By the mid-1970’s, Conrail’s fleet of electric freight locomotives, including GG1’s, E33’s, E40’s and E44’s was aging, and EMD, sensing an opportunity to make a large sale, designed the 6,000 hp GM6C and the 10,000 hp GM10B. Demonstrator units were built and dispatched to Harrisburg for trials. LaGrange had a hand in building the ASEA-designed North American AEM7’s for Amtrak, MARC, and SEPTA, but these were the first and only electrics ever designed and built by EMD. Seven modified versions of the GM6C, the GF6C, were built for British Columbia Railway’s Tumbler Ridge extension, but ASEA also had a hand in their design. Here the two demonstrators wait between assignments at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
