How is EMD doing Now?

[Edmund]

It has been a while since it was sold. I haven't heard much about EMD train Orders. Has GE finally killed EMD?

[Matt K Dettman]

No. It's doing just fine. Hey as long as EMD is still in business even in the number 2 position, that's perfectly fine. Right now they have a pretty good sized order book and that's outstripping their production capacity in London, ON. So they've shipped some of their work out to Mexico.

[Edmund]

That is good to hear. I believe there has to be at least two manufacturers of locmotives. Besides I like the look of the SD70M-2.

[trainiax]

If you look at other manufacturers that have gone out of business in the past (Alco, FM, MLW) you'll notice that they had several consecutive years of producing few or no locomotives before going out of business. I'll have to look up the numbers again, but we're talking less than 50 locomotives over 5 years. EMD has production booked into 2008 that brings their total over the last 5 years to well over 1000. They're not in first place, but they're doing just fine.

[hetfieldkaloo]

EMD currently is doing good with its EBIT margins above theindustry average ...... they are focussed more on locomotive maintenance , services and customised services currently and are planning to expand their market share internationally also....... so i think EMD is doing quite well right now but about its production orders I need to lookup ....... hope this explanation helps

[Edmund]

hetfieldkaloo and trainiax what you have posted seems like good news. I read somewhere that GE's orders are huge (Number I remember is like over 2,000) and they have a major backlog. Shame EMD can't pick up some of it.

[tomjohn]

hetfieldkaloo and trainiax what you have posted seems like good news. I read somewhere that GE's orders are huge (Number I remember is like over 2,000) and they have a major backlog. Shame EMD can't pick up some of it.

We railroad enthusiasts,model railroaders have to remember that GENERAL ELECTRIC had a working relationship with ALCO at one time.

Tom

[MEC407]

On the topic of "How is EMD doing?": the folks at LIRR are still pretty unhappy with EMD, and apparently they're becoming more and more unhappy as time goes by and their EMD dual-mode locos become even more problematic. One recent news article said that EMD no longer provides any support for those locos, and also mentioned that Metro-North's GE dual-mode locos have been far more reliable than LIRR's.

Also of note is the fleet of ex-UP SD90MACs, which continue to shuffle around from shortline to shortline. UP was more than happy to get rid of them, and now it seems like EMD Leasing can't even give them away. KCS tried them out briefly, and quickly returned them in favor of GE B39-8s, which have proven to be much less of a headache.

EMD is obviously on the right track with the SD70ACe and the SD70M-2, but it seems like they're still burning a lot of bridges by not providing adequate support for their products from the recent past.

[Alcoman]

On the topic of "How is EMD doing?": the folks at LIRR are still pretty unhappy with EMD, and apparently they're becoming more and more unhappy as time goes by and their EMD dual-mode locos become even more problematic. One recent news article said that EMD no longer provides any support for those locos, and also mentioned that Metro-North's GE dual-mode locos have been far more reliable than LIRR's.

Also of note is the fleet of ex-UP SD90MACs, which continue to shuffle around from shortline to shortline. UP was more than happy to get rid of them, and now it seems like EMD Leasing can't even give them away. KCS tried them out briefly, and quickly returned them in favor of GE B39-8s, which have proven to be much less of a headache.

EMD is obviously on the right track with the SD70ACe and the SD70M-2, but it seems like they're still burning a lot of bridges by not providing adequate support for their products from the recent past.

Only if ALCO were still around.........

[Sam Damon]

On the topic of "How is EMD doing?": the folks at LIRR are still pretty unhappy with EMD, and apparently they're becoming more and more unhappy as time goes by and their EMD dual-mode locos become even more problematic. One recent news article said that EMD no longer provides any support for those locos, and also mentioned that Metro-North's GE dual-mode locos have been far more reliable than LIRR's.

I have been told by my main railroad industry source that EMD's "recently" redesigned electrical bits match or exceed the reliability of similar electrical bits in GE locomotives.

The same source also told me the Siemens electrical bits in earlier EMD AC locomotives were rather problematic, in part because Siemens did not want to share engineering data with EMD. As a result, EMD has gone to other manufacturers for their current electrical bits.

Hope this helps the discussion.