For decades, General Motors was king of the highway and queen of the rails. In addition to mass-producing buses, cars and trucks, the automaker was once the largest locomotive builder in the world. At a massive factory just west of Chicago, GM’s Electro-Motive Division (EMD) assembled powerful machines that helped transition American railroads from steam to diesel.

CONTAGEM, Brazil--GE Transportation’s plant here unveiled this week a new approach to manufacturing locomotives with a mixed-model moving assembly line. Unlike traditional stationary production lines, the mixed-model moving line is designed to assemble different locomotive configurations as the units slowly move down the track. The assembly line cuts lead time by approximately 20 percent, reduces inventory by $1.75 million and creates 1,256 square meters of space savings within the factory.

General Electric Co. is the world’s largest builder of diesel-electric locomotives. Its products are used by numerous railroads to haul freight and passengers. Thousands of GE machines are in operation every day throughout the world.

FORT WORTH, TX—This photo essay provides a behind-the-scenes look at General Electric’s massive assembly plant here, a 1-million-square-foot factory where the company makes locomotives.

ERIE, PA—An all-day bargaining session failed to produce an agreement aimed at heading off the elimination of 950 union jobs at GE’s century-old locomotive manufacturing plant in northwestern Pennsylvania.