotives.

Hi, John. The specification Golden Arm originally was looking for was a new loco builder to build a 1000HP 100 ton diesel electric locomotive. Of course that was back in August of last year, so while I dont think anybody cares by now, I thought I'd throw this recent find in the mix in case anyone is still looking. I agree that searching for a new 1000HP switcher doesnt make much sense considering whats available used.