EMD 1800 hp B-B

General Motors' Electro-Motive Division produced five 1,800 hp B-B experimental passenger train-hauling diesel locomotives in 1935; two company-owned demonstrators, #511 and #512, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's #50, and two locomotives for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, #1 and #1A. In addition, two single power cars and two twin-unit power cars for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad's Zephyr streamliners were built to fundamentally the same design, but clad in Budd streamlined stainless steel carbodies. These were #9904 Pegasus and #9905 Zephyrus for the Twin Zephyrs, and #9906A/B Silver King/Silver Queen and #9907A/B Silver Knight/Silver Princess for the Denver Zephyrs.

All were the mechanical ancestors to EMD's successful E-units, with identical pairs of 900 hp Winton 201-A diesel engines, although they ran on AAR type B two-axle trucks instead of the A1A trucks of E-units. When delivered, the units were fitted with shrouding around their trucks, but this did not last long.

The boxy carbodies of all but the Zephyrs were the work of GE's Erie, Pennsylvania works, EMD having not yet developed the ability to produce their own bodywork. Like most boxcabs, they had driving cabs at both ends, a feature that would only rarely be repeated in future North American locomotives, although it would become common elsewhere.

EMD demonstrators 511 and 512

The two EMD demonstrators, numbered 511 and 512, were built in May 1935 to demonstrate the future of passenger diesel power to potential customers. The boxy bodywork was not what EMD intended to sell, but it was an easy way to demonstrate the power units and hauling capacity, which would not be changed in the future E-units.

They were demonstrated both together and singly; the latter for shorter trains for local and less busy services, the former to replace larger steam locomotives on busy trains.

EMD #511 was loaned to the Santa Fe to be a backup to ATSF 1 and 1A during the first year of the Super Chief's run, painted in silver.

In 1938, having outlived their usefulness, they were scrapped. The trucks and some other components were re-used for the two NW4 switchers built for the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

B&O 50

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad #50 was fundamentally identical to demonstrators 511 and 512 when delivered. In this form, it hauled the first diesel-powered Royal Blue until the introduction of the EA/EB units in 1937.

Following that, it had a semi-streamlined "shovel nose" applied to one end, as shown in the picture, and transferred to the B&O-owned Chicago and Alton Railroad to haul the Abraham Lincoln. When the Alton left B&O control in the merger that created the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad, #50 entered the GM&O roster as #1200. After the Second World War, the shovel-nose treatment was removed, restoring the unit to its prior boxcab appearance. The locomotive was placed into local freight service until it was retired, upon which it was donated to the St. Louis Museum of Transport, where it remains.

ATSF 1 and 1A

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway #1 and #1A were built in late 1935 to haul the Santa Fe's new train, the Super Chief, for its first year of operation, from May 1936 until May of the following year. The Santa Fe had wanted the new, streamlined designs on the EMD drawing boards that would become the first E-units, but they would not be ready until 1937, so the railroad asked for two locomotives like the EMD demonstrators as proof of concept, letting the railroad gain some experience with diesel operation before the E-units and the lightweight, streamlined train they would haul were ready. Santa Fe employees nicknamed the two units Amos & Andy, after the popular radio situation comedy.

The Santa Fe did ask for some cosmetic 'dressing up' of the locomotives, since they would be hauling a prestige passenger train, and EMD obliged with a treatment by Sterling McDonald's GM styling department, which included large 'eyebrow' air intakes at the front of the units and a striking paint scheme: Olive Green with Cobalt Blue and Sarasota Blue stripes separated by pinstripes of Crimson and Tuscan Red. This livery reduced the boxiness of the locomotives and gave them more of a look of speed. Later, as the Santa Fe got closer to their eventual diesel livery, the locomotives were repainted in silver.

The Santa Fe was an ideal railroad to be a dieselization pioneer; its long desert runs in the Southwest made the provision of water supplies for steam locomotives problematic.

After the E2s and new lightweight equipment replaced the proof-of-concept #1/1A and heavyweight cars in 1937, the Santa Fe began to modify the two units.

Locomotive #1 remained in passenger service. It was rebuilt as a single-ended locomotive in 1938 with a "bulldog" front end—a very high, raised cab above a snub rounded nose. The locomotive emerged in the warbonnet paint scheme like the E2s. The lead truck was replaced for a drop-equalizer truck of unusual 1B configuration—the lead axle unpowered, the two rear axles powered. A few years later, the trailing truck was replaced in similar fashion. Three-axle trucks rode better at speed and were lighter on the track, with a lower axle loading.

Locomotive #1A was first rebuilt into a cabless booster B unit in 1937, working with the original, unmodified #1. When #1 was rebuilt in 1938, #1A was rebuilt in the same fashion, becoming numbered as #10, since it was now regarded as a separate locomotive. Later, it was rebuilt again, becoming a local freight locomotive running on EMD Blomberg B freight trucks, renumbered as #2611.

Both locomotives were scrapped in 1952.

References

• Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973). The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide. Kalmbach Books, Waukesha, WI. ISBN 0–89024–026–4.