Southern Railway EMD E8 type diesel electric locomotive No. 6900 once pulled the Southern Crescent passenger train.
Jim Wrinn
E8
•YEARS BUILT: 1949-1953
•MANUFACTURER: EMD
•OPERATED ON: Most major Class I railroads, notably Chesapeake & Ohio; Canadian Pacific; Chicago & North Western; Burlington Route; Delaware, Lackawanna & Western; Erie; Illinois Central; Missouri Pacific; New York Central; Pennsylvania Railroad; Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; Seaboard; Southern Pacific; Southern; Union Pacific
•NAME: E8
•QUANTITY: 421 A units, 39 B units
•HORSEPOWER: 2,250
•KNOWN FOR: Ubiquitous streamlined passenger unit that pulled nearly all named passenger trains in North America
•STATUS: A few in museums; several operational
As a kid in the 1950’s, there was nothing more impressive to me than seeing one of these giants (at the time) up close, especially waiting head-in in one of Chicago’s iconic stations. They almost seemed alive from the front, and on six-wheel trucks they just seemed superior to their cousins, the punier F units.