Although the war was still raging in early 1945, General Motors had made enough minor improvements to the Diesel engines that powered its locomotives to justify advertising a successor to the E6. The E7 differed from the E6 more on the outside than on the inside as the “bulldog” nose used on the FT replaced the more elegant slant nose used on the E3 through E6. This was probably because GM was geared up to make FT noses while it hadn’t made an E6 nose since 1942. Despite different noses, the E7 was exactly the same length as the E6: 71’1-1/4″.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

The first E7 to come off the production line was Alton 101, which was delivered in March 1945 along with five others. Alton bought a seventh E7 numbered 100, but it was not built until 1946.

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This original painting by Ben Dedek shows an alternative paint scheme was considered for the Alton. The red band curves in different ways. The black roof wraps lower on the side of the locomotives just as it does on the passenger cars. The front is blank but presumably the Alton logo would be added. The band wrapping around the front is boring compared with the curves of the selected design. I think they were right to reject this in favor of the one that was selected.

The signature on this card is difficult to read but it is probably Bockewitz. I can make out a B and a Z and the ballast looks like the ballast in the Bockewitz-signed Wabash card below.

In April 1945, Great Northern received the first four of ten E7s it had ordered to power the streamlined Empire Builder. The other six E7s would arrive in June, and GN would order three more for other passenger trains that GM would deliver in August 1947. Although the painting shows orange-and-green passenger cars behind the locomotives, GN hadn’t actually received such cars yet and it put its E7s to work pulling the Pullman-green painted, heavyweight Empire Builder.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

GN’s first E7s featured forward facing goats and “The Great Northern Railway” in gold script on an orange nose. While elegant, gold-on-orange wasn’t very readable, which may have helped convince GN to change to the paint scheme shown on this card. I don’t have a back for the as-delivered card so I used the back from this card on both of them.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

The Chicago and Eastern Illinois bought three E7s to power its share of Florida passenger trains. The first, number 1100, was not delivered until May 1946. The gap in production was partly due to a United Auto Workers strike that halted both automobile and locomotive manufacturing from November 1945 through March 1946. This was followed by a strike in the steel industry that delayed locomotive production for another month.

Up until now, I’ve assumed that all of the data cards presented to date were printed in 1944 or, more likely, 1945. From now on, I’ll date each data card to the year the locomotive on that card was delivered.

This card is signed Ben Dedek.

Maine Central bought seven E7s, with numbers starting at 705. They were delivered in June 1946 in this elegant paint scheme that is as good as any designed by Knickerbocker.

This card is signed by Bockewitz.

Wabash purchased four E7s, numbered 1000, 1001, 1001A, and 1002. Delivered in August 1946, 1000 was initially dedicated to Wabash’s City of Kansas City, and that name was briefly written in the small blue panel between “Wabash” and “1000.” The 1001 and 1001A pair were delivered in 1947 to power the joint Wabash/Union Pacific City of St. Louis while 1002 was delivered in 1949 for Detroit-St. Louis trains.