#2586
EMC E4
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Electro-Motive Diesel· from 1938· model of 2000 hp American passenger cab diesel locomotive
what is it?
The EMC E4 was a 2,000 horsepower (1,500 kW), A1A-A1A passenger train-hauling diesel locomotive built by the Electro-Motive Corporation of La Grange, Illinois from October 1938 - December 1939. All were built for the Seaboard Air Line Railway. The E4 was the fifth model in a long line of passenger diesels of similar design known as EMD E-units.
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 24 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 21.7 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
- 1938–1939
- retired
- 1964
- status
- retired
- number built
- 14
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Electro-Motive Diesel
- operators
- Seaboard Air Line Railroad
- top speed
- 187 km/h
- power
- 1.5 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- A1A-A1A
- length
- 21.7 m
- weight
- 143 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q3045959, Wikipedia: EMC E4 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.