3 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Avery, Idaho Little Joe GE electric locomotive CMStP&P RR 1974: Deut2814· CC BY-SA 3.0
- 2. South Shore Line Little Joe 803 at Illinois Railway Museum: H. Michael Miley· CC BY-SA 2.0
- 3. Milwaukee Road Little Joe: Jack Boucher· Public domain
what is it?
The "Little Joe" is a type of railroad electric locomotive built by General Electric. The locomotives had 12 axles, eight of them powered, in a 2-D+D-2 arrangement. They were originally intended to be exported to the Soviet Union and designed to operate on Soviet Railways (SZhD) 3,300-volt DC overhead line system.
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
- 4.1 MW is about 49 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
- Weighs about as much as 41 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 26.8 m long: about 6 cars parked nose to tail.
electric locomotive: Draws power from overhead wires or a third rail and pulls separate carriages.
spec sheet
- built
- —
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 20
- kind
- Electric
- traction
- electric
- origin
- 🇺🇸 United States
- builders
- General Electric
- operators
- Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, Chicago South Shore and South Bend, Companhia Paulista de Estradas de Ferro, United States, Brazil
- top speed
- 109 km/h
- power
- 4.1 MW
- gauge
- 1,520 mm Russian broad gauge
- electric system
- 3,000–3,300 V DC, 1,500 V DC (South Shore)
- wheel arrangement
- 4-8-0+0-8-4
- length
- 26.8 m
- weight
- 248 t
- nicknames
- Little Joe (Milwaukee), 800s (South Shore), Russa (Paulista and FEPASA)
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q980315, Wikipedia: Little Joe (electric locomotive) (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.