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I have to agree with the general consensus that EMD is better. As a hoghead I hate GE's, they don't load when you want 'em to, they ride rough banging side to side, they vibrate everything in the cab, their wheel slip control systems sucks (especially if the wheels are unevenly worn),and they don't have any finess for slow speed things like making a joint. I will give 'em credit for good dynamic brakes, and on a long drag uphill with a heavy train they pull pretty good. EMD is definately the racehorse, GE's just don't seem to have any "legs" once you get over about 50mph. Give me 4 SD70M's on a long stack train and I'll outrun the same train with 4 Dash9 4400's even with the extra hp the GE's have (well, at least as long as the dispatcher lets us run). And as stated earlier in this forum, one of the reasons GE outsells EMD is cost/financing, another is production capability. I know that several years ago there was a railroad that wanted to by EMD, but needed the power yesterday, EMD couldn't build 'em in the time frame they wanted so they bought GE. Later they went back to EMD for the next order. It's interesting too, that both the big western roads have large amounts of EMD's (ie BNSF's SD70mac's, UP's 70m's, 90/43macs) where the eastern roads have a lot more GE stuff (at least the newer stuff). I would assume that with the longer line hauls of the western roads, that this would show some reliability concerns for the GE's where in the east with it's shorter hauls it's a cost thing. I know that on the UP, the new fleet of 70m's is running at almost 98% availibility, I don't think any GE fleet could touch that. And like what was said earlier, EMD's from the 60's are still running around every day, U-boats from that time are all but extinct, even some of the -7 series are getting pretty rare, and they are almost never rebuilt or given "life cycle extensions", where EMD's almost universally are. This has to point towards a better product over the course of it's life even if the initial cost is a little higher. <br />One other minor point about GE's, especially the older ones, nothing is the same on these things, you can get 2 units in the same series and on one the governor is on the conductor's side, the other it's on the engineer's side. These things must be a real pain to really work on because everything is just slapped on where ever someone felt like putting it that day at the plant. In summary, give me an EMD or give me the day off!!
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