Re: How many NR locos are now written of?

[mauried@commslab.gov.au (Maurie Daly)]

In article <909747244.353688@woody.hotkey.net.au> "Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au> writes:
>From: "Michael Walker" <walker@hotkey.net.au>
>Subject: Re: How many NR locos are now written of?
>Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 22:37:32 +1100


>>Its interesting that in the early stages of the formation of NR they
>>estimated that only 80 new locos would be needed, but later on increased
>the
>>order to 120 , and at the same time the existing interstate Rail freight
>>market was approx 14 million tonnes total , its now around 10 million
>>tonnes.
>>Given that NR knew that they would inherit a substantial number of existing
>>locos from the old AN, PTC and SRA as the shareholders agreement required
>>its difficult to see why so many new ones were needed to handle the current
>>freight task , even if one assumes that NR retained its monopoly on
>>Interstate freight , which was never guaranteed.
>>
>I thought it was more because the locos they received from the shareholders
>were by no means the best locos in the shareholders fleets (why give the
>future competition an even break...especially when you they skim off some of
>your most profitable services to start with) and were apparently pretty
>unreliable, especially the NSW 80 class. Hence the need for more new locos -
>this way they get cheaper to run, standardised (hence simpler maintenance
>arrangements than 10 different classes of loco from different manufacturers
>amongst other benefits) loco fleet, even if it costs a lot up front. I'm
>sure I read that with the introduction of the new locos, their fuel bill
>dropped significantly - can't remember where I read it but probably an old
>Network (must be an old edition, I haven't bought it or its descendants for
>a while)

>I hardly think 80 class or C class locos are much to build your fleet on -
>except for maybe Austrac...8^)


There not , but the 80s and the Cs were never intended to be transferred to 
NRC, and never were .
NRC ended up buying the Vline Cs for a song , around $100 K each.
NRC however did receive from the 3 shareholders the following locomotives
ANX10
DLX15
BLX10
ELX 14 (these were refused)
81X at least 20 possibly 26
G X 10 
ie NRC could have received up to 84 modern locomotives if they had wanted them 
all.
Now admittedly some of these locos have been badly damaged in accidents , and 
no attempt has been made to fix any of them.

By my reckoning this gives NRC a potential fleet of at least 194 modern 
locomotives , all to move a miniscule annual tonnage of 10 million tonnes , 
the lowest of any Govt Railway system.
There is no doubt that NRC did need to buy new locos , but not 120 of them .
If one beleives NRCs own annual report they run 300 trains per week , and to 
achieve an annual total tonnage of 10 million tonnes , this amounts to 192300 
tonnes per week , which in 300 trains averages around 641 tonnes per train.
Obviously some trains will carry more , some less , but its pretty obvious 
that a loco fleet of 194 locos is not needed to move 300 trains per week.
This amounts to 1.5 trips per week per loco.
Now either NRC are carrying lots of air , or all of their trains are running 
between between Sydney and Perth, as this is the only scenerio that would come 
even close .
In reality what is happening is that NRC are running all of their trains with 
very high HP/tonne figures, ie lots of locos on every train .
This really doesnt achieve very much though , apart from increasing the trains 
running costs.
I suspect that NRC are in the same bind as the SRA , ie they have to pay a 
minimum monthly lease payment on every new loco, irrespective of how much they 
are used, so you may as well use them all.
It does nothing for your profitability though.

MD