Caption: CN FM/CLC "C-Liners" CPA16-5 6700, CPB16-5 6802, and MLW FPA4 6776 sit in a matching zebra-striped A-B-A set, operating in freight service at Mimico Yard in 1969. Occasionally CN would press its dedicated passenger service GMD F-units, MLW FPA/FPB and FM/CLC C-Liners into mainline freight service. At this point in time the end was near for CN's fleet of FM/CLC units, many were already retired and being scrapped, and the final ones would retire later that year in 1969.

The Fairbanks Morse Consolidated Line or "C-Line" locomotive design was intended to be a flexible streamlined cowl unit platform a railroad could customize for freight or passenger service, with options for steam generators, fuel/water tanks, different opposed-piston engines with higher or lower horsepower ratings, dynamic or no dynamic brakes, etc. The C-Line wasn't particularly successful or a big seller, partially because by the time it was introduced railroads were beginning to move towards more conventional hood unit and road switcher designs, and partially due to reliability and maintenance issues with the units and their unique opposed-piston engines. FM exiting the locomotive market in the early 60's effectively turned them into oddballs on many railroads, and over their relatively short service lives many were re-engined, retired earlier than other builder's locomotives, or used as trade-in fodder for new locomotives.

Canadian production was licensed to the Canadian Locomotive Company in Kingston Ontario. In the early-mid 1950's CN purchased 26 A & B-unit freight C-liners in the 8700 series (later renumbered as 9300's), and 12 passenger C-liners with BB-A1A trucks and steam generators: CPA16-5's 6700-6705 and CPB16-5's 6800-6805, often used out of the Toronto area in passenger service with GMD and MLW passenger models. CN's fleet of FM/CLC units were retired in the mid-late 1960's and scrapped, but CP's fleet survived a few more years until retirement en masse in the mid-1970's.