Better trains follow General Motors locomotives

Sante Fe opted to power their El Capitan with the same streamlined locomotive as their Super Chief. The FT Deisel Locomotive was manufactured by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. The original FT was a 1,350 hp B-B diesel-electric locomotive produced between November 1939 and November 1945. The "F" stood for "freight" and the "T" for 2700 horsepower with a 2 unit set. A total of 555 cab-equipped A units were built, and 541 cabless booster B units, for a total of 1,096 locomotive units were constructed. All of these were sold to railroads in the United States. It was the first model in General Motors EMD's very successful F-unit series of cab unit diesels and this was the locomotive that convinced many US railroads that the diesel-electric freight locomotive was the future. Many rail historians consider the FT one of the most important locomotive models of all time. 

The first units produced for a customer were built in December 1940 and January 1941 for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. FTs were generally marketed as semi-permanently coupled A-B sets (a lead unit and a cabless booster connected by a solid drawbar) making a single locomotive of 2,700 hp. Many railroads used pairs of these sets back to back to make up a four-unit A-B-B-A locomotive rated at 5,400 hp.

Note the Single Headlight indicating this restored locomotive was originally manufactured to pull freight cars. (Dual headlight locomotives were used for passenger trains.)

General Motors Electro-Motive Division FT demonstration ABA

The Santa Fe passenger trains with their distinctive Warbonnet paint scheme were so popular General Motors used one to promote their FT Deisel Locomotives to the public.