Last RR to roster EMD?

Or maybe, last “big” RR?

I know the LI was a huge mash up of mostly Alco, with some FM thrown in for fun

It wasn’t until the 70s that they finally bought EMDs. Supposedly, over the prior years, they’d test a demo, return it, never order any.

In any case, did anyone hold out longer than the LI?

Can't off-hand rink of one (in North America: British Rail got it's first EMDs in, I think, the 1980s).
D&H is an interesting case. They got the SD-45 demonstrators (so, mid-late 1960s), but traded them to EL for U33C. So they didn't regularly operate "their" EMDs until the "trade" was canceled about the time ConRail was established in 1976. (They also got some GP-39-2 in, I think, 1976: EMD was able to give earlier delivery than GE).

I would go with the Chicago South Shore and South Bend. They didn't get there first EMD until 1978.

And then there's the Green Bay and Western. They never operated an EMD. Almost exclusively Alco with the exception of a couple of GE switchers.

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For short lines, Morristown & Erie was all Alco until 20 (SW1500) joined the fleet in the late 1990s. They are now
all EMD.

Part of the later reason in the 1960s for Long Island's Alco purchase was New York State. I can't speak for their purchase reasons under Pennsylvania control, since PRR was a big GM customer. They did have FM and Baldwin purchases under PRR, but later on, even before the MTA takeover, funding was provided. My uncle was a LIRR employee. He once mentioned that Alco was the favored vendor for locomotives because Alco was within New York. I don't exactly know if it was a policy, or if it was pork thrown the way of representatives representing the Schenectady area.

Engineer Spike-- This, of course, on a much larger scale, is why BR was so late in acquiring EMD locomotives. EMD had put in proposals at the time of the BR "modernization scheme" in the 1950s, and apparently at least some of BR's technical people liked them. But, politically, it was made clear that only British manufacturers were welcome.

Engineer Spike wrote: ↑Wed Oct 02, 2024 1:40 pm They did have FM and Baldwin purchases under PRR, but later on, even before the MTA takeover, funding was provided. My uncle was a LIRR employee. He once mentioned that Alco was the favored vendor for locomotives because Alco was within New York. I don't exactly know if it was a policy, or if it was pork thrown the way of representatives representing the Schenectady area.

This "made in NY" policy continued with the DE30/DM30s at Super Steel, which was also pork.

I forgot that they were built at Super Steel. At the time SS was building UP's large SD70M order too. We would get them headed west for delivery sometimes on the D&H.