EMD GP40TC

The GP40TC (TC stands for Toronto Commuter) is one of the more unique locomotives EMD has produced over the years. It was a GP40 built on a SD40 frame. Using the Canadian National classification system, these units were classed as GCE-430a (General Motors, Commuter, Electric (as opposed to steam heat), 4-axle, 3,000 hp). The longer hood was needed to accommodate a head-end power generator.


Eight of these locomotives were built in 1967 for the trial of a new commuter train service provided by the Government of Ontario Transit in the Greater Toronto Area, a metropolitan area where 6 of the 33.5 million Canadians reside in today. The GP40 was chosen for the ease of resale should the trial commuter service fail. Fortunately, no such thing had happened and the GP40TC served Toronto commuters until 1988. Today, the famous, industry standard setting, GO Train system carries 200,000 riders daily.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Holy crap, after all these years of knowing about the GP40TC model (and always ignored them) I've just realized these have shorter frames then an SD40, and looking closely at the frame, it looks like a GP35 style frame, not a 645 series frame.

Popular posts from this blog

Briefly on the AAR Coupler Part 2

Amtrak NPCU

Bombardier IORE