The EMD E9 was the builder's final in the series built during a ten year production run beginning in the 1950s. The locomotive varied little from the earlier E7 and E8, save for some minor external changes and upgraded prime mover, which offered the most horsepower of any passenger model the builder ever produced. With passenger rail travel in perpetual decline by the time it was manufactured far fewer E9s sold in comparison to its counterparts. Interestingly, while less than 150 A and B units were ultimately built nearly 50 remain preserved or in use today, thanks largely to the model being the last in its class. The most notable of these are in service on Union Pacific, originally purchased by the railroad.
Today, the Class I maintains a small fleet as power for its business train and other special runs (this train remains still clad in the company's classic passenger livery of Armour yellow, appearing just as the memorable City fleet would have more than a half-century ago). You can also catch an original Southern Pacific unit in its Daylight livery at the California State Railroad Museum.
The EMD E9 began production in the spring of 1954 as the builder's final entry in a series that spanned ten different models, dating back to the Electro-Motive Corporation's EA of 1937, built for the Baltimore & Ohio and Santa Fe (E1). The E9 was quite similar to the E8 externally and internally carried similar to components to models dating back to the E6. Outwardly, it was 70-feet long with a grill parallel to the cab windows running along the entire flank of the carbody with four centered port holes. It continued to feature an A1A-A1A truck setup (whereby the center axle was unpowered) and used GM's model D37 traction motors enabling the E9 to produce 31,000 pounds of continuous tractive effort and 56,500 pounds continuous (the same as nearly all of the E models).
A History Of The Electro-Motive Division (EMD)
EMD's General Motors Diesel
Early Switchers: SW, SC, NW, NC
SW9
SW900
SW1000
SW1001 Variant
SW1200
SW1500
F2
F3
F7
FP7
F9
New Haven's FL9
F40PH Series
F45 Series
GP7
GP9
GP15 Series
GP18
RS1325
GP20
GP30
GP35
GP38 Series
GP40 Series
GP50
SD35
SD38 Series
SD40/SD40-2 Series
SD45 Series
SD50
SD60 Series
SD70 Series
SD75M/I Variant
Conrail's SD80MAC
SD90MAC
SD70ACe
Internally, the E9 was the only unit in the series to feature GM's model 567C prime mover, which could produce 1,200 horsepower. Featuring two 12-cylinder 567Cs the E9 offering 2,400 horsepower, easily making it the most powerful in the series. The locomotive's overall weight (for A units) remained in the same as other Es, 157.5 tons. With passenger rail travel on the decline by the 1950s and railroads beginning to use other models in passenger service (such as FP7s), sales for Es slowed considerably. When production of the E9 had ended in early 1964 just 100 E9As and 44 E9Bs had been built for ten Class I railroads (the Union Pacific picked up the most, 35 A units and 34 B units).
Other systems to purchase the E9 included the Baltimore & Ohio (4 A units), Burlington (16 A units), Chicago & Eastern Illinois (1 A unit), Milwaukee Road (18 A units, 6 B units), Florida East Coast (5 A units), Illinois Central (10 A units, 4 B units), Kansas City Southern (1 A unit), Seaboard Air Line (1 A unit), and Southern Pacific (9 A units). It is rather interesting that the UP saw the need to purchase such a large fleet of new passenger locomotives considering the environment of rail travel during the 1950s and 1960s. The railroad actually purchased more E9s than it did either E7s or E8s.
Owner | Road Number(s) | Quantity | Date Built |
---|---|---|---|
Baltimore & Ohio | 34-40 (Evens) | 4 | 1955 |
Burlington | 9985A-9989A, 9985B-9989B, 9990-9995 | 16 | 1954-1956 |
Chicago & Eastern Illinois | 1102 | 1 | 1958 |
Florida East Coast | 1031-1035 | 5 | 1955 |
Illinois Central | 4034-4043 | 10 | 1961 |
Kansas City Southern | 25 | 1 | 1959 |
Milwaukee Road | 36A-38A, 36C-38C, 200A-205A, 200C-205C | 18 | 1956-1961 |
Seaboard Air Line | 3060 | 1 | 1963 |
Southern Pacific | 6046-6054 | 9 | 1954 |
Union Pacific | 900-914, 943-962 | 35 | 1954-1964 |
Owner | Road Number(s) | Quantity | Date Built |
---|---|---|---|
Illinois Central | 4106-4109 | 4 | 1956-1957 |
Milwaukee Road | 200B-205B | 6 | 1956 |
Union Pacific | 900B-904B, 910B-913B, 950B-974B | 34 | 1954-1963 |
In any event, the E9s that are still owned by Union Pacific as part of its heritage program include E9Am #949 and #951 along with E9B #966-B and E9Bm #970-B (the 'm' designation refers to units repowered with just one prime mover). Interestingly, despite their slow sales numbers, several railroads saved their E9s for use on business trains or for other specialized services. As such, 42 are preserved today. Some of these include Baltimore & Ohio #36; Burlington numbers #9989-9989A and #9990; Union Pacific E9B #967B; Milwaukee Road #33C, #37A, and #38A; Union Pacific #912A; and Southern Pacific #6051.
Header Photo: Drew Jacksich
Wes Barris's SteamLocomotive.com is simply the best web resource in the study of steam locomotives.
The amount of information found there is quite staggering; historical backgrounds of wheel arrangements, types used by virtually every railroad, preserved and operational examples, and even those used in other countries (North America and beyond).
It is difficult to truly articulate just how much material can be found at this website. It is a must visit!
A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way.
Today, there are tens of thousands of miles scattered throughout the country. Many were pulled up in the 1970's and 1980's although others were removed long before that.
If you are researching active or abandoned corridors you might want to check out the United States Geological Survey's (USGS) Historical Topographic Map Explorer.
It is an excellent resource with thousands of historic maps on file throughout the country. Just type in a town or city and click on the timeline of maps at the bottom of the page!