CB&Q No. 9911A Silver Pilot, the sole surviving E5.
The EMD E5 is a 2000 horsepower standard gauge A1A-A1A passenger-hauling diesel locomotive manufactured by the Electro-Motive Corporation and later the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors from 1940 to 1941. A total of sixteen E5s (11 A units and 5 B units) were produced; these can be easily differentiated from the earlier E3, E4 and E6 locomotives as they were generally clad in stainless steel. They were powered by EMD 567 prime movers. The vast majority of the E5s went to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
By the late 1960s, all of the EMD E5s had been traded into EMD and sent to Pielet Brothers Scrap so they could be cut up as they were old and obsolete. Fortunately CB&Q 9952A (Formerly 9911A) was acquired from the scrap yard by the Illinois Railroad Museum.
CB&Q 9911A[]
The lone survivor #9911A Silver Pilot was sold to the Colorado & Southern Railroad and renumbered to 9952A, it retained its name until it retired in 1969 and was traded into EMD where it was sent to Pielet Brothers Scrap. Fortunately it was acquired from the scrap yard and donated to the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, IL, where it was restored to 9911A and runs today. 9911A is the last operating E5 in the United States.
When it operates at the Museum, it runs on museum trackage as well as, occasionally, main line runs coupled to one of CB&Q's original five car Nebraska Zephyr trainsets.
Locomotive names[]
- Silver Bullet #9909 (cab)
- Silver Speed #9910A (cab)
- Silver Power #9910B (booster)
- Silver Pilot #9911A (cab)
- Silver Mate #9911B (booster)
- Silver Meteor #9912A (cab)
- Silver Comet #9912B (booster)
- Silver Wings #9913 (cab)
- Silver Arrow #9914A (cab)
- Silver Swift #9914B (cab)
- Silver Carrier #9915A (cab)
- Silver Clipper #9915B (cab)
- Silver Racer #9950A (C&S) (cab)
- Silver Steed #9950B (C&S) (booster)
- Silver Chief #9980A (FW&D) (cab)
- Silver Warrior #9980B (FW&D) (booster)
Trivia[]
- The E5 was the sixth model in a long line of passenger diesels of similar design known as EMD E-units.
- Like those other models, the E5 had a sloping "slant nose" and it was equipped with two headlights — a regular stationary headlight above a gyrating "Mars" signal light.
- 9911A is one of sixteen engines of the E5s which were built for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy and its subsidiaries during 1940 and 1941.
- 9911A has starred in several Railway Productions, television series, and movies such as "Transformers: Age of Extinction", and "A League of Their Own".
- 9911A was last used on the Colorado & Southern (a CB&Q subsidiary) on the Texas Zephyr, the E5 is matched with one of the Burlington's Nebraska Zephyrs, a 5 car articulated, stainless steel 1936 passenger train.
- Two D.C. generators, one per engine, provide power to four motors, two on each truck, in an A1A-A1A arrangement.
- The E5 was one of the final cab models the builder produced for passenger services before becoming an official division of General Motors (more precisely, Electro-Motive became a GM division while both models were in production).