• Do they still build cab-end switchers?

  • General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment
General discussion about locomotives, rolling stock, and equipment

Moderator: John_Perkowski

  by airman00
 
I'm just curious...Does any company still make a cab-end style switcher? Similiar say to the style of an sw1500? Or is that style of engine no longer made. I saw EMD after the SW series loco's, made MP15DC/MP15AC loco's, similiar in style to SW's, but after they stopped making those, late eighties/ early ninties (correct me if I'm wrong), I didn't see any more cab-end switchers being made anymore. I love those old SW1500's. In my mind, best locos ever made.
  by Sir Ray
 
The North American locomotive manfacturers have not even built B-B freight locomotives in any great quantities over the past 2 decades for the domestic market, let alone cab-end switchers (the last MP15 was built in 1987, I believe).
Indeed, a fair amount of 'new' B-B is simply building new bodies on existing underframes (e.g. Railpower's Gensets).
Anyway, something along the lines of the EMD GP15D(itself, along w/ the GP20D, not build in any real quantity) is the layout, if one can be inferred from such low numbers, as the '21st Century North American switcher' - stubby short hood (provides collision protection), lower long hood, and ability to be used for road-freight service. This is more or less the same layout as that of the Railpower and NRE gensets, which have been built in larger numbers (but still small compared to the high-horsepower C-C locomotives produced by EMD & GE).