Hey Engineeers...?

Question

I am a young conductor and I was wondering what Power by the Mile means on some locomotives, especially the old SP and Cotton Belt units.

Answer 1

Hog, that was SP!  All the other roads had failure rates of around 0.015% :)

Answer 2

Power by the Mile referenced a renewed commitment to maintenance.  For a time, the failure rate of locomotives was running 38%.  If you had a four bagger, one of 'em would die before you could get the train out of town.