The C30-7 is a six-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by GE Transportation Systems between September 1976 and May 1986. It was developed as an updated version of the U30C and is powered by a 16-cylinder GE FDL-series diesel engine rated at . A total of 1,137 units were built for North American railroads.
GE's successor to the C30-7 was the C36-7, and early C36-7 units were closely similar in appearance and design to the C30-7.
A variant of the C30-7, 50 GE C30-7As were purchased by Conrail in mid-1984. Externally similar to the GE C30-7 model, six tall hood doors per side (in place of eight) showed it had a 12-cylinder (rather than 16-cylinder) prime mover. Both engines produced but the C30-7A's smaller engine used less fuel. The C30-7A units were built between May and June 1984.
Chicago Freight Car Leasing Australia purchased twelve former Conrail C30-7A locomotives in 2001 and used their traction components in the rebuilding of 442 class locomotives as the GL class. These entered service in Australia from 2003.
In 2003 19 C30-7As were rebuilt and exported to Estonia as C30-7Ais to be used by EVR (Eesti Raudtee) which at that time was privately owned. The locos were numbered as part of Class 1500 (1558âÂÂ1576) and were second-hand from Conrail/CSX/NS (USA).
In 2018, Operail (formerly EVR Cargo) announced it had completed its first conversion of the series with #1564. International Railway Journal reported, "Only the frames and bogies of the original locomotive were retained and the C30-M features a new centrally-positioned driverâÂÂs cab and a 1.55MW Caterpillar 3512C HD diesel engine." The converted unit has a 1524mm track gauge and weighs 138 tonnes. Operail's redesign makes the units suitable for shunting and line haul. The redesigned units are known as C30-M and are planned for internal use and export sales.
Finnish private operator North Rail has bought one C30-M locomotive and is leasing two more for its operations. These are known as class Dr21 in the Finnish classification system.