Why did BN never get widecab GE's?

[Jmusolf]

Since my last thread in the BN section sort of had to do with BN and GE, it made me wonder. Seems like in the 1990s just about every major class I railroad ordered widecab GE products except for Burlington Northern. Does anyone have any insight as to why this was or was it just BN's loyalty to EMD?

[scottychaos]

Probably a combination of two things:

1. as you said, BN did prefer EMD's.

2. Just timing..GE Widecabs didnt become common until the early 90's, and BN ceased to exist in '96.
So during that short time, perhaps they simply didnt need new power, or if they did, they bought EMD.
If BN had lasted another 5 years, they probably would have had GE widecabs..

some quick googling shows they bought over three hundred SD70MAC's between '93 and '96.
New GE's were simply not needed then..

So im offering that as the most likely theory..just timing.

Scot

[Engineer Spike]

Who knows why they were so pro Chevy at the end They got the cab less B30s, then did the LMX B39-8 and Oak way SD60 deals before getting the SD60M fleet. EMD and BN must have had some arrangement for the development of AC traction with the SD60MAC, then SD70MAC. This was the first large scale production of AC traction. Maybe because EMD was behind GE in production, they were more willing to do something outside of the box.