On 10-11-97 BOB WALLACE wrote to DON DELLMANN... 
 
 As many times as Southern Pacific rebuilt their 
 BW> "Cadillacs" (the SD9s), one would have to think that the railroad 
 BW> owned 
 BW> those from the get-go, going over them every few years to keep them up 
 BW> and running. At the very least, it kept the former Sacramento Shops 
 BW> with 
 BW> lots of work to do. 
Look at the market all those Geeps and Cadillacs created when they and UP 
finally 
sold them all off. I can think of at least four leasing/rebuilders that 
bought 
batches of them, and maybe a dozen shortlines. A successful shortline in a 
couple 
of years will be one that buys up a few secondhand GP38's, as they start to 
be  
retired by the big guys. Even B23's (aka Beaten Twennythrees) should make the 
resale market.  
 
  
  
  
  
  BW>   
 BW> You're right, though, about how obtuse the laws and/or bookkeeping 
 BW> ideas 
 BW> might be for the average guy on the street who sees virtually nothing 
 BW> but new (or nearly so) locomotives pulling freight duty all over the 
 BW> countryside. Noted just a few days ago that U.P. is stating that their 
 BW> fleet of engines is the youngest around, with an average age of 13.7 
 BW> years. 
Somehow I don't see the situation with Geeps and GP38's repeating itself with 
big 6 axle power in 15 to 20 years, though. All that creative financing from 
GE and EMD will come due, and then the big roads will have to decide whether 
to 
buy and rebuild them or what. And with the cost of them now at around 3 1/2 
to 
5 million each, imagine what a new locomotive will be in 20 years.  
                                    K 
-*- 
 * OFFLINE 1.56 * I have a mind like a steel trap. Unfortunately, it's rusty, 
too! 
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