#2665
EMC E5
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Electro-Motive Diesel· from 1940· model of 2000 hp American passenger cab diesel locomotive
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. EMD E5 at IRM: The original uploader was Slambo at English Wikipedia .· CC BY-SA 2.0
what is it?
The EMC E5 is a 2,000-horsepower (1,500 kW), A1A-A1A passenger train-hauling diesel locomotive manufactured by Electro-Motive Corporation, and its corporate successor, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of La Grange, Illinois. It was produced exclusively for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and its subsidiaries in 1940 and 1941. The E5 was distinguished from the otherwise very similar E3, E4 and E6 by being clad in polished stainless steel to match the Burlington's Zephyr trains.
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 86 years ago, in 1940.
- 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).
- 21.6 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
- 1940–1941
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 11
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Electro-Motive Diesel
- operators
- Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, Fort Worth and Denver Railway, Colorado and Southern Railway
- top speed
- 187 km/h
- power
- 1.5 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- A1A-A1A
- length
- 21.6 m
- weight
- 143 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q5323400, Wikipedia: EMC E5 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.