Before 1940, railroads were used to custom ordering their locomotives, and initially General Motors followed that model, individualizing each run of Diesels for its purchaser. The smooth-faced E1 was sold only to Santa Fe; the bulbous-faced E2 was sold to Union Pacific; the E4 was custom designed for Seaboard with a nose-door passageway to allow crew to move between units; and the E5 was identical to an E6 except the former had a fluted, stainless steel body.
General Motors delivered the first E4 locomotives to Seaboard in 1938, before any of the E3s were completed. This painting by Harry Bockewitz shows that Leland Knickerbocker’s plan for the citrus-striped locomotive was faithfully followed. Click any image to download a PDF of that card.
GM really only got into mass production with the E3 (which came after the E4) and E6. The 2,000-horsepower E3 was a major improvement over the E2, which produced only 1,800 horsepower. Eight different railroads bought E3s, and 14 to 16 (depending on how you count joint owners) bought E6s. Today I’ll present data cards for the E3 through E5 locomotives. The dates on some of the paintings suggest all of these cards were issued in 1944 or 1945 even though the locomotives were made several years before. All of the cards I’ll present over the next few days are from Greg Palumbo and the PDFs are all about 1.1 megabytes.
C&NW purchased two pairs of E3s, 5001 and 5002 in A and B units.
Chicago and North Western received its first E3, 5001 A and B, in April 1939. For some reason, this locomotive card is for the next one, 5002 A and B, which was delivered in June. This painting by Ben Dedek appears to be dated 1944. Unfortunately only the front of the card is available.
Rock Island purchased two E3 A units, numbered 625 and 626.
Rock Island received its first E3 in June 1939. The 626 shown in the painting was delivered in July. The painting is unsigned but looks like it is by Ben Dedek.
Having already purchased several E1s, Santa Fe bought only one pair of E3s.
Santa Fe’s E3 A unit was delivered in August 1939 with the B unit arriving the next month. The painting is unsigned but looks like Dedek’s work.
Although not readily visible, Burlington’s Silver Pilot is numbered 9911. The B unit is called Silver Mate.
Burlington and its subsidiaries purchased 11 A and 5 B stainless-steel clad E5s. The first was delivered in February 1940 and the second, the Silver Pilot, was probably delivered that month or a month later. This locomotive still exists and is occasionally operated by the Illinois Railway Museum.
This card is identical to the previous one except for the logo.
Perhaps to thank a loyal customer, GM issued a variation of the Silver Pilot card with Burlington’s logo in place of the GM logo in the upper left corner. The cards are otherwise the same. The painting is unsigned but looks like Harry Bockewitz’s work.