The EMC EA/EB is an early passenger train-hauling diesel locomotive built from May 16, 1937, to 1938 by Electro-Motive Corporation of La Grange, Illinois for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. They were the first model in a long line of passenger diesels of similar design known as EMD E-units. Each locomotive unit developed 1,800 horsepower (1,300 kW) from two 900 hp (670 kW) Winton 201-A diesel engines, driving the wheels through an electric transmission—the generator driven by each engine provided current for traction motors. The locomotives were of A1A-A1A wheel arrangement—two three-axle trucks of which only the outer two axles were powered. Six two-unit 3,600 hp (2,700 kW) locomotives were produced, each consisting of a lead cab-equipped EA A unit and a cabless booster EB B unit. They were numbered 51 through 56; the A units bore the bare number and the B units the number followed by 'X'.
B&O EA 51 on the Capitol Limited sitting next to the Tom Thumb locomotive replica, in 1937.
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the power source is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels. The most common are diesel-electric locomotives and diesel-hydraulic.
The ČKD ČME3, a common example of a diesel shunting locomotive
The InterCity 125 set a speed record – 148 mph (238 km/h) – for a diesel-powered train in 1987. Capable of 125 mph (201 km/h) in regular service, the train consists of two power cars with either seven or eight carriages between them.
These locomotives operated by Pacific National in Australia show three styles of diesel locomotive body: cab unit (front), hood unit, and flat-nose (rear).
Petrol–electric Weitzer railmotor, first 1903, series 1906