Re: SD40s for ASR?

[Richard <richard_snook@primus.com.au>]

An interesting aside to this..all totally speculation of course is that it is
intersting that SD40's are supposedly chosen...not overly surprising for
availability...as up until recently they were of course the most numerous of
any locomotive...but intersting as they are the darling of the rebuild
scene..into SD40-3's...they get to be threes mainly through the installation
of Q-tron slip control..from WABASH..now ..via FA.. WABASH now have greater
presence in OZ..is all this coincidence???

It still strikes me as strange that you would go to the length to bring a
whole loco here only to strip it for parts...again probably easier to strip
them in US..or buy off shelf spares..unless of course you are picking up these
locos at bargain basement prices..which is possible given the mass dumping of
these locos by UP and others lately!!

If 422's are for the Darwin line it re-opens the cunundrum of where these
phantom(?) essdees are bound for??
The thick plottens!!

>:~)) Richard




Rod Gayford wrote:
> 
> This is exactly my thoughts on the subject.  Even if they bought complete
> locos in the USA surely they would strip them for the required parts and go
> to the expense of bringing the whole unit out.  And if they did strip in the
> US surely their local subsidiary could use the spare parts.  If you are only
> running a couple of trains  a day it could be possible to run the SD40's
> from Adelaide to Darwin without damaging the track too much.  They run
> SD40's on reasonably light industrial branches etc in the US.  Maybe some
> weight could be pared off to make them suitable. A lot of US diesels are
> actually ballasted.  I am not saying this is what will actually happen but
> just an educated guess.
> Cheers