The 850,000-square-foot plant near Winston-Salem employs just 160 now, compared with almost 600 at the La Grange facility. Previously, the North Carolina plant produced axles for Caterpillar mine trucks before transitioning to the Progress Rail product line recently.
Industry sources talking to Trains News Wire do not anticipate a move of the company’s administrative offices from the La Grange facility, however.
La Grange has been synonymous for EMD locomotives since early in the days of dieselization. When ground was broken in 1935 on 74 acres of land adjacent to the Indiana Harbor Belt southwest of downtown Chicago, it was the beginning of a facility that would be the flagship of EMD (called Electro-Motive Corp. until 1941) for decades to come. The plant was expanded many times and at its zenith, could produce up to 10 locomotives a day on average. Almost everything that went into a locomotive was designed and manufactured on site at La Grange.
Its dominance would hold until the 1980s, when rival General Electric became the number one builder of locomotives. Soon after, EMD would announce the end of locomotive manufacturing at La Grange in the late 1980s, with all manufacturing moved to its sister facility in London, Ontario, built in 1950. The last locomotives would roll off the assembly line in 1993 for hometown customer Metra, with demolition of all but the administration and engine manufacturing buildings in early 2000.
Today, Progress Rail produces new locomotives in Muncie, Ind., with engines from the La Grange plant.
Good afternoon, Had to chuckle. spelling and grammar are important for your own credibility. What drives me nuts are folks who do not proofread before hitting SEND. I puke at bad homonyms in the context.
A move to the non union South where they have fewer rules and regulations and lower wages. Then outsource the rest of the work to outside contractors who work in Mexico. It’s the new business model and it’s good for the investors. I always note that anyone that wants to work ” outside of management” has to move but all the managers stay in place.
Thank you all for these comments. In addition to correcting the grammar and syntax, the humor gave me a good laugh!
Do we have a union/ no union issue here? According to a classic and brilliant 1968 article in TRAINS-MAG reprinted in an early 1970’s KALMBACH book, General Motors LaGrange was organized by the United Auto Workers. The UAW is circling the drain across the country, unwanted by auto workers from Indiana to Mississippi, and mired in grotesque scandals at its Detroit headquarters.
Why would any business want to leave Illinois…oh, right.
Glad to see there’s so many English professors who are rail fans.
Also I’m pretty sure Caterpillar is Progressive Rail’s “parent”, not “parents” as it is written.
“locomotives”, not” locomotive’s” –there is no possession, only a plural.