Post-war Diesel Competition
Following the Second World War, MLW and other locomotive builders reverted to building locomotives. MLW continued to benefit from Canada's restrictive trade policies which prevented a flood of U.S. imports. However, the switch from steam to diesel-electric locomotive production opened the door to new competitors. In 1949, the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors established a Canadian subsidiary named General Motors Diesel Division (GMDD) in London, Ontario. MLW's long-established steam locomotive competitor, the Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC), had also entered into a partnership with Baldwin and imported and produced the designs of Baldwin and its subsidiary Whitcomb. Westinghouse was the main supplier of Baldwin's electrical transmission components. After Baldwin folded, CLC became a licensee of Fairbanks-Morse and manufactured a number of F-M designs for the Canadian market, including the famous Train Master. CLC was also responsible for building General Electric industrial switchers. General Electric did not enter the road diesel-electric market in the U.S. until the late 1950s, a move it took after dissolving its partnership with ALCO in 1953.
Read more about this topic: Montreal Locomotive Works
Famous quotes containing the words post-war and/or competition:
“Much of what Mr. Wallace calls his global thinking is, no matter how you slice it, still “globaloney.” Mr. Wallace’s warp of sense and his woof of nonsense is very tricky cloth out of which to cut the pattern of a post-war world.”
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987)
“The elements of success in this business do not differ from the elements of success in any other. Competition is keen and bitter. Advertising is as large an element as in any other business, and since the usual avenues of successful exploitation are closed to the profession, the adage that the best advertisement is a pleased customer is doubly true for this business.”
—Madeleine [Blair], U.S. prostitute and “madam.” Madeleine, ch. 5 (1919)