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#2917

EMD GP7

🇨🇦 Canada ·built by General Motors Diesel· from 1949· model of 1500 hp North American diesel locomotive

🛤️ diesel locomotive diesel ✓ in service
10 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
  1. 1. Illinois Terminal 1605, July 16, 2005, Illinois Railway Museum: Wikimedia Commons· CC BY-SA 2.0
  2. 2. Atlanta and West Point GP7 571 with a Georgia RR mixed and a Georgia RR combine stopped at Crawford, GA station, November 24, 1967 (28018835301): railfan 44· Public domain
  3. 3. Central of Georgia 104 and 801 (GP7 and E7A) near Terminal Station in Atlanta, GA on April 12, 1963 (27723596925): railfan 44· Public domain
  4. 4. CNJ GP7 1524 at Penn Station, Newark, NJ in September 1978 (24117248285): railfan 44· Public domain
  5. 5. CNJ GP7 1528 at the Elizabethport, NJ shops on Novemebr 8, 1969 (26036483265): railfan 44· Public domain
  6. 6. N, C, & St L GP7 710: Just an image guy· CC BY 4.0
  7. 7. Seaboard Air Line EMD GP7 1704 (50682663858): Craig Garver from Tucson, Arizona, United States· CC0
  8. 8. Western Pacific Railroad GP7 No. 708 at Sacramento Yard: sodai gomi· CC BY 2.0
  9. 9. Canton Railroad loco 1364 @ Boston Street Xing: DanTD· CC BY-SA 4.0
  10. 10. Canton Railroad locomotive 1307, October 2016: Maryland GovPics· CC BY 2.0
Read about it on Wikipedia ↗
EMD GP7, photo 1 of 10
1/10 Wikimedia Commons· CC BY-SA 2.0

what is it?

The EMD GP7 is a four-axle (B-B) diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between October 1949 and May 1954. The GP7 was the first EMD road locomotive to use a hood unit design instead of a car-body design. This proved to be more efficient than the car body design as the hood unit cost less to build, was cheaper and easier to maintain, and had much better front and rear visibility for switching.

who runs it

See list

base stats

  • speed 105 km/htop speed
  • power 1.1 MWpower output
  • weight 112 tin working order
  • built 2,729made in total

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.
  • 1.1 MW is about 13 family cars (~85 kW each) flat out.
  • Weighs about as much as 19 African elephants (~6 t each).
  • 16.8 m long: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
  • Still in service after 77 years.

diesel locomotive: A diesel engine on board drives the wheels, usually through a generator (diesel-electric).

spec sheet

built
1949–1954
in service from
1949
status
in service
number built
2,729
kind
Diesel-electric
traction
diesel
origin
🇨🇦 Canada
builders
General Motors Diesel, Electro-Motive Diesel
operators
See list
top speed
105 km/h
power
1.1 MW
wheel arrangement
B-B
length
16.8 m
weight
112 t

From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.

Sources: Wikidata Q203694, Wikipedia: EMD GP7 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.

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