General Motors Diesel
Encyclopedia
General Motors Diesel was a Canadian
railway diesel locomotive
manufacturer.
located in the United States
. Tariffs protected Canadian manufacturers against imported goods, thus many companies wanting to do business in Canada set up controlled or wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada.
Montreal Locomotive Works
(MLW) in Montreal, Quebec, was created for just this reason building steam locomotive
s and later diesel (diesel-electric) locomotives to the designs of U.S. parent Alco (American Locomotive Company
). Likewise, the Canadian Locomotive Company
(CLC) in Kingston, Ontario
built steam and diesel locomotives to their own designs, and those of other manufacturers such as Baldwin Locomotive Works
and later Fairbanks-Morse
.
Diesel-electric locomotives were built in Canada beginning in 1928 and continuing to the present. The earliest diesels were custom built one-of-a-kind designs such as Canadian National Railway
s numbers 9000 and 9001 and Canadian Pacific Railway
number 7000. After these unique locomotives, the railways turned to more traditional designs built in the US and imported to Canada such as the Alco S-2 and EMD NW2
(both 1,000 hp) yard switcher
s.
The growing market for diesels in Canada meant it became worthwhile to build facilities in Canada to avoid import duties. While MLW and CLC both utilized existing steam locomotive erecting shops in Montreal and Kingston
, respectively; General Motors, never having built steam locomotives, required a new facility.
General Motors Diesel selected a site on the outskirts of London, Ontario
, for this plant. It opened in 1950, eventually expanding several times to 208 acres (842,000 m2) and branching out into building transit buses, earth movers (Terex 1965-1980) and military vehicles built at adjacent facilities. Originally designed to produce one unit per day, it was some time before that volume of orders were received. It was later expanded to one and one half units per day. La Grange, as the US plant was referred to, eventually could produce six units per day.
The first diesel locomotive built was Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway
(TH&B) number 71, one of four model GP7
1,500 hp (1100 kW) road switchers. It was however, not the first order (C-100) received, which was from Canadian Pacific for ten model FP7A
1,500 hp (1100 kW) A units of the "covered wagon" style of carbody. The two orders were on the shop floor under construction at the same time and it was TH&B 71 which was completed first and delivered on August 25 along with 72. Pairs of A units were delivered commencing with CP numbers 4028 and 4029 on September 14 and continuing until November 11.
TH&B 71 cost $191,712 at the time. For comparison, Alco 1,000 hp (750 kW) yard switchers built in Schenectady, New York
cost $115,000 including duty, while CPR G5 class 4-6-2
steam locomotives cost $88,000. The benefit of diesels over steam was largely their reduced operating costs compared to steam, but they had to be kept going to pay for themselves. Increased utilization was key to their cost benefits. Steam locomotives were inherently labor-intensive machines to operate even though less expensive to buy and operate than diesels. The greatest savings were to be had in yard service where switching often meant idle time. It was here that diesels made their first major inroads into the scene. Early road diesels were less dependable than yard engines and failure on the road away from a quick replacement engine would affect operations. Railways were not always willing to trust diesels with passenger trains that were themselves an advertisement for the railway, nor on freight trains that paid the bills.
GMD built units for export, a significant amount of business supported by government grants to foreign countries. GMD also built some experimental diesel-hydraulic locomotives and straight electric units as well, although neither were more than a tiny percentage of production.
General Motors Diesel Ltd. became the Diesel Division of General Motors of Canada Ltd. on February 1, 1969, in a consolidation of all Canadian properties.
Once dominant in North American diesel locomotive production having seen Baldwin, Fairbanks-Morse, Lima, Hamilton, Alco, MLW and CLC all fall by the wayside, General Motors fell under intense competition from General Electric
(GE). GE expanded beyond its early production of small locomotives, much of it for small and medium size industries, into large mainline road locomotives for Class I railroad
. EMD closed their main Chicago area locomotive plant in nearby La Grange, Illinois
, in 1991, after which the London plant supplied US customers under the Free Trade agreement between Canada and the United States.
On April 4, 2005, GM sold its EMD subsidiary and the former GMD plant in London and the EMD plant in La Grange to a partnership between Greenbriar Equity Group LLC and Berkshire Partners
LLC. The new owners announced that EMD would be keeping its initialization, however the company was being renamed to Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc.'s Canadian operations in London are now referred to as Electro-Motive Canada.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
railway diesel locomotive
Diesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...
manufacturer.
History
General Motors Diesel, Limited, was created in 1949 as the Canadian subsidiary of the Electro Motive Division of General MotorsGeneral Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
located in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Tariffs protected Canadian manufacturers against imported goods, thus many companies wanting to do business in Canada set up controlled or wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada.
Montreal Locomotive Works
Montreal Locomotive Works
Montreal Locomotive Works was a Canadian railway locomotive manufacturer which existed under several names from 1883–1985, producing both steam and diesel locomotives. For a number of years it was a subsidiary of the American Locomotive Company...
(MLW) in Montreal, Quebec, was created for just this reason building steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
s and later diesel (diesel-electric) locomotives to the designs of U.S. parent Alco (American Locomotive Company
American Locomotive Company
The American Locomotive Company, often shortened to ALCO or Alco , was a builder of railroad locomotives in the United States.-Early history:...
). Likewise, the Canadian Locomotive Company
Canadian Locomotive Company
The Canadian Locomotive Company, commonly referred to as CLC, was a Canadian manufacturer of railway locomotives located in Kingston, Ontario. Its works were located on Ontario Street and Gore Street on Kingston's waterfront....
(CLC) in Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
built steam and diesel locomotives to their own designs, and those of other manufacturers such as Baldwin Locomotive Works
Baldwin Locomotive Works
The Baldwin Locomotive Works was an American builder of railroad locomotives. It was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, originally, and later in nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania. Although the company was very successful as a producer of steam locomotives, its transition to the production of...
and later Fairbanks-Morse
Fairbanks-Morse
Fairbanks Morse and Company was a manufacturing company in the late 19th and early 20th century. Originally a weighing scale manufacturer, it later diversified into pumps, engines, windmills, locomotives and industrial supplies until it was merged in 1958...
.
Diesel-electric locomotives were built in Canada beginning in 1928 and continuing to the present. The earliest diesels were custom built one-of-a-kind designs such as Canadian National Railway
Canadian National Railway
The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
s numbers 9000 and 9001 and Canadian Pacific Railway
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
number 7000. After these unique locomotives, the railways turned to more traditional designs built in the US and imported to Canada such as the Alco S-2 and EMD NW2
EMD NW2
The EMD NW2 is a 1,000 hp , B-B switcher locomotive manufactured by General Motors Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois. The NW2 was manufactured from February, 1939 to December, 1949, and 1145 were produced – 1121 for the U.S., and 24 were exported to Canada. Starting in late 1948...
(both 1,000 hp) yard switcher
Switcher
A switcher or shunter is a small railroad locomotive intended not for moving trains over long distances but rather for assembling trains ready for a road locomotive to take over, disassembling a train that has been...
s.
The growing market for diesels in Canada meant it became worthwhile to build facilities in Canada to avoid import duties. While MLW and CLC both utilized existing steam locomotive erecting shops in Montreal and Kingston
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston, Ontario is a Canadian city located in Eastern Ontario where the St. Lawrence River flows out of Lake Ontario. Originally a First Nations settlement called "Katarowki," , growing European exploration in the 17th Century made it an important trading post...
, respectively; General Motors, never having built steam locomotives, required a new facility.
General Motors Diesel selected a site on the outskirts of London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, for this plant. It opened in 1950, eventually expanding several times to 208 acres (842,000 m2) and branching out into building transit buses, earth movers (Terex 1965-1980) and military vehicles built at adjacent facilities. Originally designed to produce one unit per day, it was some time before that volume of orders were received. It was later expanded to one and one half units per day. La Grange, as the US plant was referred to, eventually could produce six units per day.
The first diesel locomotive built was Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway
Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway
The Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway was a railway based in Hamilton that ran in Southern Ontario from 1894 to 1987. It never reached the other two cities in its name, although it did have branch lines extending to Dunnville and Port Maitland.-History:...
(TH&B) number 71, one of four model GP7
EMD GP7
The EMD GP7 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October, 1949 and May, 1954. Power was provided by an EMD 567B 16-cylinder engine which generated . The GP7 was offered both with and without control cabs, and...
1,500 hp (1100 kW) road switchers. It was however, not the first order (C-100) received, which was from Canadian Pacific for ten model FP7A
EMD F7
The EMD F7 was a Diesel-electric locomotive produced between February 1949 and December 1953 by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors and General Motors Diesel . It succeeded the F3 model in GM-EMD's F-unit sequence, and was replaced in turn by the F9. Final assembly was at GM-EMD's La...
1,500 hp (1100 kW) A units of the "covered wagon" style of carbody. The two orders were on the shop floor under construction at the same time and it was TH&B 71 which was completed first and delivered on August 25 along with 72. Pairs of A units were delivered commencing with CP numbers 4028 and 4029 on September 14 and continuing until November 11.
TH&B 71 cost $191,712 at the time. For comparison, Alco 1,000 hp (750 kW) yard switchers built in Schenectady, New York
Schenectady, New York
Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...
cost $115,000 including duty, while CPR G5 class 4-6-2
4-6-2
4-6-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles , six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle .These locomotives are also known as Pacifics...
steam locomotives cost $88,000. The benefit of diesels over steam was largely their reduced operating costs compared to steam, but they had to be kept going to pay for themselves. Increased utilization was key to their cost benefits. Steam locomotives were inherently labor-intensive machines to operate even though less expensive to buy and operate than diesels. The greatest savings were to be had in yard service where switching often meant idle time. It was here that diesels made their first major inroads into the scene. Early road diesels were less dependable than yard engines and failure on the road away from a quick replacement engine would affect operations. Railways were not always willing to trust diesels with passenger trains that were themselves an advertisement for the railway, nor on freight trains that paid the bills.
GMD built units for export, a significant amount of business supported by government grants to foreign countries. GMD also built some experimental diesel-hydraulic locomotives and straight electric units as well, although neither were more than a tiny percentage of production.
General Motors Diesel Ltd. became the Diesel Division of General Motors of Canada Ltd. on February 1, 1969, in a consolidation of all Canadian properties.
Once dominant in North American diesel locomotive production having seen Baldwin, Fairbanks-Morse, Lima, Hamilton, Alco, MLW and CLC all fall by the wayside, General Motors fell under intense competition from General Electric
GE Transportation Systems
GE Transportation, formerly known as GE Rail, is a division of General Electric. The organization manufactures equipment for the railroad, marine, mining, drilling and energy generation industries. It is based in Erie, Pennsylvania. Locomotives are assembled at the Erie plant, while engine...
(GE). GE expanded beyond its early production of small locomotives, much of it for small and medium size industries, into large mainline road locomotives for Class I railroad
Class I railroad
A Class I railroad in the United States and Mexico, or a Class I rail carrier in Canada, is a large freight railroad company, as classified based on operating revenue.Smaller railroads are classified as Class II and Class III...
. EMD closed their main Chicago area locomotive plant in nearby La Grange, Illinois
La Grange, Illinois
La Grange, a suburb of Chicago, is a village in Cook County, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The population was 15,608 at the 2000 census.-History:...
, in 1991, after which the London plant supplied US customers under the Free Trade agreement between Canada and the United States.
On April 4, 2005, GM sold its EMD subsidiary and the former GMD plant in London and the EMD plant in La Grange to a partnership between Greenbriar Equity Group LLC and Berkshire Partners
Berkshire Partners
Berkshire Partners, the Boston-based private equity firm, has invested in leading mid-sized companies for over twenty-five years through eight investment funds with aggregate capital of $11 billion. Berkshire has developed specific industry experience in several areas including retailing, consumer...
LLC. The new owners announced that EMD would be keeping its initialization, however the company was being renamed to Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc.'s Canadian operations in London are now referred to as Electro-Motive Canada.
Clients
- BC Rail
- BNSF RailwayBNSF RailwayThe BNSF Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. It is one of seven North American Class I railroads and the second largest freight railroad network in North America, second only to the Union Pacific Railroad, its primary...
- Canadian National RailwayCanadian National RailwayThe Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....
- Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Pacific RailwayThe Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
- CSX
- Direct Rail ServicesDirect Rail ServicesDirect Rail Services is a freight operating company created by British Nuclear Fuels Limited. The company started rail operations in 1995 using five heavily refurbished Class 20/3 diesel locomotives. Since then it has expanded greatly, and has acquired many more locomotives, most bought...
- ERS
- EWS
- FastlineFastlineFastline was a railway freight operator. It was part of Jarvis plc. It ceased trading when Jarvis plc entered administration and subsequently ceased trading in late March 2010. The company is in administration with N.G. Edwards, N.B. Kahn, P.S. Bowers and I. Brown of Deloitte LLP.They operated a...
- FreightlinerFreightliner (UK)Freightliner Group Limited is a rail freight and logistics company, founded in 1995 and now operating in the United Kingdom, Poland, and Australia. It is the second largest rail freight operator in the UK, after DB Schenker Rail .- History :...
- FirstGBRf
- GO TransitGO TransitGO Transit is an inter-regional public transit system in Southern Ontario, Canada. It primarily serves the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area conurbation, with operations extending to several communities beyond the GTHA proper in the Greater Golden Horseshoe...
- New Zealand Government Railways
- NMBS
- Norfolk Southern
- Sri Lanka Government Railway
- Union Pacific
- Via RailVIA RailVia Rail Canada is an independent crown corporation offering intercity passenger rail services in Canada. It is headquartered near Montreal Central Station at 3 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec....
- Metropolitano S.A.