by johnpbarlow
Engineer Spike wrote:I think this has everything to do with horsepower hours. Pan Am stays is perpetually in arrears. Sending a 3000 horsepower unit in run through service with CSX, or NS just doesn't add up fast enough. Same with sending a 3000 hp unit out to pay off hours. These larger engines can multiply the horsepower hours much faster.Interesting point. Pan Am would also be able to incur less NS/CSX horsepower hour debt as well as need fewer Pan Am engines if they would do less train parking and keep trains moving. Would need fewer taxi hours, too.
In the long run, the EMD 645 platform is obsolete. A good example was CP running 4 unit sets of SD40s, in the early 2000s, on D&H. They could sometimes reduce a unit if they happened to send 3 SOO SD60s. They could so the same work as 4 SD40s.
Pan Am could easily reduce the roster size with more capable units. FEC did this with the SD70M-2, and also the new GEs. Other regional carriers have even gone with AC power, such as MRL, and IAIS. This would save thousands with less fuel, and less units to repair, and maintain. A secondary savings with a smaller fleet is less mechanical staff.