GM recently announced that they are reopening their Oshawa plant for truck production.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7444213/unifor-general-motors-oshawa-plant/
As part of this move, they are also investing in their engine plant in St. Catharines.
One thing of note is that the engine plant there doesn't receive rail service. It used to, but it had been discontinued in the late 1990s. Similarly, the Ford engine plant in Windsor doesn't receive rail service anymore either.
Engines are generally large and heavy and would seem to be ideal for transport by rail. Why do engine plants seem to have discontinued rail service?
I don't know really, but if they are REopening a plant, that means it was not open and had no reason to have rail service.
The Freightliner plant in Cleveland, NC has a rail line running past it, but no connection to it.
One would think that with the engine castings and frame components, rail would be a good way to bring in the raw materials.
I visited the site some years ago to get a look at the American LaFrance facility that was located there.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Engine blocks tend to run heavy, but they aren't that big. I also remembering seeing 645 blocks being trucked across town from Plant 3 to McCook.
Completed engines for installation will be a JIT item. I can't imagine any level of rail service short of full autonomous Adtranz CargoSpeed that could do this with comparable precision and placement of 'ordinary trucks'.
None of these products are larger or heavier than something a relatively small fork can manage, and they won't need to be lifted very high before positioning for installation.
This might have been an attractive niche for domestic swap-body intermodal if that technology had found an effective market. There, it might make sense to include specialized framing, dunnage, and transfer methods in the body for the limited number of transfers in what is a highly specialized lane.
Michigan and Ontario have much higher load limits on trucks than most jurisdictions. I see plenty of van trailers with 6-8 axles.
A fully equipped LS3 the standard pickup truck engine dressed out weighs in at less than 800 pounds in the shipping cradle that carries it from the engine plant to the final assembling factory. Anymore engines are made from alloys not iron to cut the weight down to save on fuel costs for the owner of the car or truck. The engine in my new Chevy Trax weighs less than 350 pounds total weight.
I recall seeing a video of a locomotive prime mover being assembled. The base was welded structural shapes, not a casting. The power units have almost always been individual pieces.
There was an article in Trains in the mid-Sixties about how EMD built engines. I had not realized until then that they were welded of stock shapes.
Modern car engines are all cast block, though, and often very thin-wall in fairly exotic cast-irons or aluminum alloys. Likewise the 7FDL is cast-block (and when it cracks is often 'unrepairable') and, to my knowledge, so are the 265H and followon 1010 and the Deutz engine from which the 6000hp GE was derived. Hence one of the reasons a cracked block in one of those engines is a bad thing...
All GM V8 engines are built in Tonawanda, NY. The St. Catherine plant is to build electric drivetrains for the Chevrolet Bolt EV, as well as the GMC Hummer, Cadillac Liriq, and Chevrolet Bolt EUH.
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