Montreal Locomotive Works

## General Info

Headquarters: Montreal Qubec, Canada.

Founded: 1883

Ceased Operation: 1985

## History

Montreal Locomotive Works was a Canadian locomotive manufacturer. Which produced both Steam and diesel locomotives. The locomotive manufacturing company's headquarters was located in Montreal Qubec Canada. The company was created in 1883 under the name "Locomotive and Machine Company of Montreal Limited". Its primary market was domestic products for Canadian railroad companies such as Canadian Pacific, Grand Trunk, The Intercolonial Railway and Canadian National. In 1901, the American locomotive company (Alco), from Schenectady, New york was created by the merger of seven different locomotive manufacturing companies. Alco bought the Locomotive and Machine Company from Montreal. in 1904 to get into the Canadian market.
The company renamed itself to became Montreal Locomotive Works. Seven years after the second world war, in the 1960's, Canadian National began to replace thier roster of steam locomotives with diesel locomotives for modernization purposes. Durring the time of the 1960's Electro motive division and General Electric were the biggest competitors in the diesel locomotive market. The two locomotive companies would continue to make diesel engines for railroads while other companies threw in the towel, Montreal Locomotive Works on the other hand would became Canadian National's go to manufacturer to buy brand new diesel locomotives for their roster.
In the early 1960's MLW built 36 new subway cars for the Toronto transit commission. The cars were named, The M1 series subway cars which were notable for being the first ever rapid transit vehicles ever to be designed and built in Canada. MLW's adventure into the rapid transit market came to an end when the Toronto transit commission switched to Hawker siddeley canada from the mid 1960's and onwards.

Back in 1949, MLW began to introduce its first Alco-GE derived diesel designs in response to GMD. General motors diesel division, EMD's secondary plant in London Ontario Canada. Most of the locomotives they built at the time were switchers, some of them were given different names and slight modifications to differentiate from their made for America counterparts in Canada. Alco went into Financial issues in 1964 and MLW was purchased by the Worthington Corporation. After MLW was sold it was renamed MLW-Worthington and continued producing Locomotives. Throughout the 1970's MLW would developed the wide-nosed "Safety cab" design, which provided and improved accommodations as well as collision protection for the locomotive crews.
The first locomotives with the new design were the M-420's and the GP38-2W's built by EMD, the safety cab became common on Canadian railway companies such as Canadian National and British Columbia Railway except for Canadian Pacific which nevered purchased any such units until They bought The GE AC4400CW's in the 1990's. From that point on, the wide cab design had became a north american standered for the railroads. Although early wide nosed locomotives did exist such as the EMD FP45 and DDA40X, bear some resemblances, but they lack the advantages for collision protection and crew accommodations of the safety cab design in the 1960's.

In 1975 a then new Quebec based Company named Bombardier Purchased a half in MLW-Studebaker-Worthington under the company. MLW continued to provide innovative locomotive designs into the early 1980's. Bombardier also began to enter the passenger railway car business for commuter and subway systems. In 1980, MLW began production of a fleet of high speed passenger diesel locomotives called the LRC's (Light, Rapid, Comfortable). The locomotives were built for the newly created federal crown coperation Via Rail. Some equipment was used shortly by Amtrak. The last of the LRC's were retired from service in 2005. The pendular-suspension coaches that were used for the LRC's are still in use for Via Rail to this day. MLW had a contract with Canadian National to built 6-axle cowl unit diesel locomotives called HR-616's. The HR-616's have a special body design for engineers to see the back of the engine inside the cab called the "Draper Taper" named after a designer from Canadian National. The Draper Taper design was also used for the GE C40-8M's years later. In 1985 Bombardier stopped manufacturing locomotives in favor for Passenger rolling stock and airplanes. The MLW plant remaned abandoned until it was sold to General Electric in 1988. General Electric ceased operations with the MLW plant when the company closed it down and half of the plant was destroyed in the fire thus marked the end for Montreal Locomotive Works.

## Diesel Locomotives

M420
M630
RS-18

## Image Gallery

BC Rail, #641. MLW, M420.BC Rail, #643. MLW, M420.BC Rail, #644. MLW, M420.BC Rail, #642. MLW, M420.BC Rail, #609. MLW RS-18. Featured in "Nisei".West Rail 642 from Atomic Train (1999).West Rail 644 from Atomic Train (1999).TCN&R 4920 from Atomic Train (1999).TCN&R 4922 from Atomic Train (1999).St. Laurent & Atlantic Railway, #3569. MLW, M420.Canadian National, #3833. MLW, RS-18.Americana Rail, #647. MLW, M420. Featured in "Final Run" (1999).BC Rail, #747. MLW, M420. Featured in "Final Destination" (2000).