Norfolk Southern, whose rebuild programs at present tend to remind me of big shop rebuilds of old (think Santa Fe), has rebuilt a number of things and most of us believe it is to avoid the costs and uncertainty of purchasing new units meeting Tier 4 requirements. Their shortest lived program so far has been to rebuild C40-8s. That was the "Dash 8.5" program. There have not been any rebuilds since the first small batch. CSX also sent a small batch back to GE for a .5 rebuild of some sort, and no more have been seen since. So, there does appear to be limiting factors for Dash 8 rebuilds.

That said, NS is full on with a program to have its earlier C40-9s rebuilt into what are essentially AC4400s, or the "DC to AC" program. Reports from crews running these things are that they are solid units, and the program is being continued on a large scale, with both NS and GE performing the rebuilds.

From what I have seen, the future for the Dash 8 series is shortlines and regionals seeking locomotives which can be bought on the cheap, and acetylene torches.

Mike Derrick