The Rise and Fall of Electro-Motive Diesel | Marketing, Success, Competition | History in the Dark

the desolization of America's locomotive industry is certainly an interesting topic when it comes to Railroad history but that topic can't be discussed without going into detail regarding EMD electromotive diesel which was a Company formed in 1922 that pioneered diesel traction on America's Railway system over the following few decades they would actually drive multiple different steam locomotive manufacturers into bankruptcy and become a dominant force in the locomotive industry hello hello welcome to another episode of history in the dark I am your host Darkness the curse and before we begin as always thank you so much to my generous patrons my British real critics and of course my underwater train finders you are the reason why this content remains diesel eyes and today we are going to discuss EMD they come up a lot like a lot whenever I talk about railroad companies whether they be the actual railroads or locomotive manufacturers EMD is always standing somewhere around the topic because well they had a tremendous amount of influence on how the industry went particularly in the 1940s and the 1950s this is the story of EMD the company that would eventually be known as EMD was actually not called EMD initially it was called electromotive Engineering Corporation and it was founded by Harold L Hamilton and Paul Turner in Cleveland Ohio in 1922 that original name didn't last super long they actually changed it within the first year to electromotive company a much shorter name and abbreviated to EMC they wanted to bring internal combustion traction to the railroad industry which was a incredibly large industry at the time and they were actually utilizing General Electrics internal combustion electric propulsion as well as their Control Systems Hamilton himself had actually worked on railroads before as a fireman and an engineer on the Southern Pacific Railroad he also became a manager with the Florida East Coast Railway before he left for a marketing position with the white Motor Company which is an early manufacturer of trucks and buses in Denver Colorado it was there that Hamilton learned a lot about the automotive industry particularly involving training and service agreements which are a big part of white Motors marketing packages Hamilton would take those ideas onto EMC as he felt that it would actually be very profitable and lucrative for both buyer and seller if locomotive manufacturers handled their services more like the automotive industry did since he had worked for the railroads before he knew exactly what they needed particularly when it came to Branch line services and along with his partner as well as a designer they hired they started working on a new generation of self-propelled rail cars in 1923 they actually sold two gasoline-powered rail Motor Cars one to the Chicago Great Western and the other to Northern Pacific at the time the company was still pretty small so they subcontracted the bar body construction to the St Louis car company the electrical components the General Electric and the prime mover to the Winton engine company of Cleveland Ohio so there were a lot of hands in this first outing those Motor Cars would be delivered in 1924 and were actually pretty good they worked well which was good because sales were conditional on satisfactory performance the railroads did not agree to outright by them until they tested well and in 1925 they entered full-scale production and they wound up selling 27 of the rail cars the idea of the rail cars which sometimes are called Doodlebugs whether they can use for smaller lines and passenger Services it was much more efficient to utilize these doodle Bugs in this regard [Music] but in the 1930s General Motors was seeking to enter production of diesel engines and brought in their range of applications they wound up purchasing the Winton engine company because they already had a product line that included a variety of stationary and marine diesel engines as well as spark ignition engines were heavy vehicles but General Motors did notice EMC and saw their role in developing and marketing Winton engine heavy Vehicles particularly for the railroad industry the GM definitely wanted a piece of that puzzle so because they had just so much money at the time they outright purchase EMC as well renaming them to the electromotive corporation still EMC but slightly different and they were now a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors this was a big big deal and to be fair it was kind of good for EMC because now they had the financial backing of General Motors and they were supported by the General Motors research division that was headed by Charles F Kettering the Winton side of things focused on developing diesel engines with improved power to weight ratios and output flexibility that was suitable for Mobile use you know like on a locomotive and Eugene W Kettering who was the son of Charles cuttering LED went inside of the development project in 1933 EMC designed the power setups for the Zephyr and the m10000 streamliners these were actually considered technical breakthroughs in the power and speed available with their propulsion systems The Zephyr in particular used the first major product of the new GM Winton Venture which is a 600 horsepower 8-cylinder version of the Winton 201 a root blown uniflo scavenge unit injected two-stroke diesel engine a at the time bud and Pullman standard were actually entering contracts to build more diesel-powered streamliners themselves and they want to becoming major customers of EMC Diesel power was considered very suitable for small lightweight and high speed trains in addition to switching service and yards though the idea of outright replacing steam didn't exist just yet either way EMC believed that it was possible to enhance the role of diesel and railroading so they invested in a new locomotive Factory and started development work on the locomotives that it would produce the factory was headquartered on 55th Street in McCook Illinois just west of Chicago they were making enough money to stay afloat during the Great Depression and in 1935 they put out the 1800 horsepower BB development designed locomotives that featured multiple unit Control Systems which would become the basis of cab booster locomotive sets that they would become famous for the twin engine format would also be adopted for the newest Zephyr in 1936 and emc's E-Series streamlined passenger locomotives that their new Factory began producing in 1937. foreign s are a big deal here this is really where things started changing because prior to them EMC was focusing purely on switch engines which remained the Mainstay of their production but the EU units were a different matter entirely because they were meant to remain line service these types of diesels could actually straight up replace most steam engines this was something that hadn't really been considered before but if they could pull it off and convince railroads to do that that would mean a huge market share for EMC and by extension General Motors they had already been pioneering further research into more Modern Diesel engines they had a head start against pretty much every other company with the sole exception of Alco alko had produced diesel electric switching engines since the mid-1920s and they started working on designs to compete with the e-units in 1939. Baldwin was much less of a concern they did start focusing on diesel Electric switchers in 1939 but that was a little late to the party and they still didn't have a proper Road Unit yet the economic analysis was actually quite simple for them passenger trains didn't make very much money for the railroads in the grand scheme of things because in order for people to be willing to use them they had to actually be able to afford it and it was the Great Depression after all steam wasn't exactly that much more expensive than diesel but it was a little bit in some aspects there were certain efficiency differences and the idea was that if they marketed the Diesels as being overall more cost effective that would make those trains more profitable they could also make more money on their diesels in the technical sense because they standardized production of their locomotives with a proper assembly line set up something that the automotive industry had been doing for a few years at that point and they simplified all the processes for ordering manufacturing and service sing their locomotives and they offered support services that included financing training and field maintenance that would ease a total transition from Steam to Diesel and therefore boost their market share and the last years prior to the U.S entry into World War II in 1939 they built a four unit Freight locomotive demonstrator known as the Ft this was a major deal as it was an evolution of the E-Series how they had the demonstrator's tour was its complete complete s Western Railroads really liked the idea that diesels could free them from their dependence on rather scarce water supplies for seeing locomotives and in 1940 after incorporating Dynamic braking at the suggestion of some of their customers they're receiving the first orders for the new Freight locomotive the beginning of the 1940s January 1st 1941 General Motors actually opted to move the production of locomotive engines directly under the authority of EMC and they renamed them the electromotive division EMT as a result EMD became a fully self-contained development production marketing and service entity yes they were owned by General Motors but all their work was done in-house they didn't have to rely on anyone else not same month they actually delivered the first ft units to Santa Fe numbered unit 100 and through that next year they were in complete Full Tilt stride production of Road and switch locomotives becoming the world's biggest manufacturer of these types of diesels when America entered World War II however that did slow emd's locomotive production the United States Navy ships actually gained priority for diesel power and the petroleum crisis of 1942-43 actually briefly made steam locomotives which were coal-fired a more attractive option for railroads the war production board actually stopped production of new passenger equipment between September 1942 and December 1944 because it was not considered important for the war effort at the time later on however diesel locomotive production for Freight Service was picking up as more engines were needed to haul wartime supplies by the time the Ft model was replaced in 1945 they had managed to make 555 cap units and 541 booster units because of the way the war production board had handled things EMD actually emerged from World War II with a significant advantage over their competitors particularly Alco and Baldwin EMD had already entered World War II with fully developed lines of Mainline Road diesels an Alco in Baldwin could only get away with making diesel switchers alcohol had made Mainline diesels before but none of them had been particularly successful EMD was ahead of them in terms of technical development with much higher power diesels in the critical posts were years the new model passenger locomotives were delivered in February 1945 and new models for their Freight locomotives started appearing later that same year and the beginning of 1946. by the late 1940s most American railroads had decided to start dieselizing their locomotive fleets as they were seeing a significant downturn passenger Services were actually facing increasing competition from air and Automotive travel and emd's products were so highly in demanded it opened another production facility in Cleveland Ohio in 1948. Alco was trying to give them a bit of a run for their money they actually gained about a 26 percent market share of diesel locomotives which wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as they wanted to either Alco had higher powered locomotives for main line service but the problem is that they were less reliable amds were usually pretty good about you know working so even if they were tactically a little less powerful than some of alcoes it didn't matter because they could be expected to function foreign s did join in The Fray to try in vain to put a dent in emd's business that included Baldwin who failed Fairbanks Morse who failed and Lima who failed all of them failed against the mighty EMD everyone was buying deals from them and no one was buying diesels from pretty much anybody else and by 1950 it was quite obvious that emd's competitors could not even begin to deal with them there was nothing anyone could do and in 1949 they introduced their new EMD gp7 Road switcher we started putting cracks in alco's market share because they had been consistently selling at least switching units but now the gp7 was here and the gp7 was really good then in 1950 EMD opened a new plant in London Ontario Canada that plant was actually operated by their own Canadian subsidiary General Motors diesel GMD that was specifically to get around tariffs that had made it so that importing foreign locomotives was a lot harder for Canadian Railways but if they had a Holyoke subsidiary that operated in Canada already and a product out of it wouldn't be classified as an import so they could manufacture the Diesels up there and sell them up there without having to worry about the Tariff issue this was dangerous for both Alco and Baldwin who also had their own subsidiaries Montreal locomotive works and Canadian locomotive company respectively and they had seen success up in Canada up until this happened but now EMD was starting to look like a more attractive option for some Canadian Railways too in the 50s car body diesel started becoming a little bit unpopular when it came to Freight Service cab units in general were starting to fall out of favor being seen as a bit dated so amd's own Road switchers actually displace their own older model car bodies but their new road switches were powerful enough to do main line service in their own gp9 actually became the most produced EMD model ever with 4112 a units and 165b units sold between 1954 and 1963. people loved the gp9 they were easy to maintain and very versatile they could do pretty much anything you wanted and the gp9 helped sell the idea in America of hood units they were not at all the first Hood unit but they did make the concept popular Hood units were much narrower than car bodies and often had walkways around them you could easily get under them to do maintenance on the main engine and a driver regardless of what end the cab was at could see pretty well in both directions regardless hoodies were a lot more flexible whereas car bodies were pretty much only good for going in a single Direction and in the mid 50s the market started changing considerably for EMD though in a good way many of their competitors started failing Baldwin and Lima were gone Alco might as well have been and Fairbanks Morris wasn't exactly making a dent in the market no one could stop EMD except perhaps one newcomer a new Challenger approaches that's right it's General Electric wait what yep ironically the same company that it helped EMC get started back in the day was actually now going to be their competitors prior to this he had actually been a strong partner of alko and had worked with them on their diesel electrics but they got fed up with Alco always delivering unreliable engines to them even though they were giving them state-of-the-art electronic equipment so General Electric said fine I'll do it myself and in 1956 they were marketing their own Universal series Cooper Bessemer powered diesel electrics as export locomotives the export Market was also something EMD had been looking into and General Electric wanted to start there and see how well they could do on their own by 1960 General Electric had introduced the u25b their first independent entry into the United States domestic Road switcher Market this design was actually considered a worthy competitor to EMD and they were compelled to actually take that challenge pretty seriously so they upgraded the features of their general purpose models as well as their standard Duty series locomotives boosting the hour of their 567 engines and then moving to develop a more powerful 645 engine despite General Electric strong competition EMD still did pretty well throughout the 60s and into the 70s they produced what is probably considered the greatest creation ever mostly because it may in fact be the best diesel locomotive literally ever built by anyone in 1972 they introduced modular control systems with their Dash 2 line and upgraded their sd40s to sd40-2s these were one of the most successful diesel lookable designs in history both in terms of sales and service longevity nearly 4 000 of them were constructed and they are still in service now they were amazing diesels however in the 80s and the 90s things started getting a little rockier for EMD [Music] the high point of their career was proudly the sd40-2s because General Electric was delivering really good products and they were not given up they were very good at marketing just like EMD was and aggressive with it even though EMD had introduced their new 710 engine in 1984 with their 60 series locomotives by 1987 emd's North American market share finally dropped below that of their main competitor General Electric in the 90s they started trying to innovate introducing AC induction motor Drive in their own locomotives using Siemens technology they also introduced a radial steering truck which reduced wheel and track wear and in 95 they replaced mechanical unit injectors with electronically controlled unit injectors on those 710 engines that was straight and all but then in 1998 they introduced the four-stroke 16 cylinder 265 H engine technically they were actually the most powerful engine ever produced by EMD at the time at 6 300 horsepower but uh they were bad very bad they were using the prime mover for the sd90 macd sh's but they were really unreliable people hated them they failed constantly and it was a bad look for EMD especially when General Electric was doing so well in 1999 however Union Pacific did still indeed place the largest single order for diesel locomotives in North American railroad history they ordered 1 000 of the EMD sd70ms which the railroad apparently fell in love with their fleet has been expanded by more than 450 additional units and they own nearly 500 sd70 Ace locomotives none of those are of course powered by the 265h they're powered by the 710 series engine which are much more reliable while I still struggled to beat out General Electric they were doing okay all things considered a couple of hiccups here and there but not the worst ever but their parent company not so much General Motors was Finding itself with some financial trouble bubble to the point that would have to go beg the government to bail them out quite literally but leading up to that General Motors decided to put EMD up for sale and that was in 2004. the company was eventually purchased by Greenbrier Equity Group and Berkshire Partners EMD was spun off as electromotive diesel Inc and the sale was closed on April 4th 2005. they stayed with their new owners for only about five years though because on June 1st 2010 caterpillar decided it wanted to buy electromotive diesel from Greenbrier for 820 million dollars caterpo themselves didn't do it their wholly owned subsidiary Progress Rail I actually wound up completing the transaction on August 2nd 2010 EMD was struggling to appeal to the epa's tier 4 locomotive emissions regulations this put their 710 engine locomotives in a really bad spot as they needed to modify or tune them up to meet the standards and though it was technically possible they couldn't actually do it and still maintain Optimal Performance and reliability for rigorous real-world conditions test they eventually had to switch to a four-stroke 1010j engine instead were delivered to the Union Pacific in December 2016. EMD is much smaller than what they were and tidally speaking they're actually no longer their own company I mean they have it as a city for a while but now they've been reduced to a brand name Progress Rail is technically the company now EMD is not considered a separate company in any way EMD is just the brand of diesels that they sell but the company itself is considered Progress Rail so in a way they kind of went the same way a lot of their older competitors did being pushed out of the market by someone that was doing it better and eventually becoming a shell of what you were though in their defense they do still exist as a brand it's not like they're exactly gone and the facility is still pumping out diesel so it's not quite the same thing I suppose they still have several manufacturing facilities around the world as well as a sizable chunk of the export market like I said you can't talk about diesels in America without talking about EMD they completely changed how railroads operated whether you like what they did or not is up to you some of their methods have been criticized since their marketing was a lot more aggressive than their competitors but it was effective and then they got a taste their own medicine later from General Electric and now they're just a brand name as it stands General Electric still has a 70 market share when it comes to North America leaving EMD with only about 30 percent they're kind of a shell of what they were but they did manage to go down an American railroading history just like their competitors Baldwin Alco and Lima and as I always say that is something you can't take away from them and with that a special thank you to all my underwater train finders some dude 267 orange glass Benjamin Owens pencil kitten 131-232 Josh Johnson medal for Life guy Anzac A1 Arthur Roy Tommy Rossini Lord Captain Von throws the third Joshua long Brian Jack Carson's Aurora videos hating to grow master of none Lord 444 and the Rick Jasper's the Baxter that guy with a beard Mark holding lock Kraken murder drone stall a person 723 DM trouble typhoon Hendrick Motorsports fan five Alfonso lapuche Royal had to 2860. I've Surfer 1405 Charles kuyakowski Matthew wolf and Dr racer 78 till next time this is darkness in a Bidwell of fun farewell thank you

Channel: History in the Dark

Views: 84,259

Keywords: trains, train, history, time, steam, engine, diesel, failure, railway, passenger, freight, station, railroad, class, railways, Rail, Train, education, successful, succeed, good, survive, survived, merge, corporate, company, american, USA, loss, commerce, corp, corporation, competitor, success, connection, northwestern, loco, documentary, industry, Locomotive, Company, engines, manufacturer, contractor, contracter, United, piston, wwii, diesel-electric, demonstrator, electro, motive, electro-motive, EMD, EMC, general, motors, electric, e-series, f-series

Id: kN54TVGT6xI

Length: 25min 21sec (1521 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 03 2023