Recieved this on the railswest yahoogroup "CPRail New Locos for Fall 2003 CP SD70Ms Good news on the horizon? Sources have it that CP will be receiving 10 SD70Ms before the 15th of September, 2003. The units are being accepted in lieu of dollars owed by GMLG to CP and will be the first new DC units acquired by Canadian Pacific since 1995."
I had read this the other day on Trainorders. Why does GM owe CP so much money? It must be cheaper for GM to pay off in locomotives, rather than cash. What's the story here?
Possibly, GMDD may owe compensation for down time as part of the guarantee that was provided with the SD90MAC-H's which have been failing quite often. From memory, the last I read about these units a few days back was they were all offline through various mechanical failures, mostly engine/generator related. Anyone? They should stick with Soo's SD40-2's and SD60's.
Sounds like the SD90MAC is going to be the SD45 of the new millenium. At first everyone wanted them, then they turned out to be unreliable and then nobody wanted them. I was about to say look for shortlines and regionals to be running 90 MACs soon, but then Vermont Railway already is!
Vermont Railways WAS running them, summer of 2000 only. They ended up with three ex Tex-Mex GP60s - the 6 axles were too big I guess. As for CP getting 10 SD70s, there are a couple of points I'd like to bring up. -10 units would make it a real oddball to handle, not really fleet-level which is what the SD70 is designed for. Unless there is a future possible order in the works? -CP's staple SD40-2s are aging, and rumor has it the SOO SD60s won't be around too much longer (old rumor but who knows). -CP has bought only AC power since 1995, as noted. SD70s for DC staple to replace the aging DC fleet? -Why not the SD90/43MAC? They already have those. I'll answer myself - not listed on EMD's webpage. So who knows. I'll take it with a grain of salt until I see a Beaver SD70M, but I won't rule it out.
Couple more "maybe's" to think through... Could it be viewed as something of a demo or trial on both sides? Maybe 10x SD70M is more than the debt is worth but EMD has their eye on a big fleet of old SD40-2 and hopes of a UP-scale order? In terms of usage, do CP have any localised heavy traffic, an example would be the Florida traffic that CSX seem to keep their ex-EMD lease SD70M's based on? If there was a fairly local pool for them then maintainence presumably wouldn't be as much of a big issue. 15 year leases seem pretty common in the industry these days from what i've seen, so when were the SD60's delivered? Late 80's? I wouldn't bet against them dissapearing...but then I don't know how they were financed, if SOO bought them outright rather than leased they could be running round for another 15 years... Anyone know any more on that? [ 21. May 2003, 09:58: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
Yes, the first set of SOO SD60's were due up in January of this year and proceeding from there through June I believe. I have heard that the lease has been renewed, but not on a length of this renewal. As for an area where they could be used regularly, I am unsure at this point but I wouldn't mind em on the D&H! That would keep them in relatively captive service. SD40-2s have been the norm down here, with the occasional SD60. They don't trust the guys with AC power yet.
I don't know about CP's 90MAC's, but UP's seem to have the bugs worked out of them. I also remember UP loaning CP 3 SD70M's last year, wonder if that helped in the desision to start picking up some. I bet those SD70M's will look good in the red. Greg Elems
