The EMD FT was a 1,350 hp B-B freight-hauling diesel locomotive produced between November 1939 and November 1945 by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. 555 cab-equipped lead A units were built, along with 541 cabless booster B units, for a total of 1,096 locomotive units constructed, all sold to customers in the United States. It was the first model in EMD's very successful F-unit series of cab unit freight diesels, and was the locomotive that convinced US railroads that the diesel freight locomotive was the future, and that EMD was the manufacturer that could make it happen. Many rail historians consider the FT one of the most important locomotive models of all time.
FTs were generally sold as semi-permanently coupled AB sets (a lead unit and a booster) making a single locomotive of 2,700 hp. Many railroads used pairs of these sets back to back to make up a 4-unit ABBA locomotive of 5,400 hp. Some railroads purchased semi-permanently coupled ABA 3-unit sets of 4,050 hp, while a few, like the Santa Fe, ordered all their FTs with normal couplers on both ends of each locomotive unit, for added flexibility. All sets could be controlled from one driving position; multiple unit control systems linked the units together.
Recognition and visual appearance
The FT is very visually similar to the later F-units, but there are some unique differences which render it distinguishable from later EMD freight cab units. The side panels of the FT were unique, but it was fairly common for railroads to alter that area to make an earlier unit appear later. As built, FT units had four porthole windows centrally, and B units with couplers on both ends have a fifth window on one side for the hostler position.
The roof is a more reliable indication; FTs have four exhaust stacks in a line along the roof near the center, with slats outboard of them (or boxy structures if dynamic brakes are installed). The radiator fans are arranged in two pairs, one near each end of the locomotive, while later units have the fans together and standing proud of the roof.
The overhangs of the body past the trucks differ in the FT compared to later units. The B units of FTs ordered in semi-permanently coupled AB sets, and those with couplers on both ends, have a large overhang on one end (the coupler-equipped end on the paired units) which no other EMD B units have. This is not present on the B units in semi-permanently coupled ABA sets, which are called FTSB units (Short Booster). At other locations, except the cab front, the FT units have less of an overhang than later units; the trucks appear to be right at the ends of the carbodies.
Wartime restrictions
During World War II, locomotive production was regulated by the Office of Defense Transportation . The traditional locomotive builders were prohibited from building diesel road locomotives during this time, except for a few ALCO DL109s for the New Haven; steam locomotives could be built quicker and with fewer resources, and were a proven commodity.
EMD, however, was purely a diesel builder, and therefore was allowed to continue building diesel freight locomotives. The Office of Defense Transportation assigned the FTs built to the railroads it deemed most able to benefit from the new locomotives. The Santa Fe received by far the largest allocation of them, given its heavy war traffic and the difficulty and expense of providing water for steam locomotives on its long desert stretches.
It is commonly believed that many more FTs would have been built and sold without these war restrictions; many railroads wanted diesels but had to take new steam locomotives they didn't really want because it was all they were allowed.
The wartime restrictions on other manufacturers' diesel programs helped ensure EMD's dominance of the postwar diesel market.
Subsequent models
The FT was discontinued in late 1945, replaced in production by the F2, which retained the 1,350 hp 567 engine of the FT but with new equipment. The F2 was produced only in 1946, after which in turn it was replaced by updated models in the EMD F-unit series.
Deliveries
These railroads had FTs from new:
Surviving
Five EMD FT units survive today; none are in operable condition. The preserved locomotives include the lead unit from EMD FT demonstrator #103 at the National Museum of Transportation at St. Louis, Missouri, a FT A unit from the Northern Pacific, and three B units from the Southern Railway.
References