#2914
EMD E8
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Electro-Motive Diesel· from 1949· model of 2250 hp American passenger cab locomotive
1 photo from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Rock Island locomotive 652: Russell Meier· CC BY-SA 3.0
what is it?
The EMD E8 is a 2,250-horsepower (1,678 kW), A1A-A1A passenger-train locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division (EMD) of La Grange, Illinois. A total of 449 cab versions, or E8As, were built from August 1949 to January 1954, 446 for the U.S. and 3 for Canada. 46 E8Bs were built from December 1949 to January 1954, all for the U.S. The 2,250 hp came from two 12 cylinder model 567B engines, each driving a generator to power the two traction motors on one truck.
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 77 years ago, in 1949.
- 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.
- 1.7 MW is about 20 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 24 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
- 1949–1954
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 450
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Electro-Motive Diesel
- top speed
- 188 km/h
- power
- 1.7 MW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- A1A-A1A
- length
- 21.3 m
- weight
- 143 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q5323404, Wikipedia: EMD E8 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.