favorite old EMD

[Anonymous]

It's hard to pick just one but I will need to agree, the SD-9's I was around on the old C&S at Rice Yard, no matter how slow or heavley loaded a consist of them would never go into the red or let you down, I guess my next would be the NW-2 ( the only bad thing with them is a cold winter's night with a good cab heater they would rock you to sleep).

[JamesPH1966]

BL-2 or GP-30

(or , in the case of the C&O, a GP-30 built on a traded-in BL-2!)

[GMTRacing]

The FL-9. We have one in the museum yard on loan from ConnDOT. The official farewell tour was last year, but they still run the Danbury/Norwalk branch in authentic New Haven colors usually on the weekends. It always makes the heart beat a bit quicker to be working in the yard and see one pull into the station, once disliked, now venerable rolling bits of history. Yeah the FL-9 - last man standing and my favorite. J.R. 

[Anonymous]

Having worked with most of the road switcher types of EMD's it is hard to find any that I like.   

Single and Dual control GP7's thru SD45's, long hood lead SD40's & 50's, constant high pitch noise and vibration............no thanks.  If forced I can claim a small affection for the 2 EMD rebuilds of B-L-W products performed for the NKP before said road disappeared into N&W oblivion.  DAM

 

[billbtrain]

I definately have to answer this one after looking thru it several times over the last couple of weeks.

Favorite locomotives are like Lays potato chips.Can you choose just one?NOT!!

EMD's,567C and 645E (in all their variants)engines,GP9,SW1200,SW1500,GP40,SD45,GP38, Dash-2's,MP15AC,and,of course,the SD40-2's in all 4 phases.And sooooo many still in service after 40 to 50 years of hard,unforgiving pounding.Can't beat that with any steam engine/passenger train stick! :-)

Have a good one.

Bill B 

[Andrew Falconer]

E-7, E-8, E-9 leave a lasting visual impression.

The chunky GP9 is the favorite because it was much more real and had an everyday reliable quality.

Andrew

[CMSTPP]

SD40-2

Like the Energizer bunny.....they kept going and going and going......AND they were comfortable.

good choice they made over 3000 of them still running through the hart of my home town every day glennbob

They made almost 4500 of the SD40-2s. They were some of the most common locmotives in the USA. Not even the SD45 beat that number.

 

James

[CMSTPP]

A couple of SD10s would make my day. Those would have to be one of my favorite locomotives besides the SDL39.

 

James

[Trainmaster.Curt]

Well, i have video that i took of a 567c powered GP9 doin about 10 or 15 mph on a 85lb rail branchline. It was Central Manitoba Railway's 4000, and that approach with the da-da-da-da of the 567c which David P Morgan called the "Rhythmic Chant" If anyone would like to see this video, contact me.

[Anonymous]

SD40-2

Like the Energizer bunny.....they kept going and going and going......AND they were comfortable.

good choice they made over 3000 of them still running through the hart of my home town every day glennbob

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

My choices would be the TR2/TR4 cow-calf for domestic models and the GA8 for exports.

[MopacBarrettTunnel]

I have to agree with Mopac about the low nosed GP20s. I also prefer its C-C running mate the SD24.

 

Otherwise any tunnel motor on a mountain grade will do.

Freight - GP9, 18, or 20, provided it has a factory STANDARD low nose;

How about Bessemer's Bicentennial-painted SD-18, SSW?  Yeah, the paint was a little gaudy, but the sound of a non-turbo 567 is really what made the early E's, Geeps and SD's so appealing - and the late-model D-1's were the nastiest sounding of them all. 

A lot of the "ear appeal" had to do with carbody ventillation and exhaust arrangements - as carbody-filtration technology advanced, it muffled the sound - and the same went for the exhaust, at least until the MoP, IC/G, SCL, and Precision National (among others) started messing around with hot-rod "liberated exhausts," which not surprisingly mirror EMD's use of the original (four stacks for each prime mover) on the E-3 through 7 - hence their "meaner" sound.

[Trainmaster.Curt]

Well the A1A-A1A light rail GMD1's are a sure fav, and from what i've heard the sole A1A GMD1 is 1063, which was the last CN locomotive to wear the green and gold Glory days scheme.

[SSW9389]

I have to agree with Mopac about the low nosed GP20s. I also prefer its C-C running mate the SD24.

 

Otherwise any tunnel motor on a mountain grade will do.

Freight - GP9, 18, or 20, provided it has a factory STANDARD low nose;

[sprulz]

Hi from South Africa.

The spread is so large. Having only been able to view video / DVD, read and view photo, and model EMD in US railroading, SD9, F7 in SP my favourite old oldies.

SD40T my favourite later model.

The whine of the turbo, the grimmy SP loco, and heavy duty mountain railroading make this a sight I would love to have witnessed.

In South Africa we have a number of EMD export versions that perform as expected, and are also proud vesions of the EMD heritage.

 

[eolafan]

Difficult choice, there are so very many I would chose from but I am partial to the F units, with the F9 and FL9 on hte top of the list.

[MopacBarrettTunnel]

Freight - GP9, 18, or 20, provided it has a factory STANDARD low nose; Phelps-Dodge's early '9 doesn't count (it was a one-off customer's request, as opposed to a standard regular-production feature), nor do the many later "chop jobs" done during rebuilding.  The slanted nose with the step cut-out on the engineer's side, and the number boards above the windshield perfected the look of "everyman's locomotive," to my eyes.  The flat noses of the rebuilds just aren't as racy-looking as EMD's original  standard low nose - and when my beloved Mopac chopped some of their torpedo-tube GP-7's with new nose kits from EMD, perfection was re-defined (IMHO, of course)!!!  The 1959 low-nose design is simply the freight equivalent of the slant-nosed E's, to me.

Passenger - Even though they were long gone before I was born, give me an EA or E-1 any day.  Keeping the original slanted nose free of protruding headlights and number boards sets these two models apart from all the others - the breathtaking lines are free to dazzle, and dazzle they did/do!!  The true beauty of "Form follows Function" started here my friends -  an EA or E1 was the rail Lamborghini of its' day, and hasn't been equalled (let alone surpassed) by ANY other design since.  Had Electro Motive designed the E-8/9 type of large, nearly flush numberboards at the E's genesis (along with keeping all lights flush and free of housings on the later models), the design would have been completely timeless and ageless, even when the slant was blunted by the Bulldog nose.........

On a side note, I DID manage to experience a small bit of the "Winton E-units" magic in a much-removed fashion when my hometown National Museum of Transport re-opened after joining the federal Parks Department in 1980.  The Museum saw fit to fire up Sabine River & Northern Electro-Motive NC #408, and allow the public into the cab.  As a rabidly-enthusiastic 13-year old railfan, I was in hog heaven!!  The 201-A was in desperate need of at least a good ring-job, anong many other things (she smoked constantly the entire time she was fired up), but forget that.  The tired V-12 under her hood was the same one that (in pairs) powered the original E's I had already fallen in love with.  And the single-note air horn, again common to the paired ones of the E's was the icing on the cake.

When my turn in the engineer's seat came, I settled myself in and promptly grabbed the "whistle cord" and peeled off a perfectly-quilled grade-crossing warning.  The Museum supervisor in the cab (a retired Frisco engineer) got quite a kick out of my expertise - "Son, you REALLY know what you're doing, but don't use up all my air, ok?" - and then spent the next 20-odd minutes in deep conversation with me about how wonderful early EMC's were!!!  I'm not shy to say that I held my end up rather well, considering a total lack of direct experience.........

Two final notes - both the Leslie-Tyfon and single-chime Nathan air horns (which EMC used interchangably during the early days) are the sounds one hears frequently when cartoon character Wile E. Coyote chases the Roadrunner.  And finally, the Winton 201-A originated the EMC/D two-cycle "chanting" sound, albeit in a slightly deeper (and slightly rasping) register.

[joseph2]

The NW2 switcher.Because my employer has an ex-Great Northern NW2 I was recently engineer of for a couple of hours.

[JanOlov]

Everything up to the SD-45....

[Anonymous]

Hello P.  I love all the E's, but did not remember the slant noses as well as the so called "bulldog" noses of the E-7s through 9s. I was born in 1952, and the Southern in Winnsboro and Columbia SC  (where I saw most passenger trains) probably had them replaced there by E-7s and 8's by the late 1950s.  That probably had to do w/ the Augusta Special being combined w/ the Crescent north of Charlotte, as they probably wanted newer power on the Special so as not to hold up the Crescent w/ any power problems due to breakdowns from older units.  But I do remember hearing first what probably were E-6's notching out through Winnsboro and the sound was wonderful.  I could not imagine anyone in Winnsboro concentrating on anything else until it passed, as it sounded so significant.  And it did seem they were a little louder than the 7s and 8s later, but they all had the best locomotive sound I've ever heard.  It had to do w/ the twin motor sound of the 567s, which no F or GP unit could duplicate w/ the single 567.  And the Nathan M-5 horn was a great compliment.  I believe you are right on the louder sound due to more carbody openings. 

I also saw the Seaboard Es in Columbia on the Palmland and sometimes the Silver Metor.  As you probably know, they always ran "elephant style" and I don't remember anything but E-7s.  I know they had some 4s, 6s, 8s and one 9, but I either didn't see them or didn't notice the difference.  The bottom line is I loved them all and wish they still made them today.  Anyway, if we talk again I'd like to tell you about the time the Palmland sprinted by us under a bridge in North Columbia in 1963/about blew me off of it (later!).

 

[WP 3020]

SD-9 then the SD-45 and 45X.

[enr2099]

GP9, SW1200's, anything with the 567 engine. The old EMD's are the best EMD's; not like the junk they're building now.

[Railfan1]

The SD9 gets my vote!

[FullParallel]

I'll second the FL-9 vote!!!!

 

 

Steve L.

[Anonymous]

My favorite "old" EMD is definitly the F3. Mainly because out of all CGWs covered wagons, most were F3s. Also, they were durable as CGW would use every last ounce of tractive effort and then some. Plus, who can forget the chug of a 567 prime mover?

My second favorite is a tie between the NW2 and GP7.

[jimrice4449]

The absolute classic...CB&Q E-5 AB set pulling the 7 car (5 domes) 1947 Twin Zephyr!

[zardoz]

SD40-2

Like the Energizer bunny.....they kept going and going and going......AND they were comfortable.

[JonathanS]

The good old GP7.  The first locomotive that GM finally got right.  That is what the railroads really needed rather than a fancy painted billboard.

[wjstix]

I have to admit liking the FT - a little different than the F's that followed, but still the first really accepted diesel freight engine.