For repowering with a CAT engine, by Progress Rail (former CEECO shop, PR owned by CAT)

These were rebuilt just a few years ago by MPI in Boise with Detroit diesels replacing the EMD prime movers. This was done to create a more enviromentaly friendly locomotive, no doubt at the insistence of local authorities and subsidized by CARB (as in taxpayer's money).

Detroit was actually fronting the MTU diesel design. Rumor has it that the MTU diesels were not reliable. MTUs have been used elsewhere in the world in loco service, but this was apparently their first application in the United States.

The "official" explanation is that the re-repowering is to have the cleanest running locomotives available.

Brookville has also used MTU engines, and taxpayer's are again paying for more of them. See link: MTU diesels For anybody that has ever worked on a locomotive, these engines look like a nightmare to repair.


Expect to see more of this type of work. A "dirty little secret" about most gen-set locos is that the engines are not designed to last the lifetime of the locomotive like an EMD, GE or Alco engine is. Within a few years we will start seeing all the current gen-set locos being re-engined with whatever new and improved compliant engines are in voge at that time.