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Well, the easy answer is sort of. They are too much power, and really are kind of a niche locomotive. Original intent was long haul stack train/manifest where you could put 2 of 'em in place of 3 or 4 units, the problem arose when they weren't as reliable as they needed to be. GE had engine problems, as well as some traction motor and software problems. EMD has had primarily software problems as well as some ride issues. On the UP they sent the EMD's back for software mod's and some other work, the GE's have been getting attention from GE somewhere (Pine Bluff contract shop perhaps?) but they weren't sent back. The EMD's were then assigned to I-5 corridor manifest service where they were apparently working ok, as they are now being assigned to stack trains again (but not in pairs as originally intended, usually with a couple of 70M's). The GE's fixes may not have been quite as robust, as you see them roaming around and not really assigned to anything, you get 'em on grain, manifest, stacks (very occaisionally), even saw one once on a coal train. If I had to guess, you probably won't see any more orders for 6000 horse units for quite a while, and you definately won't see the "convertables" (9043MAC's or the AC4400/6000's) converted up to the 6000 horse engines. Having run both types of units, my preference is the EMD's, the GE's still have that tremendous period where you wonder if they are ever going to load, (the EMD doesn't load as fast as other EMD's, but still a lot faster than the GE), also the EMD got tagged for being bouncy (due in part to the isolated cab), but I would rather bounce than shimmy side to side like the GE's do at speed (above 50 or so).
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