Editing GE U25B (section)

==History==
The U25B (nicknamed ''U-Boat'') is the first commercially successful domestic diesel electric road locomotive designed, built, and sold by General Electric after its split with the [[Alco-GE|American Locomotive Company]] (Alco), a company dating back to the steam era. GE had developed internal combustion-electric generating, control, and drive systems in the early 1920s, which provided the foundation for the use of internal combustion engines in railroading.  Early applications were in motorized railcars and switch engines.  The 1930s saw that technology adapted to high speed mainline locomotives. In 1940 GE partnered with Alco, who by that time were well-established as a manufacturer of diesel switch engines and were introducing their first diesel road locomotives.  They were successful in building locomotives for switching and short-haul applications, having introduced [[Alco RS-1|the first road-switcher]] design in 1941 (which would supplant the [[Carbody unit|carbody]] design developed by the [[Electro-Motive Corporation]] by the mid-1950s) and gained a 26% market share as of 1946.<ref name="ALCOvsEMD" >{{cite web| url=http://utahrails.net/articles/alco-v-emd.php| title=ALCo vs EMD| website=UtahRails.Net| access-date=January 25, 2013}}</ref> Alco-GE's efforts in main line road locomotives had not been successful at breaking into [[Electro-Motive Diesel|EMD]]'s dominant position in that market, although they introduced a successful [[gas turbine-electric locomotive]] to market in 1952.  In 1953 GE went independent from Alco in locomotive production, with their new subsidiary [[GE Rail]] taking over the gas turbine-electric venture while they sought a supplier of more reliable diesel engines suitable for road locomotives.  Production of [[Cooper-Bessemer]] powered Universal Series locomotives began in 1956 and some 400 export locomotives were sold before the U25B was offered in the United States. The U25B was announced by General Electric as a domestic model on April 26, 1960. It was the first locomotive powered by GE's highly successful [[FDL-16]] engine.

The U-Boat put GE on the road to becoming the top locomotive producer in the U.S., much to the chagrin of [[Electro-Motive Diesel|EMD]]. It introduced many innovations to the U.S. diesel locomotive market, including a pressurized car body and a centralized air processing system that provided filtered air to the engine and electrical cabinet, thus reducing maintenance.  The U25B was also the highest-horsepower four-axle diesel road locomotive in the U.S. at the time of its introduction, its contemporaries being the [[EMD GP20|GP20]] (2,000&nbsp;hp) and the [[ALCO RS-27|RS27]] ({{convert|2400|hp|kW|abbr=on|disp=or}}).

Though many were produced and sold, the only remaining U25B locomotives are in museums, as many were retired or scrapped at the end of their service life by the end of the 1980s.