CRRC Datong Co., Ltd.

The Datong Locomotive Factory was founded in 1954 as part of the first Chinese five-year plan for economic development. The first locomotive was produced in 1959.

By 1988, the factory had produced over 5000 steam locomotives, and was a major steam locomotive manufacturer in the People's Republic of China, by the 1980s manufacturing between 250 and 300 locomotives yearly; many of these units were QJ "march forward" 2-10-2 heavy freight locomotives. Steam locomotive production at Datong was a vertically integrated process, starting from raw steel. The last steam locomotive to be produced at the plant, was made on 21 December 1988.

In the 1980s, the plant began to manufacture diesel locomotives, including types DF4B and DF4C. By 1999, over 600 diesel locomotives had been produced.

In 1990, the plant began to produce electric locomotives - the SS7 six axle Bo'Bo'Bo' and the SS7E Co'Co' mainline electrics were developed and manufactured at Datong. The company was also jointly involved with Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Works in the high-speed passenger EMU development project China Star in 2002.

In 2003, the company became part of the China CNR Corporation as CNR Datong Electric Locomotive Co. Ltd..

In 2004, the company entered into a manufacturing and technology transfer agreement with Alstom, leading to the production of the HXD2 series of locomotive classes. The first HXD2 locomotive to be manufactured in China was completed in 2007. In August 2012, the first example of a localised version of the HXD2 locomotive was produced by the factory, numbered HXD2-1001.