Believe it or not but the railroad had standardized steam locomotives and
interchangeable parts long before the diesels came. In fact if you study the
early years of dieselization this was one of the major complaints, lack of
standardization and interchangeable parts. There was some commonality
between products of the same builders but that was as far as it went. Some
of them used different traction motors under different models, so their
interchangeability was not what everyone thinks it was.
Most of the railroads in North America did not have a regular amortization
and replacement policy for their cars and locomotives and while they bought
quite a few cars and locomotives in the early 1920's this died off and very
little was bought after the mid-1920's. The infrascture was equally as old
and as obsolete. Yes, they were ripe for change and saw the opportunity with
diesels as did the salesmen who were promoting it.
But there were exceptions. Take note of the Norfolk & Western. They kept
their fleet and facilities modern, and they had one stop servicing for their
steam locomotives, everything could be done without moving the locomotive.
They could come in off a trip and be fully fueled and serviced and be turned
around to go back to work in less than an hour because they had established
one stop servicing facilities. They had extremely high equipment utilization
and had very modern locomotives.
Some of your comments are the same used by the people who were promoting the
diesels and dieselization, the same as some of our politicians use today
when they want to promote pet projects. When you really get down to the
nitty gritty and look at the facts, they were not quite as bad as they made
out although in many cases they were.
Doug
