EMC 1800 Hp B-B - Santa Fe 1

Santa Fe 1

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway #1 was a two unit set built by St. Louis Car Company in late 1935 to haul the Santa Fe's new train, the Super Chief, for its first year of operation, from May 1936 until May of the following year. The Santa Fe had wanted the new, streamlined designs on the EMC drawing boards that would become the first E-units, but they would not be ready until 1937, so the railroad asked for two locomotives like the EMC demonstrators as proof of concept, letting the railroad gain some experience with diesel operation before the E-units and the lightweight, streamlined train they would haul were ready. Because they were always run together, in a back-to-back configuration, Santa Fe employees nicknamed the two units the "One Spot Twins" and "Amos & Andy" (after the popular radio situation comedy). Both units shared a common road number, and the operating department considered them a single locomotive. The mechanical department referred to them as Unit A (lead unit) and Unit B (trailing unit). For a time, AT&SF leased EMC demonstrator #512, which became known as Unit C, while serving on the Super Chief.

The Santa Fe did ask for some cosmetic "dressing up" of the locomotives, since they would be hauling a prestige passenger train, and EMC obliged with a treatment by Sterling McDonald's GM styling department, which included large "eyebrow" air intakes at the front of the units and a striking paint scheme: Olive Green with Cobalt Blue and Sarasota Blue stripes separated by pinstripes of Crimson and Tuscan Red. This livery reduced the boxiness of the locomotives and gave them more of a look of speed. Later, as the Santa Fe took delivery of the stainless steel Super Chief passenger cars, the locomotives were repainted in silver.

The Santa Fe was an ideal railroad to be a dieselization pioneer; its long desert runs in the Southwest made the provision of water supplies for steam locomotives problematic.

After the E1s replaced the proof-of-concept #1 in 1937, the Santa Fe began to modify the two locomotive units.

Unit A remained in passenger service. It was rebuilt as a single-ended locomotive in 1938 with a "bulldog" front end—a very high, raised cab above a snub rounded nose. The locomotive emerged in the Warbonnet paint scheme similar to the E1s. It retained road number 1. The lead truck was replaced with a drop-equalizer truck of unusual 1B configuration; the lead axle was unpowered, while the two rear axles were powered. Some time later, the trailing truck was replaced in similar fashion. Three-axle trucks rode better at speed and were lighter on the track, with a lower axle loading.

When Unit A was rebuilt in 1938, Unit B received the same modifications, along with road number 10, since it was now regarded as a separate locomotive. In 1941 #10 has its cab removed, and became a booster unit numbered 1A. In 1948, AT&SF rebuilt #1A into freight transfer locomotive #2611 running on EMD Blomberg B trucks.

Both #1 and #2611 went to EMD as trade-ins on E-8Bm locomotives in 1953.