Railworks America

There has been no "real" news on what is going on, but keep this on your radar. Caterpillar, the owners of Progress Rail, who makes our former favorite locomotives, had their Illinois offices raided by the feds. The raid involved several agencies, including the IRS and the FDIC. Sounds like some sort of money troubles.

I heard this on the news at work all day. I thought to myself if the news people are not going to tell me why the authorities are there, It is a complete non-item.
"We'll tell you more when we know what we're talking about" and now the weather.
I think I'll stick to tunes at my shop.

They were involved with Russian hacking.

"The investigation appears to stem from revelations about the company's tax strategy as outlined in a 2009 federal wrongful termination lawsuit brought by Daniel Schlicksup. The lawsuit alleged the company shifted profits overseas and to offshore shell companies to avoid paying more than $2 billion in U.S. taxes. Schlicksup settled the suit in 2012."

http://www.pjstar.com/news/20170302/fed ... estigation

Hmm, 2 billion. Tell you what, Caterpillar. Sell EMD back to GM, and we will make this just go away...

JerryC wrote:Hmm, 2 billion. Tell you what, Caterpillar. Sell EMD back to GM, and we will make this just go away...

I wholeheartedly agree !

JerryC wrote:Hmm, 2 billion. Tell you what, Caterpillar. Sell EMD back to GM, and we will make this just go away...

And GM will go back to rolling out locomotives before Caterpillarr took over. I wonder what new creations EMD + GM would bring out.

ZekTheKid wrote:

JerryC wrote:Hmm, 2 billion. Tell you what, Caterpillar. Sell EMD back to GM, and we will make this just go away...

And GM will go back to rolling out locomotives before Caterpillarr took over. I wonder what new creations EMD + GM would bring out.

Garbage just like the ACes.

BNSFdude wrote:

ZekTheKid wrote:

JerryC wrote:Hmm, 2 billion. Tell you what, Caterpillar. Sell EMD back to GM, and we will make this just go away...

And GM will go back to rolling out locomotives before Caterpillarr took over. I wonder what new creations EMD + GM would bring out.

Garbage just like the ACes.

I could tell from the start that the 710 is something engineers hate because of the noise level, I presume? A GEVO-12 is much quieter at idle than a 710. I've heard both side by side at notch 4 and the SD70MAC nearly drowned out the ES40DC.
But in all seriousness, if GM just took off from the SD70ACe-T4, would they just disregard it and go back to the old 710 with more sound, or advance off the 1010 engine?

Without DEF after treatment, the 710 can't meet EPA Tier 4. The 710 will not make a come back in main stream locomotive service.

The vindication of ACes has nothing to do with the 710, but rather the terrible cab design, engine placement, and lackluster traction/DB output.

Of which the cab design and engine mounting changes on the ACe-T4 has remedied those glaring issues. As far as performance, I'm not sure yet.

The ACE is terribly loud in the cab even with their "isolated cab" because they moved the DBs from behind the cab to behind the auxiliary rack, and moved the engine further forward, closer to the cab. A really stupid move by their designers, and if they thought the noise of the DB grid blowers was louder than the engine to warrant the change, they're wrong.