A question to the experts.
How do these bogies compare to those of say the NSW 82 class. These dont appear to have the same type of horn guide liners that the 82 class (and many more EMD's) have. That is not to say there aren't any liners inside that are welded in discretely. Also there are no external tabs to limit transverse movement, only inner ones it seems. EMD seem to put both inner and outer if I am correct there. So when comes time to rebuild these bogies, how much different, simpler or more difficult is it to rebuild? I personally am of the opinion that the bolt on liners typical of the cast EMD bogie is the way to go, being fairly standard item and simple to do. I think the axleboxes still get a liner welded on, I imagine it would be hard to get bolts in there to avoid welding.
The other thing I noticed from a photo of the CM class in Railway Digest, is the location of the dummy MU cable socket. It is interestingly low to the ground, as well as the cable that was provided for that loco in that photo at that time was very long, almost hanging as low as the cowcatcher which seems like a bad idea. Why would they put a dummy MU socket in such a place? Seems like putting one at the same height as the real ones would be a clever idea, as its what everyone else does and works. Brings the cable off the ground a bit. But then they could put the cable onboard the loco elsewhere when not in use so it doesnt cause a problem, but most other locos have one hanging off them. Kind of strange looking when you study it too I think. The NG CBH locos have the real sockets just under the anticlimber, and the dummy in the same place as the CM class, but the loco I saw had the cable removed. It would appear that the cable on these locos is far to long to fit in the real and dummy socket without dragging on the ground. The NG locos also appear to at one point had the MU sockets mounted in the aniticlimber, but I suppose when going through a curve the cable may foul the opposite unit. There are blanked off holes about the right size there directly above the current location.
I think these locos look quite smart. It will be interesting to see how the build quality compares to everything else.
