#2585
EMC E3
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Electro-Motive Diesel· from 1938· model of 2000 hp American passenger cab diesel locomotive
what is it?
The EMC E3 is a 2,000 horsepower (1,500 kW), A1A-A1A diesel-electric passenger locomotive that was manufactured by Electro-Motive Corporation of La Grange, Illinois as part of the E Series of EMC/EMD diesel passenger locomotives. The EMC demonstrator #822 was released from La Grange for test on September 12, 1938. The cab version, or E3A, was manufactured from September 1938 to June 1940, and 17 were produced.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 88 years ago, in 1938.
- Top speed is 1.4× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- At full speed it would cover Amsterdam–Utrecht (≈ 40 km) in 13 minutes.
- 1.5 MW is about 18 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 23 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 21.3 m long: about 5 cars parked nose to tail.
multiple unit: A self-propelled train: motors are spread under the passenger cars, so no separate locomotive.
spec sheet
- built
- 1938–1940
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 17
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Electro-Motive Diesel
- operators
- Florida East Coast Railway, Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, Kansas City Southern Railway, Union Pacific Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Chicago and North Western Transportation Company, Missouri Pacific Railroad
- top speed
- 187 km/h
- power
- 1.5 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- A1A-A1A
- length
- 21.3 m
- weight
- 140 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q3045958, Wikipedia: EMC E3 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.