The EMD GP9 was a diesel-electric locomotive built between 1954 and 1963 for railroads in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela, with 4,015 produced and American production ending in 1959 before thirteen additional units were built in Canada through 1963. Powered by an EMD 567C sixteen-cylinder engine, Norfolk and Western EMD GP9 521 was built in 1958 as one of 416 GP9 units ordered by the Norfolk and Western Railway. It was one of 21 GP9s painted red for passenger service, which earned them the nickname "Redbirds," and it was also one of only twenty-one equipped by the Norfolk and Western with steam generators to haul passenger trains and heat the passenger cars. These locomotives replaced the railway's 14 Class J steam passenger locomotives, and 521 was retired in 1988.