EMD F3 New York Central #3502/3601

Technical Specifics

The EMD F3 emerged from General Motors' Electro-Motive Division as the third entry in the celebrated F-unit series of cab unit diesel locomotives, entering production in July 1945 and continuing through February 1949. Its development grew directly out of experience gained with the earlier FT and the short-lived F2. When EMD engineers attempted to upgrade the FT's prime mover output and pair it with a new D12 main generator, early demonstration locomotives revealed problems with that generator arrangement. Rather than delay production, EMD introduced the F2 as a stopgap, reverting to the D4 generator from the FT and accepting a reduced output of 1,350 horsepower. Once the D12's difficulties were resolved, full F3 production got underway in November 1946 at EMD's La Grange, Illinois facility, and the model quickly became a commercial success. By the close of production, EMD had delivered 1,106 cab-equipped A units and 694 cabless booster B units to forty-nine domestic railroads. The F3 played a meaningful role in accelerating dieselization across the American railroad network during the late 1940s. Practical demonstrations of the type's efficiency were persuasive to railroad management still weighing the transition away from steam. The Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, for instance, conducted rigorous comparative trials pitting EMD's demonstrator against its own 2-8-2 steam locomotives before committing to an order of 21 F3s, and the road achieved complete dieselization by 1952. The three largest purchasers were the Union Pacific Railroad with 179 units, the Southern Railway with 178, and the Southern Pacific Railroad with 160, while the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Chicago Burlington and Quincy, and the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railway were also among the prominent buyers. The F3's later service life extended well beyond its original freight and passenger assignments. Between 1978 and 1979, the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad rebuilt eighteen F3s, along with one F7, for commuter rail use, fitting them with separate head-end power generators and redesigning their carbodies in the process. These rebuilt machines, designated FP10 and numbered in the 1100 and 1150 series, went on to serve commuters under the MBTA from 1979 through 1991 and subsequently operated on Metro-North Railroad until modern Brookville BL20GH locomotives arrived in 2008. A number of unmodified F3s have also been preserved at museums and tourist railroads, including the Steamtown National Historic Site, the Danbury Railway Museum, and the Alberta Railway Museum.

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