EMD F59PH

The EMD F59PH entered production in May 1988 as Electro-Motive Division's answer to growing demand for purpose-built passenger locomotives suited to commuter and regional rail operations. The locomotive was developed initially for GO Transit, the commuter railroad serving the greater Toronto region, which needed motive power capable of handling the demands of frequent stop-and-go service while providing head end power for passenger car heating, cooling, and lighting. Southern California's Metrolink commuter railroad subsequently acquired a fleet of F59PHs for its launch in 1992, making the type the backbone of two of North America's most prominent commuter operations. A total of 72 units were built across the production run, which closed in May 1994. Most locomotives were assembled at the General Motors Diesel facility in London, Ontario, with Super Steel in Schenectady, New York, handling assembly of some units. As the original F59PH fleet aged, both GO Transit and Metrolink undertook significant fleet changes. GO Transit began withdrawing its locomotives from service in 2008, ultimately selling off most units to other operators. Among the recipients were Exo in Quebec, which acquired 10 locomotives, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which took on 11 units for use on the Piedmont corridor, and the Trinity Railway Express in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which acquired 7. Metra in the Chicago region also purchased three former GO Transit units. Metrolink retained and rebuilt seven of its locomotives into a variant designated the F59PHR, while the remaining non-rebuilt examples were retired by 2020, with five of those subsequently sold to the North Carolina Department of Transportation in 2018. The F59PH's production run directly gave way to the related but visually distinct F59PHI, a streamlined variant that entered production in 1994 and continued through 2001, with 83 units ultimately built. The F59PHI was aimed largely at Amtrak California intercity corridor services as well as other West Coast passenger operations, and featured a fully enclosed aerodynamic carbody that contrasted sharply with the more conventional hood-unit appearance of the original F59PH. Together the two variants represented EMD's sustained effort to serve the North American passenger rail market during a period of considerable growth in publicly funded rail operations, and the type remained in revenue service with multiple operators for decades after the last unit left the production line.

The F59PH is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive riding on a B-B wheel arrangement, with two two-axle trucks each driven by a pair of DC traction motors. Power comes from an EMD 12-710G3 series turbocharged prime mover, a 12-cylinder two-stroke diesel engine drawn from EMD's 710 family, which produces a total output of 3,000 horsepower. The locomotive's design drew on the mechanical underpinnings of the freight-oriented GP59, adapting that platform to the specific requirements of passenger service. A defining feature of the F59PH relative to freight contemporaries is the inclusion of a separate diesel-driven generator dedicated to supplying head end power for passenger consists, rated between approximately 500 and 750 kilowatts depending on configuration, allowing the prime mover to focus on traction demands while HEP loads are handled independently. The DC traction system placed the F59PH within the established electrical architecture that EMD had refined over decades, contrasting with the AC traction systems that would become more common in subsequent generations of high-horsepower locomotives. The locomotive's relatively modest horsepower rating was considered well suited to the acceleration and braking cycles characteristic of commuter operations, and the separated HEP arrangement proved practical for railroads running fixed passenger consists in regular scheduled service. The F59PH's straightforward hood-unit carbody, while less visually dramatic than the later streamlined F59PHI, offered practical access for maintenance and was a sensible choice for the commuter railroads that formed the type's primary customer base.

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