The E7 was a ,
A1A-A1A passenger train locomotive built by
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
'
Electro-Motive Division of
La Grange, Illinois. 428
cab versions, or E7As, were built from February 1945 to April 1949; 82
booster E7Bs were built from March 1945 to July 1948. (Circa 1953 one more E7A was built by the Los Angeles General Shops of the Southern Pacific by rebuilding an E2A.) The 2,000 hp came from two
12 cylinder model 567A engines. Each engine drove its own
electrical generator to power the two
traction motors on one truck. The E7 was the eighth model in a line of passenger diesels of similar design known as
EMD E-units, and it became the best selling E model upon its introduction.
In profile the front of the nose of an E7A was less slanted than on earlier EMD passenger locomotives, and the E7,
E8, and
E9 units have been nicknamed “
bulldog nose” units. Some earlier units were called “shovel nose” units or “slant nose” units.
In film
A
Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad E7A, #103-A, appears at the start and end of the 1967 film ''
In The Heat of the Night''.
A
Southern Pacific E7A, #6001, is on the point of a train that figures prominently in "
The Hitch-Hiker", a popular 1960 episode of the anthology television series, ''
The Twilight Zone'', starring
Inger Stevens. (According to the narration, Steven's character is said to encounter the train somewhere between Pennsylvania and Tennessee, yet the locomotive's number board shows that the train, #99, is the ''
Coast Daylight'', which travelled between Los Angeles and San Francisco.)
In the 2010 miniseries ''
The Pacific'', filmed in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
,
S313, an example of the similar A16C export model, was painted to resemble
Louisville & Nashville Railroad E7A 758 for filming, however it retained the livery for a short while after filming wrapped.
Surviving example
Ex-
Pennsylvania Railroad E7A #5901 is preserved as the only surviving example of the E7. This locomotive has been cosmetically restored, and is currently on indoor display at the
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.
Original owners
See also
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List of GM-EMD locomotives
References
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External links
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Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania – #5901 page(Archive of Webpage here.)
{{EMD cab and cowl
A1A-A1A locomotives
E7
Passenger locomotives
Diesel–electric locomotives of the United States
Railway locomotives introduced in 1945
Locomotives with cabless variants
Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States
Streamlined diesel locomotives
Baltimore and Ohio locomotives
Chesapeake and Ohio locomotives
Chicago and North Western Railway locomotives
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy locomotives
Great Northern Railway (United States) locomotives
Illinois Central locomotives
Maine Central Railroad locomotives
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New York Central Railroad locomotives
Pennsylvania Railroad locomotives
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Southern Pacific Railroad locomotives
Diesel locomotives of Southern Railway (U.S.)
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St. Louis–San Francisco Railway locomotives
Union Pacific Railroad locomotives