EMD E-units were a line of passenger train streamliner diesel locomotives built by the General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and its predecessor the Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC). Final assembly for all E-units was in La Grange, Illinois. Production ran from May 1937, to December, 1963. The name E-units refers to the model numbers given to each successive type, which all began with E. The E originally stood for eighteen hundred horsepower, the power of the earliest model, but the letter was kept for later models of higher power.
Southern Pacific EMD E7s on the Shasta Daylight in 1949
CB&Q 9911A, an EMD E5, operating at the Illinois Railway Museum, July 18, 2004.
Image: Capitol Limited EMD EA and Tom Thumb 1937
Image: Arrival of the Orange Blossom Special train Plant City, Florida
A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor "bullet trains". Less commonly, the term is applied to fully faired upright and recumbent bicycles. As part of the Streamline Moderne trend, the term was applied to passenger cars, trucks, and other types of light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles, but now vehicle streamlining is so prevalent that it is not an outstanding characteristic. In land speed racing, it is a term applied to the long, slender, custom built, high-speed vehicles with enclosed wheels.
Preserved British steam locomotive of the former London, Midland and Scottish (LMS) Railway, Princess Coronation Class No. 6229 Duchess of Hamilton, an example of a streamliner
The Schienenzeppelin on the Erkrath-Hochdahl steep ramp in 1931
LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard traveling through Keighley in West Yorkshire in 1988
Nederlandse Spoorwegen class 3700/3800 steam locomotive 3804, circa 1936