MTH ELECTRIC TRAINS

In 1939 GM's Electro-Motive Corporation (renamed "Division" in 1941) changed the way railroads would haul freight forever. Steam power was still dominant when EMC introduced the FT multi-unit locomotive. It proved diesel power could handle freight loads on the mainline as efficiently as steam. The ABBA-configured FT demonstrator embarked on an 11-month, 83,764-mile tour of the U.S., showing its flexibility for different kinds of service on 20 Class 1 railroads. The Santa Fe placed the first order, and its first FT set entered road service in February, 1941. The AB was the basic unit of the FT (named for "Freight, Twenty-seven hundred horsepower"), but it was also often configured as an ABA engine (for 4050 horsepower) or as an ABBA (for 5400 horsepower). It was the success of the FT that ensconced the idea of customizing engine configuration for a job, putting together as many engines as were needed for the task at hand. The FT was, in fact, so successful that the War Production Board allowed EMD to continue producing the engine throughout World War II, while it curtailed the competition's production of freight diesels. Production ended in 1945, when the FT gave way to its successors, EMD's successful F-series engines, but not before 25 railroads had bought the engine and it had helped to secure the future of the diesel locomotive on American railroads. M.T.H. offers this seminal diesel locomotive in the Santa Fe, Denver Rio Grande, and Minneapolis & St. Louis roadnames and the famous green and yellow livery worn by the EMD Demonstrator.