GE In North Salt Lake, Utah

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This page was last updated on June 19, 2025.

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Overview

In 1971 General Electric, EMD's competitor in the world locomotive market, moved into the former EMD shop in North Salt Lake, with GE calling it the Salt Lake Apparatus Service Shop. The new site in North Salt Lake would be one of 88 General Electric Apparatus Service Shops across the nation. (Salt Lake Tribune, April 17, 1971)

GE moved to North Salt Lake to gain more space than what was available at its original Salt Lake City site. This original GE site in Salt Lake City was located just west of the former D&RGW backshop, at the southeast corner of 300 South and 700 West in downtown Salt Lake City.

GE In Salt Lake City

In 1950, GE had opened its new Salt Lake Service Shop with a formal opening-day ceremony on June 22, 1950. The shop was located at 301 South 700 West, and was a new facility for the repair of motors, generators, transformers and switch gear. Its customers were throughout Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Montana. (Deseret News, June 22, 1950)

In 1955 when UP opened what the railroad called its "Salt Lake City Diesel and Turbine" shop, GE began providing maintenance support for the GE gas turbines used in Union Pacific's Gas Turbine Electric locomotives. In 1964, as UP began retiring their 15 smaller gas turbine locomotives, the gas turbines were removed at the railroad's Salt Lake shop and transferred to GE's Salt Lake City facility, where they were mounted to skids for resale and use in many of the nation's petroleum fields.

GE gas turbines were specifically mentioned in a "Help Wanted" ad in 1965. "General Electric Co. Service Shop Salt Lake City, Utah" "Repairs for industrial utilities and missile industrial equipment have requirements for skilled and semi-skilled manpower now. If you have qualifications for work listed below and if you wish for an interesting and rewarding job in repairing gas turbines, electric motors, generators, transformers, steam turbines, locomotive electronic instrumental meters and related equipment. Apply at 301 South 700 West." (Salt Lake Tribune, April 20, 1965)

GE In North Salt Lake

General Electric bought the former EMD facility in March 1971 to be able to expand their regional operations in Salt Lake City and surrounding region. Their previous facility since 1950 had been in Salt Lake City at 300 South and 700 West and had become too small. (Davis County Book of Records 453, p.642)

Throughout the late 1960s, General Electric's business in the region was growing, and the site in Salt Lake City was becoming too small. More space was needed work on heavy rotating electrical gear for other divisions within GE. Then in early 1971, GE needed still more space to perform some limited warranty rework on components of the first 20 U50C locomotives that had been delivered to UP from late 1969 through early 1971.

In August 1971, just after UP had sold them to a used equipment dealer in Ogden, UP Gas Turbines 14 and 16 were moved to GE's Apparatus Service Shop in North Salt Lake where the gas turbines were removed. Ken Ardinger took a photo in September 1972, showing UP 14 and 16 sitting at GE's shop in North Salt Lake. The B-units had already been scrapped and the gas turbines removed, and were sitting on the ground nearby. The photo also shows two other already-removed gas turbines, including part of 24B, on the ground awaiting removal of its carbody, along with three gas turbines from UP's smaller 4500hp turbines. After storage at GE in North Salt Lake, and then at Salt Lake City, in 1979 both UP 14 and 16 made their way to Kansas City, from where they were both donated to Illinois Railroad Museum.

In January 1973, the U. S. Department of Transportation sent its GE U30C no. 001 to GE in North Salt Lake for some warranty repair work. The unit was assigned to USDOT's test track near Pueblo, Colorado. (Pacific News, Issue 137, March 1973, page 7)

In November 1974, GE at its North Salt Lake site rebuilt the former U.S. Army 65-ton center-cab locomotive no. 7176 after it had been sold as surplus to Utah Power and Light Company. UP&L used the newly rebuilt unit to its Carbon Plant at Castle Gate, Utah, replacing a former D&RGW 44-ton unit. (Pacific News, issue 161, March 1975, page 5; January 1976, page 32)

In early March 1990, concurrent with program to replace dynamic braking inlets on UP's entire fleet of 9100-class GE Dash 8 locomotives, a modification program was started on the same locomotives' trucks. Like the F3-to-F7 project with EMD in the 1950s, the workload was shared between the North Salt Lake facility and UP's Salt Lake Shops. This truck modification program by General Electric included the application of dampeners between the locomotive frame and the locomotive trucks, along with other maintenance-reducing enhancements to the trucks themselves, including replacement of all traction motors. As each unit was scheduled through Union Pacific's Salt Lake City shops, it would receive fully rebuilt trucks, by complete change-out of both trucks, and the dynamic brake side-inlet modification. The trucks were removed from the units at the Salt Lake City shop and transported to GE's Apparatus Service Shop in North Salt Lake, Utah, where GE personnel completed the rebuild program. Upon rebuild, the trucks were transported back to UP's shop and installed under a different unit.

The GE North Salt Lake shop was unique among its other Apparatus Service shops due to its larger size and capabilities. Throughout the 1990s, the shop served as a focal point for GE's service to its customers nationwide. (Telephone interview with GE personnel in 2002)

Closure

A review of satellite photos indicates that the GE facility in North Salt Lake was closed between November 2016 and June 2017. The railroad spurs serving the site lost their connection to Union Pacific tracks and the turnouts were removed when the UTA Frontrunner track was constructed in 2006.

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