EMD F40PH

Loco Category	Diesel Locomotives
Wheel Arr.	B-B
Proto. Manufacturer	Electro-Motive Division (EMD)
Era	1976–1992

The EMD F40PH was the standard Amtrak passenger locomotive for over two decades — a 3,000-horsepower B-B diesel-electric introduced in 1976 and purpose-built for the high-speed passenger service requirements of the national rail network that Amtrak had been operating since 1971. The F40PH combined road locomotive horsepower with head-end power generation for passenger car heating, cooling, and lighting — the "HEP" capability that modern passenger car equipment required — in a compact B-B package suitable for the curves and weight restrictions of the American passenger rail network. Its full-width cab unit carbody, echoing the F-unit aesthetic of the 1940s and 1950s, gave it a more streamlined appearance than the hood unit road switchers that had been pressed into passenger service in the early Amtrak years.

The F40PH became inseparable from the visual identity of Amtrak through the 1980s, its blue and silver Phase III and Phase IV liveries defining the appearance of intercity passenger trains for a generation of American travelers. Commuter railroads across the country also ordered the F40PH for their own operations, and examples in dozens of commuter agency paint schemes served major metropolitan areas from Boston to Los Angeles. Over 500 F40PHs were built in total across Amtrak and commuter orders. In O Gauge, the F40PH is a passenger locomotive subject that spans both the Amtrak era and the modern commuter railroad scene, appearing in the liveries of the national passenger carrier and numerous regional commuter systems.