The EMD Situation

[Engineer James]

So, how did the sale of EMD go? Who now is making the EMD Products?

[route_rock]

Rumor has it my young friend is that Cat got EMD. This is from some EMD guys that come round our terminal. They are just waiting for the last of the EMD contracts with its labor force to expire so they can redo them in their own image.

[Steve F45]

So CAT owns EMD now? If so what does this mean for EMD, will it keep the name? Better engines?

[dave76]

You can probably say goodby to the EMD name, and for that matter the 710 two stroke engine. Just my opinion of course. Then again EMD could become a division again, it'll just the Electro Motive Division of Catapiller.
However I do believe this will end our 567 derived 2 stroke.

[es80ac]

Didn't the CAT deal fell through due to union personell problems? Greenbriar got EMD, and is not doing much with it.

[Phil Hom]

What is the source of this "sale"?

EMD was sold to Greenbriar 18 months ago.

[ricebrianrice]

From Trains Mag,

"Electro-Motive Diesel Inc., acquired in April 2005 by Greenbriar Equity Group LLC, Berkshire Partners LLC, and "certain related parties."" Trains Magazine Special Edition No. 1-2007 pg 58.

[Steve F45]

I remeber that now. Although i did read something on here about cat and emd. Maybe cat will be making the primemovers?

[es80ac]

I remeber that now. Although i did read something on here about cat and emd. Maybe cat will be making the primemovers?

Cat did make an attempt to acquire EMD, in my opinion it would have been a good fit, and EMD would be much better for it.

However, due to the head of the labor union at EMD had an old grudge against Cat, the deal did not go through. And Greenbriar got EMD for peanuts, and is trying to squeeze the last ounce of value of it. Sorry for EMD fans, but the story does not end happily.

[mxdata]

Lets see, how many times has Cat tried to get their engines into the US road locomotive market? Do I recall efforts on BN, ATSF, CNW, and the MK5000C on SP and UP, to name just a few? And I have a long list of Caterpillar locomotive sales and service people crossed out of my address book who were laid off every time there was a setback or economic downturn in the railroad industry. It will be interesting to see how many more people's names I might have to cross off if CAT were to acquire EMD.

[EDM5970]

I didn't see anything about EMD and Cat. in the November Railway age, which arrived yesterday. RA is usually a far better source of information on things like this than the foamer publications.

[mxdata]

Just wondering, what do the folks on this discussion hear about any current EMD warranty problems and field modification programs? Any ongoing liability for warranty repairs could have a significant influence on the ability of the owners to sell the company.

[DutchRailnut]

sell company ??? EMD was sold in Jan 2005 to Greenbriar and Berkshire Partners, its still called EMD as in Electro Motive Diesels., As far as I know its not up for sale and they do have plenty orders.
http://www.emdiesels.com/lms/en/company/

[mxdata]

So it would appear that there are conflicting opinions in this discussion. What else is new?

[trainwayne1]

35 to 40 years ago, the largest of class 8 truck motor market shares were held by Cummins and Detroit Diesel, a GM sister company of EMD.
Caterpillar began entering the market slowly and now is the leader in market share. GE did the same with locomotives. EMD is now a minority builder, and a takeover by Cat, which has much deeper pockets than Greenbriar, would most likely make them a major competitor for GE.