Re Ted's description of the economics of dieselization, I recall an EMD ad that said a diesel will pay for itself, through cost savings, in two years. But, it still should be recalled, it took 3 and 4 diesels to beat a big steam locomotive.
Mark
While it might have taken 3 or 4 diesels at the head end of a train to out perform one superpower steam locomotive diesels had such an advantage in availability and flexibility that the overall ration of diesel units purchased to steam locomotives replaced was much closer to 1 to1, sometimes better.
Diesels spent so much less time being fueled, watered, having ashes dumped, boilers washed and repaired, and so on that a three unit set could do much more work than any one Berkshire. And that three unit set had the flexibility be broken into two units for a local while one unit switched a yard. A railroad might have bought 30 GP9s and replaced 12 Berkshires, 12 Mikados and six 0-8-0s.
