Without doing a lot of hunting on the DC vs AC power in locomotives ...
The majority of locomotives in service (and even being ordered) are still DC driven. Cost being a major reason.
Limited clarification about the following ... on a locomotive you have an engine turning a power supply (generator or alternator) and each axle has a motor.
Significant difference in pulling utilization... with a DC motor you can only operated it so long at max amperage before you start burning out components (I don't recall brushes/commutators?). So if you've got a heavy train on an uphill grade and drop below certain speeds you can't apply more power ... you can't crawl up a grade.
Because the A/C motors are built differently... you can crawl... forever with the throttle wide open without impacting the motors. So if you're the engineer and have a train that is underpowered it just takes longer to get that but you can with patience. On a DC unit you either take the train over the hill in two parts... or you wait on an additional locomotive. Fancier hardware though adds significantly to the price so most RR's have opted to manage their DC units better up to this point.
There's a couple of RR guys on here that can probably speak to it better... and some of the electrical guys can too.
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Today's Featured Article - Grain Threshing in the Early 40's - by Jerry D. Coleman. How many of you can sit there and say that you have plowed with a mule? Well I would say not many, but maybe a few. This story is about the day my Grandfather Brown (true name) decided along with my parents to purchase a new Ford tractor. It wasn't really new except to us. The year was about 1967 and my father found a good used Ford 601 tractor to use on the farm instead of "Bob", our old mule. Now my grandfather had had this mule since the mid 40's and he was getting some age on him. S
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