# EMD E7

The E7 was a 2,000-horsepower (1,500 kW), A1A-A1A passenger train locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois. 428 cab versions, or E7As, were built from February 1945 to April 1949; 82 booster E7Bs were built from March 1945 to July 1948. (Circa 1953 one more E7A was built by the Los Angeles General Shops of the Southern Pacific by rebuilding an E2A.) The 2,000 hp came from two 12 cylinder model 567A engines. Each engine drove its own electrical generator to power the two traction motors on one truck. The E7 was the eighth model in a line of passenger diesels of similar design known as EMD E-units, and it became the best selling E model upon its introduction.
In profile the front of the nose of an E7A was less slanted than on earlier EMD passenger locomotives, and the E7, E8, and E9 units have been nicknamed “bulldog nose” units. Some earlier units were called “shovel nose” units or “slant nose” units.

## In film

A Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad E7A, #103-A, appears at the start and end of the 1967 film In The Heat of the Night.
A Southern Pacific E7A, #6001, is on the point of a train that figures prominently in "The Hitch-Hiker", a popular 1960 episode of the anthology television series, The Twilight Zone, starring Inger Stevens. (According to the narration, Steven's character is said to encounter the train somewhere between Pennsylvania and Tennessee, yet the locomotive's number board shows that the train, #99, is the Coast Daylight, which travelled between Los Angeles and San Francisco.)
In the 2010 miniseries The Pacific, filmed in Melbourne, S313, an example of the similar A16C export model, was painted to resemble Louisville & Nashville Railroad E7A 758 for filming, however it retained the livery for a short while after filming wrapped.

## Surviving example

Ex-Pennsylvania Railroad E7A #5901 is preserved as the only surviving example of the E7. This locomotive has been cosmetically restored, and is currently on indoor display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, in Strasburg, Pennsylvania.

## Original owners

| Railroad | Quantity A units | Quantity B units | Road numbers A units | Road numbers B units | Notes |
| Electro-Motive Division (demonstrator) | 1 | — | 765 | — | Former GM Train of Tomorrow demonstrator, sold to Union Pacific 988 |
| Alton Railroad | 7 | — | 101,A–103,A, 100 | — | to GM&O in 1947 |
| Atlantic Coast Line Railroad | 20 | 10 | 524–543 | 755–764 | |
| Bangor and Aroostook Railroad | 2 | — | 700–701 | — | renumbered 10–11, Both Re-geared for freight in 1962 |
| Boston and Maine Railroad | 21 | — | 3800–3820 | — | |
| Baltimore and Ohio Railroad | 18 | — | 64,A–80,A | — | Even numbers only |
| Central of Georgia Railway | 10 | — | 801–810 | — | |
| Chesapeake and Ohio Railway | 4 | — | 95–98 | — | |
| Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad | 3 | — | 1100–1102 | — | |
| Chicago and North Western Railway | 26 | — | 5007B, 5008A,B–5019A,B, 5020A | — | |
| Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad | 44 | — | 9916A,B–9936A,B, 9937A, 9949 | — | |
| Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad | 11 | 9 | 632–642 | 632B–634B, 637B–642B | |
| Florida East Coast Railway | 17 | 3 | 1006–1022 | 1052–1054 | |
| Great Northern Railway | 13 | — | 500A,B–504A,B, 510A–512A | — | 500A,B–504A,B renumbered 500A–509A |
| Illinois Central Railroad | 14 | 4 | 4005–4017, 4000 | 4100–4103 | |
| Louisville and Nashville Railroad | 12 | — | 458A,B–461A,B, 790–793 | — | |
| Maine Central Railroad | 7 | — | 705–711 | — | |
| Milwaukee Road | 10 | — | 16A,B–20A,B | — | |
| Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad | 2 | — | 101A,B | — | |
| Missouri Pacific Railroad | 9 | 7 | 7004–7006, 7010–7011, 7014–7017 | 7004B, 7010B–7011B, 7014B–7017B | renumbered 13–15, 19–20, 23–26, 13B–15B, 17B–20B |
| Missouri Pacific Railroad (International-Great Northern Railroad) | 3 | 1 | 7007, 7012–7013 | 7012B | renumbered 16, 21–22, 16B |
| Missouri Pacific Railroad (St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway) | 2 | — | 7008–7009 | — | renumbered 17–18 |
| New York Central Railroad | 36 | 14 | 4000–4035 | 4100–4113 | E7B renumbered 4200-4213 by Penn Central in 1968 |
| Pere Marquette Railway | 8 | — | 101–108 | — | |
| Pennsylvania Railroad | 46 | 14 | 5900A–5901A, 5840A–5883A | 5840B–5864B (even only), 5900B | 5900-5901A renumbered to 4200-4201, 5840-5841 to 4240-4241, 5842-5879 to 4202-4239, 5880-5883 to 4242-4245, all to Penn Central same numbers. E7B renumbered 4214-4227 in 1968 |
| Seaboard Air Line Railroad | 32 | 3 | 3017–3048 | 3105–3107 | |
| St. Louis–San Francisco Railway | 6 | — | 2000–2005 | — | Later rebuilt to look like E8's, but retained the same E7 innards |
| Southern Railway | 18 | — | 2905–2922 | — | |
| Southern Pacific Company | 5 | 10 | 6000A–6004A | 6000B,C–6004B,C | |
| Southern Pacific Company | 1 | — | 6017 | — | Model E7m, rebuilt from an E2A at Los Angeles Shops. |
| Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway | 1 | — | 750 | — | to Burlington Northern 9900 |
| Texas and Pacific Railway | 10 | — | 2000–2009 | — | renumbered 1–10 |
| Union Pacific Railroad | 4 | 3 | 959A–960A, 930A–931A | 961B–963B | |
| Joint UP-C&NW | 1 | 2 | 927A | 928B–929B | |
| Joint UP-SP-C&NW | 1 | 2 | 907A | 908B–909B | |
| Wabash Railroad | 4 | — | 1000, 1001, 1001A, 1002 | — | 1001 renumbered 1002A, then 1017; 1001A renumbered 1016 |
| Total | 429 | 82 | | | |