I received an unusual question this week - What would be the typical contents of a new locomotive bid package?

Sharing the answer here. This varies with manufacturers and time period, so I will provide a list specific for EMD in the 1970s. This would be in response to a typical request from a private company:

1. The Locomotive Bid is provided in a binder with cover or title page showing:

a. Name of company requesting the bid.
b. Identification of document as a locomotive bid.
c. Bid request identification number.
d. Identity of any intermediary parties (Engineering firm, etc.)
e. Identity of any sales agent.
f. Electro-Motive Division GMC
g. Proposal Number and date

2. Conveyance letter stating origin and destination (person requesting bid).

3. Bid offer page (s).

4. Terms and conditions page(s).

5. List of optional equipment.

6. List of exceptions taken.

7. Locomotive Specification page (s). Basically an unbound copy of Specification Book.

8. Instruction on shipment and storage of locomotives.

9. Instruction on preparation for service.

10. Instruction on fuel requirements.

11. Product warranty procedures handbook.

12. Locomotive general arrangement, weights, and lifting point diagram.

13. Instruction on reading electrical schematic diagrams.

14. Copy of locomotive electrical schematic diagram (s).

Note that response to a government or military request would usually be quite different, following the requirements set by the agency.


PC

I'm assuming that all locomotives of a specific model were not wired the same, however, I am curious if each order was specific or if there were a number of optional wiring packages. If order specific, is there a catalog of schematics based on order or serial numbers?
Good info

When a new locomotive type was introduced EMD would release a basic schematic for manuals and training use in non-dynamic brake and dynamic brake (if applicable) versions. As customers ordered locomotives, order-specific schematics were issued. Usually schematics applied to only one customer.

Twenty years ago a few people at EMD would help you get a schematic. I don't know of any now, and there is no public accessible library. It is an area where preservationists might have been more active if they had realized what was coming.

The EMD generic wiring schematics for some of the most common SW, GP and F series units in museum collections are posted in the HRA technical library.

A few pre-1960 EMD locomotive schematics were updated from the original enormous "bed sheet" drawings to the now-common "book" format by Conrail, BN, and others.

PC

A lot of work must have gone into this package. Did many railroads make EMD go through this whole process only to get sticker shock and back out when they made it to the money part?

Whether EMD chose to submit a bid or proposal depended on the level of business at the time, the shop work load, the complexity of the customer request, and occasionally the business reputation of the customer and attitude of their officers. They definitely did not bid on all invitations.

During my years there, there were times when requests for single units or small orders were not bid because the request details made it impractical. There was also a famous incident when the General Sales Manager (GSM) chose not to bid a 2nd time, because the customer used tiny technical detail nitpicking during the first round of bidding to call for a 2nd round, having shown all the competitors the pricing. The GSM took this as a sleazy attempt to force everyone to a lower price. He was right, in the 2nd round a competitor who had been much higher in price submitted a bid below the 1st round lowest price. The competitor won the job but subsequently lost millions building it.

Over the years I encountered a few bid packages from various builders that pertained to locomotives that never materialized, either the business went to a competitor or nothing was awarded at all. They will eventually be preserved at the Barriger Library.

Questions about how new locomotives are bid and sold are so uncommon that I thought it was worth sharing this one. The process of selling of new locomotives has occasionally been discussed in programs at RR Museum of Pennsylvania Members Day and articles in R&LHS Railroad History (Example: Issue #213, Pages 64-81, "Selling the Diesel"). The cited R&LHS article also provides a description of the sales, delivery, and title documentation process, and the after-sales support of the products. I don't know of any other Preservation organizations that have ever hosted anything covering the builder sales organizations. If there are, perhaps someone will comment.

PC

A batch of locomotive fleet modernization and replacement studies was recently shipped to Barriger Library, mostly Dash-2 era vs. 1950s vintage stuff.

PC

Love to see SDP40F and F40PH bid package. Might also shead some light on the rumor with that the SDP40F was made to quickly be converted to a freight locomotive they weren't expecting Amtrak to survive and they wanted an asset they could sell off more easily.

Which way and in what order did the information flow? Did the customer 1st tell EMD what they wanted, or did EMD 1st tell the prospective customer what EMD was willing to build and what choices and options might be allowed?
I didn't see anything about payment terms and financing.

The customer requesting proposals normally states any weight and dimensional restrictions. clearance card requirements, and curve restrictions, as well as horsepower requirements and general performance parameters, in their request for proposals (RFP).

EMD would usually design their equipment to meet the needs of the largest possible number of large fleet customers. Specialty locomotives like the SDL39 were relatively rare unless a customer could guarantee a reasonable order quantity or the unit had possible export market potential. Some domestic models had successful export adaptations like the SW1001 units built for the ONCF in Morocco in the 1980s.

PC

There were people in the industry who participated in the process and were willing to talk about it, but relatively few historical groups were interested, and years went by and the people passed or were incapacitated by medical problems. Now the opportunity has mostly been lost. The EMD person who submitted the bid in both cases was Warren Fox. He retired in the 1980s and passed away in 2016.

PC

I'd like to see the package that went to Foster Yeoman in the UK for that SW 1001. As I understand FY was looking for two locomotives to share a 3-trick job and EMD proposed one SW 1001.

They bought the single unit; it did cover a 3-trick job and led to the EMD Class 59 and 66 road locomotives for UK and European freighht trains.

Biggest US sale since the Norris 4-2-0's conquered the Lickey Incline in 1840

Phil Mulligan

The EMD Sales Manager who handled those transactions recently did a program for an NRHS chapter in New Jersey.

PC

From everything I have read over the years the biggest issue with the SDP40F series and their derailment problems could possibly be traced to having the boiler water tanks above the frame instead of dividing the fuel tank. Especially with how large the water tanks were 1500 gallons thats 24k pounds sloshing around on 70s Era tracks that were not in the best of shape. Looking at the railroads were they didn't have problems with them they were those with better track maintenance programs.

Yes indeed, the dynamic effects of the free surface in the carbody water tank, and the weight differential between an SDP40F and a trailing baggage car, were matters of great concern at the time.

PC

This should give you an idea of what surge can do. I was the unlucky driver to get a half load of sulphuric acid for a customer in a tanker trailer. We didn't have a compartment tank to put it into so a standard smooth bore was used. Just imagine 30k pounds of weight going backwards and forwards and side to side all the time while suspended 7 feet in the air. The one time I had to make an emergency stop it slammed me so hard I literally was shoved 20 feet forward after coming to a stop. This was with 20 psi of nitrogen as a blanket to try and keep it contained.