Is the Genset era over?

I don't keep up with all parts of the country, motive powerwise, but is anyone getting gensets any longer? I know one major class 1, NS, came out in print and said they were junk. I have not noted any new ones recently. I would assume railroads that run in California might have different rules, and the same might apply to switching roads in major metropolitan areas, but are any railroads buying them now? What became of the builders?

And in this era of no new 4 axles, I would think it would be useful to have the sacrificed locomotives that were converted to gensets back to use/rebuild into conventional locomotives.

train2 wrote:I don't keep up with all parts of the country, motive powerwise, but is anyone getting gensets any longer? I know one major class 1, NS, came out in print and said they were junk. I have not noted any new ones recently. I would assume railroads that run in California might have different rules, and the same might apply to switching roads in major metropolitan areas, but are any railroads buying them now? What became of the builders?

There are a few Gensets still being bought by BNSF, but you can count the numbers with the fingers on one hand

And in this era of no new 4 axles, I would think it would be useful to have the sacrificed locomotives that were converted to gensets back to use/rebuild into conventional locomotives.

There is new four-axle locomotives being built, CP has taken delivery of 130 GP20C-ECO locomotives over the last three years. The fact that the are called rebuilds is a sham to allow them to meet a lower emissions standard, Tier 0+, rather than Tier 3. EMD has built several thousand earlier locomotives, with what were called "Trade-ins" that reused a few parts off the older locomotive, Like all the Seaboard Cost Line U36B locomotives that had old EMD F-units rebuilt into new GE locomotives, only the trucks were reused.

train2 wrote:I don't keep up with all parts of the country, motive powerwise, but is anyone getting gensets any longer?

Well, to some extent: RailServe Leaf Genset Switcher.
If you go to the photos section, with a little effort you'll recognize the original models of these rebuilds - the GP30 rebuild is especially easy to identify.
How many of these gen-set locomotives are actually in revenue service (well, used by clients' for in-plant switching) is an exercise left to the reader.