EMD FP7

The EMD FP7 was a , B-B dual-service passenger and freight-hauling diesel locomotive produced between June 1949 and December 1953 by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel. Final assembly was at GM-EMD's La Grange, Illinois plant, excepting locomotives destined for Canada, in which case final assembly was at GMD's plant in London, Ontario. The FP7 was essentially EMD's F7A locomotive extended by four feet to give greater water capacity for the steam generator for heating passenger trains.

While EMD's E-units were successful passenger engines, their A1A-A1A wheel arrangement made them less useful in mountainous terrain. Several railroads had tried EMD's F3 in passenger service, but there was insufficient water capacity in an A-unit fitted with dynamic brakes. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's solution was to replace the steam generators in A-units with a water tank, and so only fitted steam generators in to the B-units. The Northern Pacific Railway's solution was to fit extra water tanks in to the first baggage car, and to pipe the water to the engines. The real breakthrough however, came when EMD recognized the problem and added the stretched, custom-built FP7 to its catalog.

A total of 378 cab-equipped lead A units were built; unlike the freight series, no cabless booster B units were sold. Regular F7B units were sometimes used with FP7 A units, since they, lacking cabs, had more room for water and steam generators. The FP7 and its successor, the FP9, were offshoots of GM-EMD's highly successful F-unit series of cab unit freight diesels.

It is important to note that F3s, F7s, and F9s equipped for passenger service are not FP-series locomotives, which although similar in appearance have distinctive differences, including but not limited to the greater body length.

The extra of length was added behind the first body-side porthole, and can be recognised by the greater distance between that porthole and the first small carbody filter grille. The corresponding space beneath the body, behind the front truck, was also opened up; this either remained an empty space or was filled with a distinctive water tank shaped like a barrel mounted transversely.

Original buyers

Locomotives built by EMD at La Grange, Illinois

Railroad	Quantity FP7	Quantity F7B (where bought with FP7)	Road numbers FP7	Road numbers F7B	Notes
Electro-Motive Division (demonstrator)	1	2	7001	7002–7003	to Soo Line (Wisconsin Central) 2500A, 2500B, 2501B
Electro-Motive Division (demonstrator)	1	2	9051	9052–9053	to Soo Line 500A, 500B, 501B
Atlanta and West Point Rail Road	4	—	551–554	—
Atlantic Coast Line	44	—	850–893	—
Alaska Railroad	3	1	1510–1514 (even)	1507
Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad	10	—	1600–1609	—
Chesapeake and Ohio Railway	16	7	8000–8015	8500–8506
Chicago Great Western Railway	2	—	116A,C	—
Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad	10	—	402–411	—	Commuter service
Clinchfield Railroad	1	—	200	—
Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México	17	7	6300–6309, 6328A–6334A	6328B–6334B
Ferrocarril Sonora-Baja California	2	—	23035–23036	—
Florida East Coast Railway	5	—	571–575	—
Georgia Railroad	3	—	1002–1004
Louisville and Nashville Railroad	45		600–634, 663–672
Milwaukee Road	32	16	90A,C–105A,C	90B–105B	90–94 renumbered 60–64 for freight service
Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad	8	4	121A,C–124A,C	121B–124B
Northern Pacific Railway	2	—	6600–6601	—
Pennsylvania Railroad	40	14	9832A–9871A	9832B–9858B
Reading Company	8	—	900–907	—
Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad	3	—	1201–1203	—
Arabian American Oil Company (Saudi Arabia)	2	—	1006–1007	—
St. Louis-San Francisco Railway	12	—	5040–5051	—
Soo Line	5	2	501A–503A, 504–505	502B–503B
Soo Line (Wisconsin Central Railway)	1	–	2501A	—
Southern Railway (Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway)	20		6130–6149
Southern Pacific Company	16		6446–6461
St. Louis Southwestern Railway (“Cotton Belt”)	1	—	330	—
Union Pacific Railroad	2	2	911–912	910B,C
Western Railway of Alabama	2	–	502–503	—
Western Pacific Railroad	4	2	804A,C–805A,C	804B–805B
Totals	322	59

Locomotives built by GMD at London, Ontario

Railroad	Quantity FP7	Quantity F7B (where bought with FP7)	Road numbers FP7	Road numbers F7B	Notes
Canadian Pacific Railway	35	29	4028–4041, 4058–4063, 4066–4075, 4099–4109	4424–4448, 4459–4462
Ontario Northland Railway	22	—	1500–1521	—
Totals	57	29

Preserved examples

• Chicago Great Western Railway 116A, on display, at Hub City Heritage Railroad Museum, Oelwein, Iowa.
• Reading 902, in operating condition.
• Reading 903, in operating condition.
• Soo Line 500A (né EMD demonstrator #9051), on display at Ladysmith, Wisconsin.
• Soo Line 2500A (né EMD demonstrator #7001), restored to working condition, at Lake Superior Railroad Museum, Duluth, Minnesota.
• Southern Railway (of the United States) No. 6133, in working condition at the North Carolina Transportation Museum at Spencer, North Carolina.
• Verde Canyon Railroad in Clarksdale, Arizona uses two FP7s (1510 and 1512) to haul its excursion train.
• Western Pacific 805-A, a locomotive used on the famous California Zephyr, is preserved in operable condition at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum at Portola, California.
• R J Corman operates two of the ex-Southern units on its Kentucky Dinner Train operation out of Bardstown, KY.

References

• EMD's FP7 - Original Owners. Retrieved on January 4, 2005.
• Pinkepank, Jerry A. (1973). The Second Diesel Spotter's Guide. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Milwaukee, WI. ISBN 0-89024-026-4.