AMERICAN diesel pioneer EMD, which today means Electro-Motive Diesel and since 2010 has been part of Caterpillar-owned Progress Rail, celebrated its centenary in 2022. EMD began life as Electro Motive Engineering Corporation (EMC) in 1922 in Cleveland, Ohio initially using engines built by Winton Corporation and producing a series of diesel-powered multiple units and railcars, all built by subcontractors, including the first streamlined diesel passenger multiple units such as the threecar 110mph streamlined City of Salina for Union Pacific which used it between Kansas City and Salina, Kansas.
In 1930 both Winton and EMC were bought by General Motors (GM) and together later became the new Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of GM. In 1936 GM financed the construction of a new manufacturing site at La Grange, Illinois near Chicago and this grew to employ around 14,000 people producing hundreds of locos a month at its peak.