Trains Magazine, Luckin Productions team up to produce EMD documentary

Locomotive builder’s centennial will also be subject of special issue of magazine

Diesel locomotive on turntable — FT No. 103, the demonstrator for EMD’s groundbreaking locomotive, at 2014’s Streamliners at Spencer event in North Carolina. (Trains: Jim Wrinn)

The introduction of the FT diesel in 1939 would make fortunes soar for General Motors’ locomotive-building affiliate, Electro-Motive. The four-unit FT demonstrator, No. 103, was the prototype for, in the words of former Trains editor David P. Morgan, “the world’s first standardized mass-produced line of diesel freight locomotives with no equal in railroading.”

However, the story of Electro-Motive reaches back to 1922, when the company was formed. In 2022, Electro-Motive production in the U.S. will be 100 years old. The product line has included gas electric railcars, sleek new passenger locomotives, and streamlined trains. Today, Progress Rail continues the tradition of cutting-edge technology as it paves the way for the next hundred years.

Trains and Luckin Productions will celebrate this milestone with “EMD at 100, 1922-2022: The Diesel Builder That Did It,” a DVD recounting the story of the locomotive builder, and with an accompanying 92-page special magazine issue. Delivery of both is slated for later this year. Watch Trains.com and Trains Magazine for more information.