EMD FT

EMD's FT demonstrator set #103, the locomotive that sold US railroads on the freight-hauling diesel locomotive.
Power type	Diesel-electric
Builder	General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD)
Model	FT
Build date	November 1939 – November 1945
Total production	555 A units, 541 B units
AAR wheel arr.	B-B (B-B+B-B with the B unit)
Gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm)
Power output	2,700 hp (with the B unit)
Locale	United States

The EMD FT was a 1,350 hp B-B diesel-electric locomotive produced between November 1939 and November 1945 by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (the "F" stood for "freight" and the "T" for 2700 horsepower with a 2 unit set). 555 cab-equipped A units were built, along with 541 cabless booster B units, for a total of 1,096 locomotive units constructed, all sold to customers in the United States. It was the first model in EMD's very successful F-unit series of cab unit freight diesels, and was the locomotive that convinced many US railroads that the diesel-electric freight locomotive was the future, and that EMD was the manufacturer that could make it happen. Many rail historians consider the FT one of the most important locomotive models of all time. General Motors Electro-Motive Division FT freight diesel locomotive demonstrator #103, shown on trial on the Denver and Rio Grande Western in Denver, Colorado, May 16, 1940. ... Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. ... An A unit, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive (generally a diesel or electric locomotive) equipped with a driving cab, or crew compartment, and the control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit, and therefore able to be the lead unit in a consist of several locomotives controlled... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... The AAR wheel arrangement system is a method of classifying locomotive (or unit) wheel arrangements that was developed by the Association of American Railroads. ... The dominant rail gauge in each country shown Rail gauge is the distance between the inner sides of the two parallel rails that make up a railway track. ... A foot (plural: feet or foot;[1] symbol or abbreviation: ft or, sometimes, ′ – a prime) is a unit of length, in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... An inch (plural: inches; symbol or abbreviation: in or, sometimes, ″ - a double prime) is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including English units, Imperial units, and United States customary units. ... A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter, symbol mm) is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... hp, see HP (disambiguation) The horsepower (hp) is the name of several non-metric units of power. ... The AAR wheel arrangement system is a method of classifying locomotive (or unit) wheel arrangements that was developed by the Association of American Railroads. ... Great Western Railway No. ... General Motors Corporation (NYSE: GM), also known as GM, is an American automobile maker with worldwide operations and brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab and Vauxhall. ... Electro-Motive Diesel, Inc. ... An A unit, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive (generally a diesel or electric locomotive) equipped with a driving cab, or crew compartment, and the control system to control other locomotives in a multiple unit, and therefore able to be the lead unit in a consist of several locomotives controlled... This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ... EMD F-units were a line of diesel locomotives produced between November 1939 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. ... A cab unit and a carbody unit, while closely related, are not exactly the same thing. ... This is the top-level page of WikiProject trains Rail tracks Rail transport refers to the land transport of passengers and goods along railways or railroads. ...

FTs were generally marketed as semi-permanently coupled A+B sets (a lead unit and a cabless booster connected by a drawbar) making a single locomotive of 2,700 hp. Many railroads used pairs of these sets back to back to make up a four-unit A+B+B+A locomotive rated at 5,400 hp. Some railroads purchased semi-permanently coupled A+B+A three-unit sets of 4,050 hp, while a few, like the Santa Fe, ordered all their FTs with regular couplers on both ends of each unit, for added flexibility. All units in a consist could be run from one cab; multiple unit (MU) control systems linked the units together. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AAR reporting marks ATSF), often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the largest railroads in the United States. ... A classic Belgian multiple unit of type 74 A multiple unit (MU) is a passenger train whose carriages have their own motors, either diesel (DMUs) or electric (EMUs), and do not need to be hauled by a locomotive, and can be coupled with other similar units to operate together, in...

Santa Fe FT #144 (L,A,B,C) in New Mexico, 1947. The ATSF owned the largest number of FTs. The large overhangs on the ends of the B units near the middle of the four-unit locomotive can be seen.

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway EMD FT diesel locomotive #144, photographed near Belen, New Mexico, January 12, 1947 by Otto Perry. ... Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway EMD FT diesel locomotive #144, photographed near Belen, New Mexico, January 12, 1947 by Otto Perry. ...

Recognition and visual appearance

The nose of EMD 103 on display at Railfair '91 at the California State Railroad Museum, May 10, 1991.

The FT is very similar to the later F-units in appearance, but there are some unique differences which render it distinguishable from later EMD freight cab units. The side panels of the FT were unique, but it was fairly common for railroads to alter that area to make an earlier unit appear later. As built, FT units had four porthole windows spaced closely together along their sides, and B units with couplers on both ends had a fifth window on one side for the hostler position. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 428 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (466 × 652 pixel, file size: 49 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) The nose of GM 103, the first EMD FT, on display at Railfair 91 at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California, May 10, 1991. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 428 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (466 × 652 pixel, file size: 49 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) The nose of GM 103, the first EMD FT, on display at Railfair 91 at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California, May 10, 1991. ... The California State Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento is a tribute to the role of the iron horse in connecting California to the rest of the nation. ... is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the 1991 Gregorian calendar). ... Coupler is a word used to describe any of a number of things: A railway coupling device; An electronic device, more properly, an acoustic coupler; A telecommunications device known as a directional coupler; A kind of laser mirror known as an output coupler; A connector between two moving parts to... An ostler is a person employed in a stable to take care of horses. ...

The roof is a more reliable indication; FTs had four exhaust stacks along the centerline (flanked by boxy structures if dynamic brakes were included). The radiator fans were recessed within the carbody, and arranged in two pairs, one near each end of the locomotive. Later units have the fans together, and their shrouding extended atop the roof. Regenerative braking is any technology which allows a vehicle to recapture and store part of the kinetic energy that would ordinarily be lost when braking. ...

The overhangs of the body past the trucks differ in the FT compared to later units. The B units of FTs ordered in semi-permanently coupled A+B sets, and those with couplers on both ends, have a large overhang on one end (the coupler-equipped end on the paired units) which no other EMD B units had. This is not present on the B units in semi-permanently coupled A+B+A sets, which were called FTSB units (Short Booster). At other locations, except the cab front, the FT units have less of an overhang than later units; the trucks appear to be right at the ends of the carbodies. Trucks can refer to several things: The plural of: Truck, the motorized vehicle Truck, other uses of the singular As a name: Trucks was a rock band Trucks is a short story by Stephen King Trucks is a movie based on the Stephen King short story Trucks! is a television...

Wartime restrictions

An EMD model FT of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway receives service during World War II.

During World War II, locomotive production was regulated by the War Production Board. The traditional locomotive builders were prohibited from building diesel road locomotives during this time, except for a few dual-service ALCO DL-109s for the New Haven. Steam locomotives could be built with fewer precious resources, and were the proven commodity at the time. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AAR reporting marks ATSF), often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the largest railroads in the United States. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... The War Production Board (WPB) was established in 1942 by executive order of Franklin D. Roosevelt. ... The Santa Fes locomotive during WW2. ... The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (AAR reporting mark NH) was a railroad that operated in the northeast United States. ...

EMD however, was purely a diesel builder, and therefore was allowed to continue building diesel freight locomotives. The WPB assigned the FT's built to the railroads it deemed most able to benefit from the new locomotives. The Santa Fe received by far the largest allocation of them, given its heavy war traffic and the difficulty and expense of providing water for steam locomotives on its long desert stretches. The original A+B+B+A demonstrator set was sold to the Southern Railway.

Were it not for the wartime restrictions, many more FTs would have been built. Most railroads wanted diesels, but often had to settle for steam locomotives.

These wartime restrictions on other manufacturers' diesel programs helped ensure EMD's dominance of the postwar diesel market.

Subsequent models

The FT was discontinued in late 1945, replaced in production by the F2, which retained the 1,350 hp rating of the FT, but with upgraded electrical and control equipment. The F2 was produced only in 1946, after which in turn it was replaced by updated models in the EMD F-unit series, such as the F3, F7, F9, and FL9. The EMD F2 was a freight-hauling diesel locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between July 1946 and November 1946. ... EMD F-units were a line of diesel locomotives produced between November 1939 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. ...

Original buyers

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AAR reporting marks ATSF), often abbreviated as Santa Fe, was one of the largest railroads in the United States. ... The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (AAR reporting mark ACL) was an American railroad that existed between 1880s and 1967, when it merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, its longtime rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. ... 1876 map The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) is one of the oldest railroads in the United States, with an original line from the port of Baltimore, Maryland, west to the Ohio River at Wheeling and Parkersburg, West Virginia. ... The Boston & Maine (B&M) was the dominant railroad of the northern United States for a century. ... The Chicago and North Western Railway (AAR reporting marks: CNW, CNWS, CNWZ; unofficial abbreviation: C&NW) was a Class I railroad in the United States. ... The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (AAR reporting mark CBQ) was a railroad that operated in the Midwestern United States. ... The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. ... The Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad (AAR reporting mark RI) was a Class I railroad in the United States. ... The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company (DL&W or Lackawanna) (AAR reporting marks DLW) was a railroad connecting Pennsylvanias Lackawanna Valley, rich in anthracite coal, to New York City, Buffalo and Oswego, New York. ... The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (AAR reporting mark DRG and DRGW) generally referred to as the Rio Grande, became the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad in 1920, and is today a fallen flag (a railroad that has been absorbed into a larger system -- Union Pacific -- as the result... The Erie Railroad (AAR reporting mark ERIE) was a railroad that operated in New York State, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, connecting New York City with Lake Erie, and extending west to Cleveland, Ohio, Cincinnati, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois. ... A Great Northern train pauses for the photographer four miles west of Minot, North Dakota in 1914. ... 1884 map of the Pennsylvania, Reading and Lehigh Valley Railroads The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company (AAR reporting mark LV) was incorporated April 21, 1846 in Pennsylvania. ... The Minneapolis and St. ... Missouri Pacific (MoPac; AAR reporting mark MP) was one of the first railroads in the United States west of the Mississippi River. ... The New York Central Railroad (AAR reporting mark NYC), known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the North-Eastern United States. ... The New York, Ontario and Western Railway, more commonly known as the O&W or NYO&W, was a regional railroad with origins in 1868, lasting until 1957 when it was ordered liquidated by a US bankruptcy judge. ... The Northern Pacific Railway (AAR reporting marks NP) was a railway that operated in the north-central region of the United States. ... Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Categories: Rail stubs | Philadelphia and Reading Railroad ... The St. ... Categories: Stub | Defunct railroad companies of the United States | Defunct companies | Florida Seaboard Air Line Railroad precursors | Georgia railroads | North Carolina railroads | South Carolina railroads | Virginia railroads ... The Southern Railway (AAR reporting mark SOU) was the product of nearly 150 predecessor lines that were combined, reorganized and recombined beginning in the 1830s, formally becoming the Southern Railway in 1894. ... Drumhead logos such as these often adorned the ends of observation cars on the Western Pacific Railroad. ...

Surviving units

Five EMD FT units survive today; they include the lead unit from demonstrator #103 displayed at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri; an FT A unit, on display in Mexico, which was originally built for the Northern Pacific Railway; and three B units from the Southern Railway, and one of the two original FT B-Units from the Demonstration train, at the Virginia Museum of Transportation This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ...

References

• Diesel Era (1994). The Revolutionary Diesel: EMC's FT. Withers Publishing, Halifax, PA. ISBN 1-881411-02-8. 
• Abbey, Wally. (2001) EMC and EMD FTs (especially ATSF). Retrieved on December 26, 2004.
• Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973). The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Milwaukee, WI. ISBN 0-89024-026-4. 
• Sandrin, Jim. (1982) Diesel Locomotive Roster: EMD model FT. Retrieved on December 26, 2004.
• Santa Fe Historical & Modeling Society. Santa Fe Freight FT's. Retrieved on December 26, 2004.

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