GMD GMD1


The GMD GMD1 is a diesel locomotive originally produced by General Motors Diesel, the Canadian subsidiary of General Motors Electro-Motive Division, between August 1958 and April 1960. This road switcher locomotive is powered by a 12-cylinder EMD 567C diesel engine, capable of producing. The GMD1 was built on either Flexicoil A1A-A1A or Flexicoil B-B trucks. 101 examples of this locomotive were built for Canadian railways. 96 went to Canadian National Railway and the remaining 5 went to Northern Alberta Railways.
According to original blueprints of the locomotive from GMD, CN's own equipment diagram books, and the original GMD manual for this locomotive, it is consistently referred to as a GMD-1 rather than a GMD1. "GMD1" has been a common misnomer since the 1970s.
As of January 2020, CN still operates a few GMD1 locomotives, though most of them are either in storage or retired. Oregon Pacific Railroad, a short-line railroad based in Portland, Oregon, has operated an ex-CN GMD1 as its primary motive power since 2009.

Original owners

Rebuilds

CN upgraded a number of their GMD1 locomotives in the 1980s, as 1400-series units and 1600-series. A number of 1600s were later retrucked with B-Bs and renumbered as 1400s.
1100 series units are 1000s retrofitted with Flexicoil B-B trucks in place of their original A-1-A's.

Second-hand users

A number of GMD1 units were sold off in the 1990s and 2000s to rebuilders, leasers, regional and shortline railways. A few were acquired by Ferrocarriles de Cuba. Oregon Pacific Railroad acquired CN No. 1045, and is now numbered OPR No. 1413. Cando acquired CN 1401, 1434 and 1435 in late 2018. CN 1401 is now CCGX 1009, CN 1435 is CCGX 1010.