Happy 100th Anniversary, EMD®!

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
“EMD has a proud 100-year legacy of providing rail customers with proven technology and innovation,” says Marty Haycraft, Caterpillar’s Senior Vice President and Progress Rail’s President and CEO. (Photograph Courtesy of Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company)

“EMD has a proud 100-year legacy of providing rail customers with proven technology and innovation,” says Marty Haycraft, Caterpillar’s Senior Vice President and Progress Rail’s President and CEO. (Photograph Courtesy of Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company)

Caterpillar Inc. on Aug. 31 marked the 100th anniversary of EMD®. Founded as Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation, EMD is now a product brand of Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company.

(Courtesy of Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company)

Harold L. “Hal” Hamilton established Electro-Motive Engineering Corporation in August 1922, and soon after renamed it Electro-Motive Company (EMC). In 1924, EMC introduced the first Electro-Motive gas-electric railcar with 150 hp.

The company was sold to General Motors in 1930, where Hamilton helped design a locomotive to run on diesel fuel rather than steam power. After merging with another engine division at General Motors, EMC was officially renamed the Electro-Motive Division (EMD).

FT A-B-B-A set built for the Reading Railroad. Photo courtesy The Reading Modeler.

In 1939, EMD introduced the FT, a 1,350-hp diesel-electric locomotive. The “F” stood for Fourteen Hundred (1,400) hp (rounded up from 1,350) and the “T” for Twin, as it came standard in a two-unit set. Equipped with a two-stroke 567 prime-mover, a total of 1,096 were built—555 cab-equipped A units and 541 cab-less booster or ”B” units. The FT was the first locomotive in EMD’s successful F-unit series of cab unit freight diesels, and is credited with convincing many U.S. railroads that the diesel-electric freight locomotive represented the future. Widespread dieselization, however, did not occur until after World War II.

The EMD E6 was a 2,000-hpA1A-A1A, streamlined passenger train locomotive. The cab version, the E6A, was manufactured from November 1939 to September 1942; 91 were produced. The booster version, the E6B, was manufactured from April 1940 to February 1942; 26 were produced. They were equipped with two 1,000-hp, 12-cylinder 567 prime-movers, each with a generator to power the traction motors. The E6 was the seventh model in a long line of passenger diesels of similar design known as EMD E-units. Compared with passenger locomotives made later by EMD, the noses of the E3, E4, E5, and E6 cab units had sloping noses. Later E models (E7, E8, E9) had the “bulldog nose” of the F series. Photo courtesy American-Rails.com collection.

During World War II, EMD manufactured engines for the U.S. Navy, and after the war, continued to produce them for some of the nation’s largest railroads.

(Courtesy of Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company)
The EMD GP7 was the first model in EMD’s GP (General Purpose) series of locomotives. Power was provided by an EMD 567B 16-cylinder prime-mover that generated 1,500 hp.  More than 2,700 of these four-axle (B-B) diesel-electrics were built between October 1949 and May 1954. The GP7 was the first EMD road locomotive with a hood unit design instead of a carbody design. This proved to be more efficient than the car body design as the hood unit cost less to build, was cheaper and easier to maintain, and had much better front and rear visibility for switching.The GP7 was replaced by the GP9  in EMD’s long GP line. The six-axle SD (Special Duty) series is derived from it. Many “Geeps” remain in service today, and are popular models for rebuilding and repowering. (Sean Lamb, Wikimedia Commons)

General Motors sold EMD to Greenbriar Equity and Berkshire Partners in 2005. In 2010, the company was sold again to Progress Rail—which Caterpillar Inc. acquired in 2006—and renamed Electro-Motive Diesel. A new freight locomotive that met EPA tier-4 emission regulations was unveiled in 2015.

Kansas City Southern SD70ACe (foreground) and SD70M. KCS photo.

EMD has delivered more than 75,000 locomotives around the world, with single engine power ratings as high as 6,000 hp, according to Progress Rail. It also provides engines for the marine, drilling and power generation industries.

EMD®  Joule (Courtesy of Progress Rail, a Caterpillar company)

Continuing EMD’s legacy, Progress Rail says it is investing in new technologies. In 2021, Caterpillar announced a memorandum of understanding with BNSF and Chevron to pursue a locomotive powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and in early 2022, BHP and Fortescue announced the purchase of Progress Rail’s battery-electric EMD Joule locomotives for Australian mining operations. Additionally, many EMD locomotives are also capable of using up to 20% biodiesel blends and are being tested with 100% biodiesel capabilities.

Martin Haycraft, Caterpillar’s Senior Vice President and Progress Rail’s President and CEO

“EMD has a proud 100-year legacy of providing rail customers with proven technology and innovation,” says Martin (Marty) Haycraft, Caterpillar’s Senior Vice President and Progress Rail’s President and CEO. “We’ll continue to develop new ways to deliver premier locomotives to our customers, and we look forward to another century of helping our customers build a better, more sustainable world.”

For more on the history of EMD, visit the Progress Rail website.

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