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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by rrandb How is is possible that vitually every railway system in the world has followed this path when statisticaly it is the wrong path. [/quote] How is it you have no capability to read what was proffered? 1. No railroad manager could have foreseen the short shelf life of those first diesels, except if they gave those diesels a sufficient period of service for such data collection. They were sold, lock stock & barrell, on the initial tests, and probably assumed that since steamers tended to last 30 to 50 years, and electrics seemed to last forever, the diesels would likewise have a long shelf life. You could probably give them a pass on that miscalculation then. 2. Up to the time of mass dieselization, railroad companies hadn't really experienced such entrenched financing schemes as laid out by EMD. I am sure they had no idea of the long term negative effects such debt accumulation would have on the companies' ROI. They again just assumed that based on the initial tests regarding diesels' performance, the savings would offset any such debt. You can probably give them a pass on that then, who'duv known? 3. As stated before, they had no prior cause to believe that diesels would not last long and be relatively maintenance free. By the time the truth hit, steam manufacturing had ceased, all locomotive manufacturers had shifted production to diesel, so there was no turning back. THAT is why N & W capitulated to dieselization, they no longer had any suppliers of steam parts, and to continue to home build steam with custom made parts would have been prohibitively expensive. You will also notice that those other rail systems all over the world dieselized well after the US. US steam was king, and now the king was dead. Combine that practical fact with this inherent need of nations to be perceived as modern and progressive, and it was a cinch dieselization would take place worldwide. 4. Of course, most electric systems worldwide have stayed electric, so dieselization hasn't really replaced the "older" electric concept. In that vein your statement is in error.
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