What does the future hold for Alco locomotives?

Ok, now lets get back to Alcos.....

The future? There isnt one. Some day they will be like steam engines, a few operating here and there....

GN 599 wrote:The future? There isnt one. Some day they will be like steam engines, a few operating here and there....

That maybe true for the U.S., Canada and Maybe Mexico. But places like Eastern Europe, Africa, and some with some of the the Asian country's it might be a bit diffident sent's many have made copy's of many of the ALCO and MLW units that they bought after WWII so some where out there an ALCO/MLW engine will purr out there even if it don't look like anything that was built in North America. Its up to fellow railfans to tell us about them.

I know I was just being dramatic. As long as there are parts for them people are going to use them. Especially 251 powered stuff.

Well, our friends at Fairbanks Morse manufacture the 251 engine still (THAT Fairbanks Morse), and the NASA crawler is powered by them, so any 251 Alco should be fine. HOWEVER!, we can expect any 539 Alco to be mostly consigned to museums that intend to run them.

The A&M is planning to retire its entire ALCO fleet in the next few years. See the story:

http://tinyurl.com/63mafy8

Get your pictures soon!

Alcoman

I read the article but no where did it say they were retiring their entire Alco fleet. Just that they were going to invest in some new locomotives.

Maybe not in the short term, BUT....

“The long term objective of the railroad is to grow and to make major investments in new locomotives,” said Guthrie. “As time goes on the new facility will allow them to work on those new locomotives, they are more cost effective, more green.”

It sounds like to me that they will phase out the Alcos as new power in purchased.

Well, this will be quite a shopping spree for any other Alco-friendly railroads that want to add to their fleets.

MEC407 wrote:Well, this will be quite a shopping spree for any other Alco-friendly railroads who want to add to their fleets.

Thats true. Lets just hope that the economy will improve to justify the purchase of additional ALCO's otherwise they could end up going to a scrapper.

MEC407 wrote:Well, this will be quite a shopping spree for any other Alco-friendly railroads that want to add to their fleets.

Hope that the LA&L is in the market...

Based on an article at Trains Newswire, the A&M does not plan on replacing their Alcos.

That is good news.......

So what is this "major investment in new locomotives" that the other article mentioned?

They will be buying 12 ALCO C855 sets. Rated at 8,800 hp each. Expected delivery date: April 1 2012.