In this issue, we follow along with Greg McDonnell to view some vintage diesel-electric locomotives on Ontario Southland. These locomotives are part of a large series of models that were first built by General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division from the 1930s to the early 1960s. They are colloquially known as “F-units,” following the EMD catalog designation. Ontario Southland’s examples were built in the 1950s for Canadian National as FP9s, the “P” standing for “passenger” meaning they had different speed gearing and were equipped with steam generators. Thousands of F-units were produced, making them among the most successful and impactful of early diesel-electric locomotives.
What made F-units unique and recognizable is the same quality that makes them seem oddly out of place today — their stylish body work. All F-units share a similar appearance, from the initial FT introduced in 1939 to the last FL9 produced in November 1960 — a full-width car body, an arched roof, and most distinctively, an elegant nose of compound curves. They were, in that most 1930s of design terms, “streamlined,” styled to appear as if they were moving at speed, even when standing still. Observers and fans nicknamed them “bulldogs,” although I’ve always found the comparison odd, as the F-unit’s clean lines have always seemed more elegant. They are, in my view, the definitive streamlined diesel.
Numerous companies fielded lightweight streamliners throughout the 1930s, and some of the most stylish examples were bespoke models built to haul premier passenger trains in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. One of the best examples is Chicago, Burlington & Quincy 9911A, an E5 built by EMD predecessor Electro-Motive Corp. in 1940 and preserved today at the Illinois Railway Museum; its long rakish nose and gleaming stainless-steel sides are stunning. Other examples are almost as spectacular, such as the long-nosed PA-1s built by American Locomotive Company or Baldwin’s “sharknose” RF-16s, both from the late 1940s.
The F-units are far simpler and cleaner, in part as a result of economizing. The original FT of 1939 was intended as a freight unit, befitting a simpler design. Despite this, and despite the massive numbers built, each F-unit nose was handcrafted. As a former employee once described it, the simple curves were constructed from sheet steel, while the joining, compounded curves were built by hand-hammering and the careful application of fillers. The F-units, then, were a rolling contradiction. They were one of the first mass-manufactured diesel locomotives, transitioning many railways away from steam, yet their most distinctive visual feature was individually built by skilled craftsmen.
Maybe this is why, today, they seem not just like an anachronism, but as something from an entirely different world. Since the 1960s, locomotive builders have made efficiency and utility their primary design principles, with precious few concessions to aesthetic appeal. Simpler, more rectilinear designs were easier and therefore cheaper to build, while narrower car bodies with numerous doors and external walkways made routine maintenance far easier.
If anything, this philosophy has accelerated in our century, with most new locomotives looking exactly as they are — built to a price. The aesthetics of the F-units, by contrast, stated confidently that the railways belonged in the modern age, an attitude toward industrial design that has been long absent on North America’s railways. This makes it all the more ironic that today, if we are lucky enough to encounter one of the few surviving Fs, we see them nostalgically, a vision of railroading’s golden past, rather than its silvery future.
—Alexander Benjamin Craghead is a transportation historian, photographer, artist, and author.
