One of the "holes" in the loco market seems to be supply of good, reliable, small (1500-2000 hp) units, whether standard or narrow gauge. The demand is so limited really good replacements for the GP7's, 9's, and 38's have never had a chance to evolve and get the kinks worked out. Those few new units that do get manufactured tend to be expensive bespoke units that typically have all kinds of teething problems. At the end of my working career I was able develop a pretty good business for my employer by buying, rebuilding and to a limited extent upgrading (mostly adding solid state electronics) older B-B units, all EMD because EMD's seemed to go on forever with a good network for parts supply. Of course narrow gauge has the added challenge of much fewer older units that can be recycled to fit typically a smaller loading gauge, weight restrictions, and the limited traction motor options. Will be interesting how the new D&S units work out, and what the White Pass comes up with. The White Pass has a particular challenge because they do need higher horsepower units. If I had been at the D&S I would have tried to acquire some of those old G8 units from wherever, and recycle them. Or perhaps even some of the GE's (with CAT engines) built for Guatemala around 1972. New technology is not always better, unless you have the time, money, and patience to work out the bugs. And for the most part new technology applied to locomotives is often intended to reduce pollution, not improve efficiency or reliability.
JBWX
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2019 12:35PM by John West.