by Guest » April 27, 2026, 7:19 pm
With about 25 seasons of service on it, I doubt it ever goes into another large vessel's engine room.
While an engine is expensive and a pre-owned one would be a cost savings, the shipyard time makes it a bit of a non-starter since the bill is still going to be expensive. If you're say Interlake Steamship and repowering with an eye towards another 30-40 years of service, starting out with an old engine just doesn't add up.
Maybe for something like a tugboat though, since we do see preowned diesels going into things like fishing boats and older tugboats from time to time (and there's a lot of Caterpillar 3608's out there in tugs). And such work on a smaller vessel doesn't have to happen at an expensive shipyard with the vessel on blocks in a drydock.
It's worth noting that Caterpillar parts are expensive (it's why for instance that many a Cat repowered locomotive in the US has been retired and scrapped by shortlines and regional railroads, since EMD's are so much cheaper to acquire parts for). So I imagine that's why her 3608 seemingly isn't being cut up. It's more valuable to sell to someone, perhaps for parting out, rather than to scrap. I believe that a running Cat of this vintage for instance can be around $50-$100k on the open market (which no doubt must be well above scrap value).
With about 25 seasons of service on it, I doubt it ever goes into another large vessel's engine room.
While an engine is expensive and a pre-owned one would be a cost savings, the shipyard time makes it a bit of a non-starter since the bill is still going to be expensive. If you're say Interlake Steamship and repowering with an eye towards another 30-40 years of service, starting out with an old engine just doesn't add up.
Maybe for something like a tugboat though, since we do see preowned diesels going into things like fishing boats and older tugboats from time to time (and there's a lot of Caterpillar 3608's out there in tugs). And such work on a smaller vessel doesn't have to happen at an expensive shipyard with the vessel on blocks in a drydock.
It's worth noting that Caterpillar parts are expensive (it's why for instance that many a Cat repowered locomotive in the US has been retired and scrapped by shortlines and regional railroads, since EMD's are so much cheaper to acquire parts for). So I imagine that's why her 3608 seemingly isn't being cut up. It's more valuable to sell to someone, perhaps for parting out, rather than to scrap. I believe that a running Cat of this vintage for instance can be around $50-$100k on the open market (which no doubt must be well above scrap value).