Locomotives

With U. S. railroads well equipped, the principal immediate opportunity to increase sales of locomotives is to improve them and render them more economical than at present. If this can be done, the roads will scrap good but high cost engines, since the new equipment can be paid for out of operating economies.

Locomotive producers, spurred by the sag in the railway equipment business, have been hard at work at this problem for some time. The "Big Three"--American, Baldwin and Lima--are all getting somewhere with their attempts in this direction, too.

Baldwin has developed a Diesel engine which, it is claimed, can be used for either light or heavy traffic. Lima so far has stuck to the steam locomotive, but has perfected a large freight engine--the A 1-- which shows operating economies of 25% to 33%. American Locomotive has been experimenting even more widely.