Gleaming streamlined diesel-powered transportation revolutions were passing through Chariton twice daily during late February and early March of 1940 --- but you had to be out early or standing near the tracks in the evening to see them.
That's one of them, above, photographed at Council Bluffs on March 1, 1940 --- an EMD E5 clad in polished stainless steel to match the Burlington Route's Zephyr passenger cars.
Here's a report about the new locomotives, published in The Herald-Patriot of March 7, 1940:
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Three monster, streamline, diesel-electric locomotives, capable of speeds up to 117 miles an hour, are being placed in service this month by the Burlington Route on main line passenger trains such as the "Exposition Flyer" and "Fast Mail."
At present two of these engines are already in use on a west-bound train, No. 9, which goes through Chariton at 6:44 p.m. and on an east-bound train which passes through here at 5:43 a.m.
The new diesel-electrics are 140 feet long, weigh 308 tons, and develop 4,000 horsepower. Each contains four 1000-horsepower diesel engines of latest design, giving the locomotive a total of four diesel engines, any one of which may be operated independently of the others.
The entire locomotive is controlled from the engineer's cab at the forward end, where an amazing array of devices keep the engineer constantly informed on such vital matters as lubricating oil pressure, engine water temperature, wheel slippage, journal temperature, train speed, etc.
The new locomotives have two headlights --- a fixed-beam light for illuminating the right-of-way ahead of the train, and a special oscillating-beam light whose principal function is to send out a powerful, flashing light to warn motorists of the approach of the train.
Two of the new diesels are already in service and have proved themselves easily able to maintain the fastest steam train schedules with as many as 19 conventional-type passenger cars between Chicago and Lincoln.
All three locomotives, the third of which will be delivered early this month, were built by the Electro-Motive Corporation at LaGrange, Illinois, just west of Chicago on the Burlington Route.
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The Rock had purchased its first E Unit during 1937, but there still was skepticism about the ability of diesel-powered locomotives to match the proven capablities of steam and use was experimental and somewhat limited. Those stainless-steel-clad marvels introduced in 1940 paved the way to the future.
In all, 16 E5 locomotives were manufactured for the Rock Island before an improved model was launched --- 11 cab-equipped and 5 cabless boosters. One survives --- in an Illinois rail museum.
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