Illinois Central Diesel Roster (All-Time)

Published: October 23, 2026

The Illinois Central bought its first diesels in 1929, boxcabs from General Electric and Ingersoll-Rand, and then spent thirty years letting Electro-Motive replace a steam fleet it was in no hurry to give up. The quantity column on this page sums to 886. Each frame is counted once: the locomotives the Illinois Central and the Illinois Central Gulf bought new, the GP28 acquired from the Mississippi Central, and Electro-Motive demonstrator 433A, which became 3075. A Paducah rebuild is the same frame. A Gulf, Mobile & Ohio locomotive is on that roster, even when the Illinois Central Gulf later gave it an IC number. The 629 diesels in the 1963 company count are a year count. The railroad is the Illinois Central page. The steam locomotives are a separate roster. Gulf-era operating numbers are a separate roster.

Illinois Central GP10 8109 at the Paducah Shops in 1967, the first locomotive completed in the rebuild program

GP10 8109 at the Paducah Shops in 1967, the first locomotive completed in the rebuild program. Illinois Central photo.

On this page: At a glance · Switchers · Geeps · Passenger units · Second generation · Roster

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Illinois Central, and the new frames it bought as the Illinois Central Gulf. Mark IC. Company history
This table	One row for each builder order. A renumber is the same locomotive
Quantity column	886
Outside that total	Paducah rebuilds, Gulf, Mobile & Ohio frames, Chicago & Illinois Western diesels, the 1929 boxcabs, and the Green Diamond power car
Switchers	168. 19 SW1s, 17 NW2s, 6 TR1s, 6 TR2s, 50 SW7s, 70 SW9s
Geeps	514. 48 GP7s, 348 GP9s, 29 GP18s, 13 GP28s, 76 GP40s, counting demonstrator 3075
GP38s	60. 20 GP38ACs and 40 GP38-2s
Passenger	55. 5 E6As, 14 E7As, 4 E7Bs, 16 E8As, 2 E8Bs, 10 E9As, 4 E9Bs
Six-axle and the other builders	89. 6 SD40s, 18 SD40As, 4 SD40-2s, 5 U30Bs, 10 U33Cs, 6 C636s, 40 SD70s
1963 fleet	629. That is the company’s count for the year, not this table

Switchers

The 1929 boxcabs are the locomotives the company page remembers as the first diesels. Their road numbers and serials were not opened for this table, so they are not in the 886. What the builder lists do account for, a decade later, is a conventional Electro-Motive yard fleet: 19 SW1s, 17 NW2s, and then the cow-and-calf sets.

The transfer locomotives have to be read as frames, not as pairs. Numbers 9203–9205 are model TR1, three cows and three calves, six locomotives, built in 1940. Numbers 9206–9208 are model TR2, again six locomotives, the first set in 1945 and the other two in 1949. The calves 9207B and 9208B are serials 10057 and 10059. The cows are 10056 and 10058. The order list does not run those serials straight through.

Fifty SW7s followed in 1950, and 70 SW9s in 1951 and 1952. Orders 4053 and 4054, the SW7s 9310–9319 and 9410–9429, are thirty locomotives. The builder list prints one serial block, 11648–11677, on both rows. That block is the thirty serials. It is not thirty for each order. Road numbers in the 9000s and 9400s were used again, years later, by GP9s, GP18s, and GP28s. Those are different locomotives, and both generations are in the total.

Geeps

The GP7s are 48 locomotives, built from November 1950 to April 1953. Most of the 8800s and 8900s were delivered with steam generators, for the passenger trains that a Geep could still handle. The freight GP7s are the 8950s. Then came the GP9s, the signature Illinois Central road switcher, 348 of them between 1954 and 1959. The numbers are 9000–9257 and 9300–9389. The series skips 9258–9299.

GP18s 9400–9428 are 29 locomotives, the last fourteen delivered with low noses in 1963. Number 9428 is one of those GP18s. The GP28s begin at 9429. Twelve were built new in March 1964, numbers 9429–9440. Number 9441 was built as Mississippi Central 211, serial 29593, in September 1965, and is counted once as an acquisition. A further GP28 order was cancelled and is not in the table.

For years the freight units stayed orthodox: black, with white trim and the green diamond. William B. Johnson’s orange and white, and the split-rail emblem, arrived in 1966, the same year as the first GP40s. Paducah, which had rebuilt the steam fleet, turned to rebuilding Geeps. GP8s, GP10s, GP11s, and SW14s are those same frames in a later form. They are not added. GP10 8109, in the photograph above, was the first of the GP10 program, finished at Paducah in 1967.

Passenger units

The named trains rode Electro-Motive E units, in the orange and brown that was the railroad’s one splash of color before 1966. Five E6As, 4000–4004, came in 1940 and 1941. Their serials were not on the order lists opened for this page. The second 4000 is a different locomotive, an E7A of August 1947, serial 5385. With 4005–4017, the E7A count is 14. The boosters are four E7Bs. Number 4103, like E7As 4016 and 4017, is a 1948 locomotive. The earlier three E7Bs are 1946.

Sixteen E8As and two E8Bs followed between 1950 and 1953, and ten E9As and four E9Bs between 1954 and 1961. E9As 4037 and 4038 have no serial on the order list. E9As 4041 and 4042 are serials 23190 and 23193. E9Bs 4108 and 4109 are serials 21391 and 23192. The Green Diamond power car, 121, is on that train’s page. It is not in this table.

Second generation

The GP40s are 75 new locomotives, 3000–3074, built from 1966 to February 1970, plus demonstrator 3075. The first order runs the road numbers in reverse of the serials. Number 3000 is serial 31480. Number 3039 is serial 31441. Number 3045, in the February 1967 order, is serial 32865. That locomotive later ran as Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern GP38-3 3830. Number 3075 was Electro-Motive 433A, serial 29877, built in May 1965. The same frame later carried 2550, and 2550 is not counted again.

Six SD40s, 6000–6005, came in December 1967. All 18 of the SD40As were Illinois Central engines, 6006–6023, delivered in 1969 and January 1970. Four SD40-2s, 6030–6033, followed in December 1975. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio SD40s that later wore Illinois Central Gulf numbers are on the Gulf, Mobile & Ohio roster.

The other builders’ high-horsepower units are a short list. Five General Electric U30Bs, 5001–5005, came in 1967. Ten U33Cs, 5050–5059, and six Alco C636s, 1100–1105, came in 1968. Their construction numbers were not opened. Twenty GP38ACs, 9500–9519, arrived in February 1970. Number 9512 is serial 35677. Forty GP38-2s, 9600–9639, arrived in November and December 1974. The GP38-2s in the 9500s below 9600, including the pair photographed at Gibsland, are outside this order.

The last new power the railroad bought under its own name was the SD70, a 394,000-pound locomotive, not an SD70MAC. Twenty, 1000–1019, were delivered between April and October 1995. An order for 1020–1039 was cancelled. The twenty that carry those numbers were built in February 1999, serials in order 966727, as Canadian National’s control of the railroad was taking effect.

Roster

The quantity column sums to 886. A blank serial was not on the builder list that was opened. One row is one order.

Model	Numbers	Builder	Serial	Order	Built	Qty	Notes
SW1	9014–9020	EMD	981–987	E284	December 1939–January 1940	7
SW1	9021–9030	EMD	3289–3298	E668	June 1946	10
SW1	9031–9032	EMD	14388–14389	4119	August 1951	2
NW2	9150	EMD	928	E285	December 1939	1	First use of the number
NW2	9151	EMD	1193	E359	February 1941	1	First use of the number
NW2	9152	EMD	1456	E419	October 1941	1	First use of the number
NW2	9153–9156	EMD	2063–2066	E547	March 1944	4	First use of the numbers
NW2	9157–9166	EMD	3279–3288	E667	July 1945	10	First use of the numbers
TR1	9203A–9204A	EMD	1032A, 1033A	E286A	February 1940	2	Cows
TR1	9205A	EMD	1190A	E345A	November 1940	1	Cow
TR1	9203B–9204B	EMD	1032B, 1033B	E286B	February 1940	2	Calves
TR1	9205B	EMD	1190B	E345B	November 1940	1	Calf
TR2	9206A	EMD	2067	E552A	November 1945	1	Cow
TR2	9207A, 9208A	EMD	10056, 10058	6007A	December 1949	2	Cows. The serials are not consecutive
TR2	9206B	EMD	2068	E552B	November 1945	1	Calf
TR2	9207B, 9208B	EMD	10057, 10059	6007B	December 1949	2	Calves
SW7	9300–9309	EMD	10032–10041	6008	February–April 1950	10
SW7	9400–9409	EMD	10042–10051	4016	April–June 1950	10
SW7	9310–9319	EMD	—	4053	August–December 1950	10	Serials 11648–11677 cover this order and 9410–9429 together
SW7	9410–9429	EMD	—	4054	August–December 1950	20	Same thirty serials as 9310–9319
SW9	9430–9464	EMD	14353–14387	4093	June–July 1951	35
SW9	9465–9484	EMD	16407–16426	4123	May–June 1952	20
SW9	9320–9334	EMD	16427–16441	4184	October–November 1952	15
GP7	8950	EMD	12257	5056	November 1950	1
GP7	8900	EMD	12258	6168	November 1950	1	Steam generator
GP7	8951–8952	EMD	14009–14010	5082	March 1951	2
GP7	8901	EMD	14390	5127	May 1951	1	Steam generator
GP7	8800	EMD	15894	6362	January 1952	1	Steam generator
GP7	8953–8957	EMD	16400–16404	5122	April 1952	5
GP7	8850–8851	EMD	16405–16406	5192	April 1952	2	Steam generator
GP7	8801	EMD	17716	5174	March 1953	1	Steam generator
GP7	8902–8905	EMD	17717–17720	6494	March 1953	4	Steam generator
GP7	8906–8911	EMD	17721–17726	6495	April 1953	6	Steam generator
GP7	8968–8981	EMD	17727–17740	6496	March–April 1953	14
GP7	8958–8967	EMD	17741–17750	6497	March 1953	10
GP9	9000–9037	EMD	18797–18834	5307	April–June 1954	38
GP9	9038–9041	EMD	19373–19376	5307	June 1954	4
GP9	9042–9047	EMD	19377–19382	5341	May 1954	6
GP9	9048–9054	EMD	19768–19774	5359	December 1954	7
GP9	9055–9067	EMD	19897–19909	5359	December 1954	13
GP9	9068–9102	EMD	20147–20181	5378	January–March 1955	35
GP9	9103–9117	EMD	20282–20296	5383	March–April 1955	15
GP9	9118–9187	EMD	20756–20825	5409	December 1955–January 1956	70
GP9	9188–9199	EMD	22273–22284	5480	December 1956–January 1957	12
GP9	9220–9257	EMD	22285–22322	5480	December 1956–January 1957	38
GP9	9200–9219	EMD	22323–22342	5517	January 1957	20
GP9	9300–9369	EMD	23800–23869	5553	December 1957–January 1958	70
GP9	9370–9389	EMD	25022–25041	5591	December 1958–January 1959	20
GP18	9400–9414	EMD	25752–25766	5614	March 1960	15
GP18	9415–9428	EMD	28278–28291	5651	March–November 1963	14	Low hood. 9428 is a GP18
GP28	9429–9440	EMD	28937–28948	5659	March 1964	12
GP28	9441	EMD	29593	5670	September 1965	1	Built as Mississippi Central 211
E6A	4000–4004	EMD	—	—	1940–1941	5	Serials were not opened. The second 4000, below, is an E7A
E7A	4005–4015	EMD	3265–3275	E666A	September 1946	11
E7B	4100–4102	EMD	3276–3278	E666B	September 1946	3
E7A	4000	EMD	5385	E899A	August 1947	1	Second use of number 4000
E7A	4016–4017	EMD	5149–5150	E873A	June 1948	2
E7B	4103	EMD	5151	E873B	June 1948	1
E8A	4018–4021	EMD	11633–11636	2021A	June 1950	4
E8A	4022–4025	EMD	14083–14086	2037A	April 1951	4
E8A	4026–4031	EMD	16392–16397	2042A	April–June 1952	6	4028 is serial 16394
E8B	4104–4105	EMD	16398, 16399	2042B	May 1952	2
E8A	4032–4033	EMD	17751–17752	2053A	April 1953	2
E9A	4034–4035	EMD	18787–18788	2067A	April 1954	2
E9A	4036	EMD	19608	7517A	June 1954	1
E9A	4037–4038	EMD	—	7528A	January and May 1956	2	Serial cell blank on the order list
E9B	4106–4107	EMD	22594–22595	7532B	September–November 1956	2
E9A	4039–4040	EMD	22592–22593	7532A	July 1956 and February 1957	2
E9A	4041–4042	EMD	23190, 23193	7547A	May 1957	2	The serials are not consecutive
E9B	4108–4109	EMD	21391, 23192	7547B	July 1956 and October 1957	2
E9A	4043	EMD	26654	7600A	May 1961	1
GP40	3000–3039	EMD	31441–31480	5697	1966	40	Road numbers run in reverse of the serials. 3000 is serial 31480. 3039 is serial 31441
GP40	3040–3048	EMD	32860–32868	5723	February 1967	9	3045 is serial 32865. The same locomotive later ran as Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern GP38-3 3830
GP40	3049–3051	EMD	32869–32871	7959	February 1967	3
GP40	3052–3055	EMD	32872–32875	7960	February 1967	4	3053 is serial 32873
GP40	3056–3059	EMD	32876–32879	7961	March 1967	4	3059 is serial 32879
GP40	3060–3069	EMD	34957–34966	7171	August 1969	10
GP40	3070–3074	EMD	36166–36170	5759	February 1970	5
GP40	3075	EMD	29877	5674	May 1965	1	Electro-Motive demonstrator 433A. Later number 2550 is the same frame
U30B	5001–5005	GE	—	—	1967	5	Serials were not opened
U33C	5050–5059	GE	—	—	1968	10	Serials were not opened
SD40	6000–6005	EMD	33244–33249	5732	December 1967	6
SD40A	6006–6018	EMD	34939–34951	5743	August–September 1969	13
SD40A	6019–6023	EMD	35685–35689	5748	January 1970	5
SD40-2	6030–6033	EMD	75640-1–75640-4	75640	December 1975	4
C636	1100–1105	Alco	—	—	1968	6	Serials were not opened
GP38AC	9500–9519	EMD	35665–35684	5747	February 1970	20	9500 is serial 35665. 9512 is serial 35677
GP38-2	9600–9639	EMD	74646-1–74646-40	74646	November–December 1974	40
SD70	1000–1019	EMD	946518-1–946518-20	946518	April–October 1995	20	394,000 pounds
SD70	1020–1039	EMD	966727-1–966727-20	966727	February 1999	20

Sources

Electro-Motive Division builder order lists. Serials, order numbers, and dates for the SW, NW, TR, GP, E, and SD rows above.
Illinois Central and Illinois Central Gulf road numbers for the Alco C636s and the General Electric U30Bs and U33Cs. Construction numbers for those three rows were not opened.
George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, is the steam roster. It is not a source for this table.

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