by mxdata
"We Repair No Locomotive Before Its Time"
Railroad Forums
Moderator: GOLDEN-ARM
RickRackstop wrote:If Progress Rail wanted to market their own CAT powered locomotive they could build it just copying what they see from the EMD's they work on and just buy what they don't make from EMD like Motive Power does. CAT does compete in the marine and power products side of things directly with EMD and I wonder what will happen to all of EMD's distributers. It doesn't make sense to pay all that money just to effectively put EMD out of business.As far as CAT building a copy of an SD70 series locomotive or the like they would be sued silly...They are buying EMD to get into the new build freight locomotive in North America in a big way.They have desired to be in that market for some time, as evidenced by the unsuccessfully partnership with MK Rail on the MK5000C. Given that they almost bought EMD when GM put it on the auction block (the deal only failed due to Union objections) this is not even slightly surprising. Anyone who knows Cat's history knows they have bought up companies with product lines they wanted numerous times, Perkins diesel engines and DJB articulated dump trucks are two examples. Solar Gas Turbines is another.
mtuandrew wrote:About time! I'm definitely curious about the union implications too. I suspect that they'll be happier to allow the deal (or have already been happy to allow it) since they know EMD will be getting more funding and probably more business.The "H" engine, made only in 16 cylinder version, competes directly with the CAT 3600 series and also with the smaller MAK engines also owned by CAT.
Also, I wonder if this merger will mean a new breath of life into the H engine? That's a niche that Cat doesn't yet fill, and EMD hasn't really had the resources available to invest in it meaningfully, not since well before the GM spinoff.