Atlas O Premier E8 Locomotive
In the mid-1930’s, as the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors was trying to interest railroads in diesel passenger power, there was a lot of experimentation in exterior design. Looking at EMD’s worm-like yellow and brown Union Pacific M-10000, its gleaming stainless steel Burlington Zephyr, or the boxy, just-plain-ugly early Santa Fe units, it’s apparent that here was a new function looking for its form. The first generation of road diesels found its form in 1937 when the initial E-units, built for the B&O, inaugurated the classic “covered wagon” cab unit design that would last for two decades on both freight and passenger diesels.
The earliest E-units were each virtually custom-made, with less than 20 units produced of models EA through E5. The prewar E6 was the first mass-produced passenger diesel and the last to sport the rakish, streamlined EMD nose so characteristic of the 1930s. After the war, the new E7 adopted the “bulldog” nose introduced earlier on the FT freight diesel. With the rollout of the E8 in 1949, the E-unit, America’s most popular passenger diesel, reached its final visual form — just in time for the last hurrah of the American passenger train. With twin motors to ensure reliability and six-wheel trucks that rode like a Cadillac, the E8 was an engineer’s dream. For hoggers who had not long ago worked in steam locomotives, the clean cab of an E-unit with its lofty, panoramic view of the road ahead was not hard to get used to.
As the operational lifetime of the E8 locomotive covered from the early 1950s through the 1980s in many cases, several changes were made to their appearance during rebuilds, such as removal of the distinctive “Portholes” when the side panels began to rust through. This run of E8s features all-new tooling to replicate these “smoothsided” variations where appropriate for owners like Amtrak, who relied heavily on these locomotives in the early 1970s.
Features Include:
- Intricately Detailed, Durable ABS Body
- Die-Cast Truck Sides, Pilots and Fuel Tank
- Metal Chassis
- Metal Handrails and Horn
- Moveable Roof Fans
- Metal Body Side Grilles
- (2) Handpainted Engineer Cab Figures
- Authentic Paint Scheme
- Metal Wheels, Axles and Gears
- Lead Remote-Controlled Proto-Coupler
- Rear Non-Operating Metal Coupler
- O Scale Kadee-Compatible Coupler Mounting Pads
- Prototypical Rule 17 Lighting
- Directionally Controlled Constant Voltage LED Headlight
- Lighted LED Cab Interior Light
- Illuminated LED Number Boards
- Lighted LED Front Marker Lights
- (2) Precision Flywheel-Equipped Motors
- Operating ProtoSmoke Diesel Exhaust
- Equipped with Proto-Sound 3
- Locomotive Speed Control In Scale MPH Increments
- 1:48 Scale Proportions
- Equipped with Proto-Sound Unit Measures: 18” x 2 1/2” x 3 7/8”
- Operates On O-31 Curves
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