#2545
EMC TA
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Electro-Motive Diesel· from 1937· American diesel electric locomotive model
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Rock Island Rocket circa 1937: Rock Island Railroad-there is a stamp for the photo-Kauffmann & Fabry, Chicago, but it's quite faint.· Public domain
what is it?
The EMC-TA was a model of diesel locomotive produced for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad by the Electro-Motive Corporation in 1937. The original six Rock Island Rockets streamliners were three- or four-car stainless-steel semi-articulated trainsets built by Budd Company, powered by six identical locomotives, #601-606. The locomotives were classified as model TA—the T indicating Twelve hundred hp (890 kW), the A indicating an A unit (cab-equipped lead locomotive).
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 89 years ago, in 1937.
- 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 14 minutes.
- 895 kW is about 11 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- 18.3 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1937
- retired
- 1958
- status
- retired
- number built
- 6
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Electro-Motive Diesel
- operators
- Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad
- top speed
- 177 km/h
- power
- 895 kW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- Bo'Bo'
- length
- 18.3 m
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q5323385, Wikipedia: EMC TA (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.