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Winton & Cleveland Diesel: The List.

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Over the last few months, I have been combing through the records for Winton, and later Cleveland Diesel, and put together the following master list of every engine produced by them. This is the result of several nights of going through 2000+ pages of entries, and then spending the following several months filling in the gaps with specifications using various manuals, brochures, company newsletters and everything else, and even still, there are many, many holes with the early engines.

The records start with engine #15 – thus I can not fill in those very first engines. Note that Winton assigned model numbers to several of their auxiliary units such as compressors and pumps, and are labeled as such below.

3-2023: Since making this post in 2020, I have been able to fill in a huge amount of holes in this, as well as acquiring an official Cleveland listing. This will be posted in the next few weeks.

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The last Winton engine before being purchased by GM was engine number #3559 on 6/12/1930, a model 148 engine for Electro-Motive. Winton was purchased by General Motors on 6/20/1930.

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On 12/30/1937, Winton Engine Corp., was renamed to the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division of General Motors. The Final Winton Engine was #5359, A 12-201A for Railroad Service.
Note 1: 4432/3 are the prototype 201 engines, listed as “used 201” in records.

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When it comes to horsepower ratings, especially on the later engines (278A, 268A, 567C), there were simply too many horsepower numbers to list, as it varied by application.

Note that by now – we see engines that are made by sister companies including Detroit and EMC/EMD. Early on, the Detroit Diesel engines sold through CDED (typically part of a “package” for a boat) carried both a Detroit Diesel as well as a Cleveland Diesel builders plate. In the case of the Detroit engines, this was dropped by the 1940’s.

However – with the EMC/EMD 567 line, engines sold though CDED for marine and stationary use carried only a Cleveland builders plate well into the late 1950’s. Only the very last few 567 engines sold through CDED carried both an EMD and a CDED builders plate. More information on this can be found on our post documenting Winton/CDED linked below.

Also to note: This list covers only engines built or sold through Winton and Cleveland Diesel. This does NOT cover any additional engines or developments by Detroit Diesel (such as the 51 or 53 series and later) or EMD (184A, 645 etc.)

Thanks to J. Boggess and P. Cook for helping with this. As always, there are numerous holes in the listing, so please send us a message with any additions or corrections.

Cleveland Diesel Engine Division – GM’s war hero turned ugly stepsister.

Diesel-Electric Drive in 2020

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The other day as we passed through Deepwater Range on our way to a job-site in New Jersey, a scene seen multiple times a day, caught my attention. Sitting in the racks at Whitehall were the Staten Island Ferry “John F. Kennedy” and the Governors Island Ferry “Lt. Samuel S. Coursen”. To the average commuter, these are just a pair of tired old ferry’s – 55 and 64 years old to be exact. Both of these boats are somewhat dinosaurs now – especially since both are powered by Diesel-Electric Drive. Both have been going back and forth next to each other on the same route, since being built.

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The JFK was built in 1965 as part of the 3 boat Kennedy class, consisting of the “John F. Kennedy”, “American Legion” and the “Gov. Herbert H. Lehman”, built at Levingston Shipbuilding. The trio were big ferrys of the time – 297′ long and could carry 3,055 passengers and 40 automobiles. Powering the boats were 4 EMD 16-567C engines which each drove a generator. In turn, 4 propulsion motors feed into a single output reduction gear set that drive the propeller – one motor/gear on each end of the boat.

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Coming in at about half the size of the JFK, the “Lt. Samuel S. Coursen” has also been plying the same route since being built by John H. Mathis in 1956 for the US Army – who at the time occupied Fort Jay on Governors Island. The Coursen became part of the USCG fleet, with sister ferry “Pvt. Nicholas Minue” when the USCG took over operations on the island in 1966. The pair of boats were designed by Eads Johnson, who designed several NYC area ferrys including those owned by the Electric Ferry Company – one of which, “The Tides” would become a fleet mate to the duo running to the island in 1969. Unfortunately, I have no idea what originally powered them (The Tides was powered by a Cleveland 6-278A) – other then they were repowered in 1965 – and again later on in the case of the Coursen with a Caterpillar, however the original Diesel-Electric propulsion was kept.

NYC DOT has a new order of ferry boats on the way, one of which will be the replacement for the “John F. Kennedy”, which has been the spare boat for some years now. Even being the old boat on the roster, she is still used almost every day. DOT also has a trio of other modern ferry’s, the “Spirit of America”, “Senator John J. Marchi” and “Guy V. Molinari”, each powered by 3 EMD 16-710G3B engines driving an AC drive Diesel-Electric package. The “Lt. Samuel S. Coursen” also has a new fleet mate that arrived in 2019, the “Governors 1”, however she is only equipped to carry passengers, thus the Coursen should be around for a few more years.

Each year the number of Diesel-Electric drive boats is fewer and fewer…

More on Coursen: https://govisland.com/blog/governors-island-fun-fact-who-was-samuel-s-coursen