The 1930s represented a new era of optimism and technological progress in the United States. This was reflected in both the arts and in industrial design, where the Art Deco influence – subdued during the Great Depression - was transformed into the Streamline Modern style. Everything from buildings to automobiles to railroad passenger cars began to move away from a dependence on vertical shapes and geometric designs toward a much more horizontal, curved style featuring modern materials such as welded (not riveted) stainless steel which emphasized power through speed, not solidity. Thus was born the era of the Great Streamliners: the Union Pacific M-10000, the Burlington Zephyrs, and of course the Electro-Motive Corporation’s E Series of road diesels.
EMC had produced several “covered wagon” E designs through the 1930s (EA through E5), but in relatively limited numbers. In 1939, the 2000 horsepower E-6 was the first (and, interestingly, the last before becoming the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors) to be produced in mass quantities, totaling 91 A units and 26 B units produced between November of 1939 and September of 1942, when production of new locomotives was halted due to the War Effort. These featured the now iconic streamlined slant-nose and aerodynamic surfaces and were matched with the new streamlined passenger train sets produced by Pullman Standard and Budd for the famous name trains such as the Union Pacific “City” trains, the Illinois Central “Panama Limited”, and the Milwaukee Road “Hiawathas”.
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