Why AC locomotives are priced so much compared to it's DC counterpart? IIRC, there's about half million difference. Where's that came from? Is the inverter cost that much?
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Because you get what you pay for.
More complex and expensive electrical and computer gear, including at least one heavy duty transformer, not required with dc motor power. Much of the stuff needs reduncancy, also.
Both GE and EMD will be happy to sell you a version of their AC freight locomotives for roughly the same price as the comparable DC unit...the AC will just have 2 less traction motors( but the same general performance) than the DC unit (this is what BNSF has been buying lately)..
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The six-motor DC unit and the four-motor AC unit will perform differently when they are operating at speeds so low that the thermal protection circuits on the DC unit begin derating it to prevent its traction motors from overheating.
I think brand new DC traction mainline locos from either EMD or GE is soon going to be a thing of the past. BNSF's no longer buying DC, and neither is NS. And even CN recently announced they're going to buy ES44ACs and SD70ACes.
I wouldn't be surprised if DC traction becomes a special order option like high-short hoods in the 1970s and spartan cabs in the 1990s.
Lyon,
I stronglly suspect you are right about DC becoming a niche option. My guess is that AC will be cheaper than DC by the end of the decade.
- Erik
I agree.
I thought either EMD or GE was already pricing DC above or the same as AC. at a much higher margin obviously. Just to force the issue.
YoHo,
How do you know what the builders' margins are by product or product line?
Mac McCulloch
I have no idea. I'm assuming that if they have recently changed the price on DC to match AC and DC was much much lower. As much as 50% lower, that they would have to be getting better margin on the units.
Basically they're saying: We don't want to make DC anymore, but if you want it, you will pay through the nose and we will make it worth our while.
I'm not sure why that needed an explanation? It's not exactly a unique pricing technique.
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