Chicago conferees get the latest scoop on equipment - Rail Equipment Finance '91

Railway Age, May, 1991 by Anthony Kruglinski

"This is a dramatically greater number than a year ago and explains the extremely soft locomotive leasing marketplace. Even more significant, there appears to be additional units that soon will be surplus and introduced into this soft market well before anyone anticipates an increased demand. This and the current nationwide economic situation helps to explain the dearth of program type rebuild work in the market."

Finally, the conference was noteworthy for some other news:

* Either deprescription of railcar hire rates (as proposed by Eastern Class I's, large lessors and many short lines) really won't have any negative impact on car supply or, if you believe a number of regionals and smaller Class I's and lessors, it is a thinly veiled plot to glean a present return (due to a 10 year freezing of car hire rates as quid pro quo for a free market in the year 2000) at the expense of investment in new and rebuilt cars.

* General Motors is about to introduce a new high horsepower locomotive with an advanced radial truck design that bends in an "articulated" fashion on curves. This results in reduced wheel and rail wear on curves. The tractive power of the locomotive will increase from 3800 horsepower to 4000 horsepower. This has been achieved by refinements in auxiliary systems which use horsepower as well as refinements in the existing engine.