Great Northern
Great Northern ordered two sets of passenger F3 A-B units in 1947. Decorated in the famous “Empire Builder” scheme of orange and green with imitation gold trim, both the A-and-B-units were equipped with steam generators.
GN FEATURES:
Denver and Rio Grande Western
Rio Grande received their 4th and last group of F-7’s in the summer of 1952. Some of the units in this release were amongst some of the last ones that were retired. In their final years they were sometimes leased to other power short railroads such as the Colorado & Southern, the Illinois Central and the Southern Pacific. The 5761 was often seen on the point of the Rio Grande Zephyr during that train’s first year of operation.
DRGW FEATURES:
PROTOTYPE AND BACKGROUND INFO:
EMD F-units were a line of diesel-electric locomotives produced between November 1939 and November 1960 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors-Diesel Division. Final assembly for all F-units was at the GM-EMD plant at La Grange, Illinois and the GMDD plant in London, Ontario, Canada. They were sold to railroads throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Structurally, the locomotive was a carbody unit, with the body as the main load-bearing structure, designed like a bridge truss and covered with cosmetic panels. The so-called bulldog nose was a distinguishing feature of the locomotive’s appearance, and made a lasting impression in the mind of the traveling public.
The F-units were the most successful “first generation” road (main line) diesel locomotives in North America, and were largely responsible for superseding steam locomotives in road freight service. Before this, diesel units were mostly only built as switcher locomotives, and only used in rail yards.
F-units were sometimes known as “covered wagons”, due to the similarity in appearance of the roof of an F-unit to the canvas roof of a Conestoga wagon, an animal-drawn wagon used in the westward expansion of the United States during the late 18th and 19th centuries. When a train’s locomotive consist included only F-units, the train would then be called a “wagon train”. These two usages are still popular with the railfan community.
F-Unit SERIES LOCOMOTIVE FEATURES:
SOUND-EQUIPPED MODELS ALSO FEATURE
Order Due Date: April 26, 2024
Anticipated Delivery Date: September 2025
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