#2587
EMD SW1
🇺🇸 United States ·built by Electro-Motive Diesel· from 1938· diesel-electric locomotive manufactured between 1938 and 1953
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3 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Hugh llewelyn 6589 (5961018035): Hugh Llewelyn· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 2. Broward County Port Authority SW1 -400, Port Everglades, Florida in July 1964 (28122194101): railfan 44· Public domain
- 3. Washington Terminal EMD SW1 Locomotive: Influencerrpc893· CC BY-SA 4.0
what is it?
The EMD SW1 is a 600-horsepower (450 kW) diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Corporation (later Division) between December 1938 and November 1953. Final assembly was at EMD's plant at LaGrange (McCook) Illinois. The SW1 was the second generation of 3,402 cu in (55.75 L) switcher from EMD, succeeding the SC (cast frame) and SW (welded frame).
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.
- 447 kW is about 5 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 15 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 13.4 m long: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).
spec sheet
- built
- 1938–1953
- number built
- 661
- kind
- Diesel-electric
- traction
- diesel
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- Electro-Motive Diesel
- top speed
- 105 km/h
- power
- 447 kW
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- B-B
- length
- 13.4 m
- weight
- 88.9 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q5323482, Wikipedia: EMD SW1 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.