#4240
EMD GM6C
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Electro-Motive Diesel· from 1975· testbed electric locomotive
what is it?
The GM6C was a solitary testbed electric locomotive for freight duties built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of the United States in collaboration with ASEA of Sweden. It was rolled out from EMD's La Grange, Illinois plant on May 1, 1975. Equipped with close to standard C-C HTC trucks and traction motors, it was designed for lower-speed drag freight service.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 51 years ago, in 1975.
- 4.5 MW is about 53 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 28 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 20.7 m long: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- 1975
- status
- retired
- number built
- 1
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Electro-Motive Division
- operators
- Penn Central Transportation Company, Amtrak, Conrail
- top speed
- —
- power
- 4.5 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- electric system
- Switchable: 11 kV 25 Hz,, 25 kV 60 Hz,, Northeast Corridor Catenary
- wheel arrangement
- Co'Co'
- length
- 20.7 m
- weight
- 166 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q5323421, Wikipedia: EMD GM6C (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.