The E7 was General Motors’ answer to the need for post-war passenger power, built in large numbers between 1945 and 1949. At 2,000 horsepower it was not over-muscled, but with two V12 engines and the new “bulldog nose” it set the look of American streamliners for the next decade. A total of 428 A units and 82 B units were produced, making the E7 the best-selling of the classic E-units.
Across the United States they fronted the varnish, the prestige passenger trains that defined the diesel era. In New England, fleets on the Boston & Maine and Maine Central worked in a shared pool, handling everything from named trains out of Boston to day-to-day services north into Maine. By the early 1960s the glamour had gone, and the Maine Central engines were down to hauling mail and express before being sold to the Kansas City Southern.
Today only one example remains: Pennsylvania Railroad no. 5901, preserved in Strasburg. The rest survive only in photographs, memories and, in this case, N scale.
Boston & Maine
| No. | Type | Built | Serial | Liveries | Notes | Photographs | Modelling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3800 | F7A | Jul 1945 | 3339 | RR Picture Archives | |||
| 3801 | F7A | ||||||
| 3802 | F7A | ||||||
| 3803 | F7A | ||||||
| 3804 | F7A | ||||||
| 3805 | F7A | ||||||
| 3806 | F7A | ||||||
| 3807 | F7A | ||||||
| 3808 | F7A | ||||||
| 3809 | F7A | Jun 1946 | 3348 | Round the Mountain Excursions 1st Oct 1956. | RR Picture Archives | ||
| 3810 | F7A | ||||||
| 3811 | F7A | ||||||
| 3812 | F7A | ||||||
| 3813 | F7A | ||||||
| 3814 | F7A | ||||||
| 3815 | F7A | ||||||
| 3816 | F7A | Jul 1948 | 5623 | RR Picture Archives | |||
| 3817 | F7A | ||||||
| 3818 | F7A | ||||||
| 3819 | F7A | ||||||
| 3820 | F7A |
Maine Central
Maine Central bought seven EMD E7s in 1946 and 1948 to work in a power pool with Boston & Maine’s fleet. Together they covered the passenger turns south from Portland into B&M territory and north over Maine Central metals. The first four units were something of a curiosity: a cancelled Rock Island order that arrived wearing Rock Island colours hastily lettered for the MEC. Within months the shops had them repainted to match Boston & Maine’s scheme, albeit with Maine Central lettering.
When Maine Central gave up passenger services in 1960, two of the newer E7s went straight to the scrap line. The other five lingered on, working the remains of the Gull schedule. By that stage the trains were almost entirely head-end workings: mail cars and Railway Express Agency traffic such as parcels, newspapers and perishable goods, with no accommodation for passengers.
In practice it was the older quartet, overhauled in 1957–58, that survived longest. These were preferred over the three later deliveries when the axe finally fell on passenger duties. By early 1963 the end was in sight. Unit 709 went west to the Kansas City Southern that February. The remaining four followed later that year, repainted into KCS livery at Waterville before heading south. The two youngest locomotives, 710 and 711, had already been withdrawn and were scrapped in 1965.
| No. | Built | Serial | Livery | Notes | Photographs | Modelling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 705 | Jun 1946 | 3366 | Red until at least May 1949. Green by Aug 1963. | Rock Island paint; sold to Kansas City Southern # 6, Oct 1963 | ||
| 706 | Jun 1946 | 3367 | Green by at least Mar 1955. | Rock Island paint; sold to Kansas City Southern # 7, Oct 1963 | RR Pictures Archive | |
| 707 | Jun 1946 | 3368 | Green by at least Summer 1955 | Rock Island paint; sold to Kansas City Southern # 11, Oct 1963. Worked the last Portland to St. Johnsbury passenger train. | ||
| 708 | Jun 1946 | 3369 | Green by at least October 1954 | Rock Island paint; sold to Kansas City Southern # 12, Oct 1963. | ||
| 709 | Jul 1948 | 6647 | Red until at least 10/07/60 | Sold to Kansas City Southern KCS # 20, Sep 1962. | ||
| 710 | Jul 1948 | 6648 | Retired Sep 1960 (Scrapped) | RR Pictures Archive | ||
| 711 | Jul 1948 | 6649 | Green by at least 04/ 57 | Retired Dec 1960 (Scrapped) | RR Pictures Archive |
Sources
- Melvin, George F. Maine Central in Color Volume 3. Morning Sun Books, 2008, p.9.
Epilogue
The Maine Central’s E7s had short careers and little glamour, yet they carried the road’s passenger service through its final years. From Rock Island paint hastily re-lettered at Portland, to green, to their last work hauling mail and express, they were locomotives caught between two eras.
Their story ended quickly — two scrapped by 1965, the rest moving south to the Kansas City Southern — but in photographs, in memory, and in models, they still survive. For the historian they mark the twilight of MEC passenger service; for the modeller they offer a choice of phases, each with its own character: bold red, sober green, or tired but still working in the early 1960s.