The MLW M-420 was a

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover (locomotive), prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conv ...

manufactured between 1973 and 1977 in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Canada by the

Montreal Locomotive Works Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) was a Canadian railway locomotive manufacturer which existed under several names from 1883 to 1985, producing both steam and diesel locomotives. For a number of years it was a subsidiary of the American Locomotive ...

. A total of 88 units were built for Canadian railways, including eight

B unit B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It re ...

s built for the

British Columbia Railway BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British ...

; most of production went to

Canadian National The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...

. Only seven units were sold outside of Canada, to the State Railways Institution in Venezuela and the

Providence and Worcester Railroad The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence ...

in the United States. The M-420 was one of the first locomotive models (along with the

EMD GP38-2 The EMD GP38-2 is an American four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors, Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier GP38. Power is provided by an EMD 645E 16-cylin ...

) to use the wide-nosed

Canadian comfort cab The Canadian comfort cab or wide cab or North American Safety Cab is a broad-nosed cab design found on modern North American diesel locomotives, and some export models. It occupies the entire width of the locomotive, and typically has an access ...

, pioneered by Canadian National. By the early 1990s, variations on this cab design had become the standard of the industry. As with wide-nosed

General Motors Diesel General Motors Diesel was a railway diesel locomotive manufacturer located in London, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1949 as the Canadian subsidiary of the Electro-Motive Diesel division of General Motors (EMD). In 1969 it was re-organiz ...

units from the same period, references to the model commonly add a "W" at the end of the model name, but it is not part of the official model designation. Most M-420 units rode on MLW ZWT (Zero Weight-Transfer) trucks.

Variations

Other variations of the M-420 were the M-420R, the M-424 built for service in Mexico and the M-420TR switcher. Five examples of the M-420R were built for the

using trade-in parts and rode on Type B trucks, but otherwise resembled the M-420. The M-424 was an M-420 with

dynamic brakes Dynamic braking is the use of an electric traction motor as a Electric generator, generator when slowing a vehicle such as an electric locomotive, electric or diesel locomotive, diesel-electric locomotive. It is termed "Resistor#Adjustable resis ...

uprated to . The M-420TR was built in two variations, with two M-420TR units sold to Roberval & Saguenay and fifteen slightly different units (sometimes referred to as M-420TR-2) sold to

Ferrocarril del Pacífico The Ferrocarril del Pacífico is a former railroad line of Mexico that operated from Nogales, Sonora to Guadalajara, Jalisco via Mazatlán, Sinaloa. It ran passenger trains between these points: ''El Yaqui'' and ''Mexicali,'' Nogales, Sonor ...

. Both M-420TR variations bore little resemblance to the other models, with a lowered hood, shorter frame and end-cab design.

Service with CN and BCOL

The first

M-420 was delivered in 1973. They provided service on the eastern side of Canada until their retirement in the late 1990s. By the time they were retired, many units were over 20 years old, and major Canadian railroads were purging their rosters of MLW and

Alco The American Locomotive Company (often shortened to ALCO, ALCo or Alco) was an American manufacturer of locomotives, diesel generators, steel, and tanks that operated from 1901 to 1969. The company was formed by the merger of seven smaller locomo ...

locomotives to replace them with newer EMD and GE units.

Bombardier HR-412 The Bombardier HR-412, also known as the MLW HR-412, was a 4 axle, freight locomotive manufactured in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Ten were built for Canadian National Railway in between September and November 1981, numbered 2580–2589, and one w ...

s, purchased by CN and designed as successor to the M-420, were retired at the same time.

Service as power generators in Winter 1998

During the winter of 1998, a severe ice storm cut off power to many homes and businesses in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. CN M-420 3502 was hoisted off the rails by crane and rolled along a street in

Boucherville Boucherville is a city in the Montérégie region in Quebec, Canada. It is a suburb of Montreal on the South Shore (Montreal), South shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Boucherville is part of both the urban agglomeration of Longueuil and Greate ...

in order to provide power in the community. The engine was driven approximately under its own power to the city hall, where it then became a portable power generator. M-420 3508 was also lifted from the tracks to provide power to a school being used as a shelter, but problems prevented this from happening, and 3508 remained on standby. Both engines suffered minor gear case damage and carved grooves in the pavement.

M-420 today

Following their retirement from CN and BC Rail, some M-420 units were scrapped, but many were sold to shortline railways across North America for continued service.

Omnitrax OmniTRAX, Inc. is a transportation and transportation infrastructure holding company based in Denver, Colorado, in the United States. It primarily owns or operates railroads, with a network of 25 regional and shortline railroads in 12 U.S. states ...

purchased several units, including some of the M-420B units from

BC Rail BC Rail is a railway in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Chartered as a private company in 1912 as the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (PGE), it was acquired by the provincial government in 1918. In 1972 it was renamed to the British ...

. Larger shortlines such as Omnitrax have begun to scrap or sell their MLW units as a result of increased maintenance and reliability issues. The St Lawrence & Atlantic Railroad used a fleet of eleven former CN M-420 units as road power from 1998 to 2001. The

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

in Saskatchewan used an entire roster of MLW M-420s until 2017 when they announced that they are replacing the MLW fleet with GE fleet.

Original owners

References

External links

{{MLW diesels M-420W Diesel-electric locomotives of Canada Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1973 Locomotives with cabless variants Standard gauge locomotives of Canada Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Standard gauge locomotives of Venezuela