The
FT, a freight locomotive built by
General Motors Electro-Motive Division between 1939 and 1945, is the first model in the famous and hugely successful F-unit. With its streamlined, beautiful
bulldog nose design and highly reliable service, the F-unit soon became the standard equipment on North American railroads and the icon of North American railroading.
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General Motors FT demonstrator unit |
The FT was designed to consist of a cab-equipped A unit permanently coupled with a cab-less booster B unit. The two units together have 8 axles in total and produce 2,700 hp (2 MW). An option of semi-permanently coupled A-B-A sets was also available. Multiple sets of the FT can work together and be control from one cab using multiple-unit cables and many railroads have used the FT back to back in an A-B-B-A formation.
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Cab of the EMD FT |
Some of the later F-units have steam generators added and used to haul passenger trains including the famous transcontinental passenger trains,
The Canadian and the
Super Continental.
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